The Maritime Museum was super cool! Engaging with such knowledgeable and caring staff (and podcast celebrities) was an invaluable experience, both in the public spaces and behind the scenes. It was interesting to see everyone chat about the early days of the museum versus the goals moving forward.

On the tour, Anne and Sabrina exercised incredible care with how they discussed the difficult truths of the ship’s history. They both mentioned that the early days of the museum glossed over some of these darker stories, which leaves the visitor with a broken picture of history. They (and the institution) have both taken steps to rectify this, with newer sections of the exhibit and new outreach programs- including the podcast.

Likewise, we saw corrections of a different sort in the behind the scenes collections! Both Diane and Gina spoke of best practice improvements for collection management. These improvements are necessary not only because the field is always learning more, but also because the original collections were kept by folks who were not versed in museum practices in general!

In a perfect world, all museums would be founded on perfect premises, with collections compiled following best practices and early missions in line with our values today. But the fact is, no institution is perfect, and there are treasure troves of important content, collections, and connections in all sorts of places. Finding the good in an imperfect institution and making tangible steps forward to align with current values and practices is paramount for museums staying relevant in today’s society. We can take the solid parts of the foundation, and rebuild the rest.