Eberhardt from the friendly d roosevelt president ial library and clay bauske of the president truman president ial library talk about the factors that led to the remaking of their museums and the thought that goes into overhauling their exhibits. The two discuss what their job as curators entail. The fdr president ial library hosted the conversation and provided video. The am Herman Eberhardt at franklin was of a president ial library and museum and i want to welcome you to a new series of programs featuring conversations between me and curators at other president ial libraries. In this series we will explore the various jobs and roles of museum curators. Today we will be talking about one of the most important and complicated jobs of a curator, developing new Museum Exhibits. Curators are responsible for providing new changing exhibits on special topics on a regular basis in their museums. They also make periodic alterations to the museums larger permanent exhibits to reflect changing scholarship or incorporate new technologies. But there is one task so complex, so costly and so timeconsuming that it is usually undertaken by president ial libraries only once every 15 years or more. I am talking about the complete rethinking and replacing of the museums entire permanent exhibit. At the roosevelt library, we completed a full redo of our permanent exhibit in 2013. And joining me today to discuss how these projects are done is clay bauske, the supervisory curator at the Harry S Truman president ial using in Missouri Museum in missouri. Clay and his team are in the final stages of redoing their permanent exhibit. Where do things stand right now and what is your projected opening date for the new permanent exhibit . Clay we are probably within two months of having the new exhibits done and ready to open. The big question with all the libraries is when will the libraries actually open to the public. We are not really sure about that, but the work on our new permanent exhibits we are within two months of being done. Herman so the exhibits are being installed as we speak . Clay yes. Essentially all of the general construction in our museum we went in and had contractors literally rip out everything in the museum and start from scratch. That included installing all new walls in the exhibit areas. We constructed a 3500 square foot edition to the building foot addition to the building. That work is all essentially done now. The exhibit fabricators are installing the exhibit panels, the graphics and that kind of thing. We have not really started installing the artifacts in the exhibit. That will be the last thing. That wont happen for another month or so. Herman that sounds like an exciting moment in the project. There are a lot of things i want to discuss about your new exhibit and the process of remaking a permanent exhibition. I thought we could start by talking first about our two museums and what they were like when they were created in the 1940s and 1950s. Museums are not static. ,hey naturally change over time as audiences and technology changes. When fdr created the national and president ial library in hyde park, he included a museum in his plans. When that opened in 1941, it was different from the museum today. Since fdr was the sitting president at that time in 1941, he didnt think the museum had to be about him because he was such a familiar public speaker. Instead he filled the museum with his personal collection. Fdr was a lifelong collector of things ranging from coins, sta mps, art, manuscripts and artifacts related to naval and maritime history. Thee were the things in museum in its early years. It was only after fdrs death as the publics memory of him began to fade a bit that things begin to change. You saw exhibits of his early life and presidency. In the 1970s, exhibits were added about the life and career of Eleanor Roosevelt. Today our museum is different in the kinds of stories it tells. Clay, do you see something similar in the way the Truman Library evolved . Clay there are a lot of similar things, but also some things that are different with the history of the Truman Library. The similar things the main thing is truman liked the idea that Franklin Roosevelt created a museum and his papers were then turned over to the federal government. The main difference was Franklin Roosevelt died in office. Perry truman is the harry president the first after his president ial theres to b years to be at his library. Harry by far spent more years at his library than any other president. He treated it basically as his daily office. He was here five to six days a week. The early days of the library, he was directing what was going on. As vision was not to create museum about harry truman, bubt a museum but a museum that would illustrate the jobs of president s. Inbelieved very much educating people, especially younger audiences about the roles of the president. One of the early exhibits was the six jobs of the president , based on a speech he gave at columbia university. From there, truman spent nine years here, working his office five to six days a week. Ther he passed away, library really didnt change for 40 years. What was here in the library was a series of disjointed exhibits. Some really good exhibits, but they had no connecting theme. There were state gives of various kinds. It wasnt until the late 1990s that a concerted effort was made to create new permanent exhibits that would tell the story of the truman presidency and the presidency as a whole. Thean in both cases, rayed from thet original vision the president d from the original vision the president had for it. That is a necessary thing. As memory of them fades, it is important to tell the stories of their presidencies in these galleries for the public. Clay right. If harry truman were to walk in the door today, im not sure what sort of reaction he would have. Of course he did not want these exhibits to be about harry truman. Especially once he passes away, people want to know what his administration was about. Our exhibits are what we call our permanent exhibits, which as you know well is a misnomer because nothing is permanent. We hope we can change them every 15 to 20 years. But the First Permanent exhibits were created here starting in the late 1990s and into 2001. Now we are doing our second complete redo of the museum, firstng redoing those permanent exhibits to meet new audiences. Herman lets talk about the process of taking a fresh look at a museums entire permanent exhibit and completely remaking it. This has been cloaked in mystery for most of the public who see a new exhibition and wonder how they got from an antique gallery space to this finished exhibit. These things take a long time to create. When we embarked on our project to redo the permanent exhibits of the roosevelt library, the process of doing that was about five years total from the original planning sessions through the design to the final installation and opening of the exhibit. What is the timeframe of the project you are now coming to fruition with later this year . Clay it is about the same amount of time. It will be about five years since we started the planning process once the exhibits are done. In addition to the planning, you have the design work and storyline and all that. A very important component is these exhibits are generally created not as part of the federal government, but by the librarys private support foundation. In our case, it is the Harry S Truman international institute. They had to raise money for the new exhibit. That takes time too. You have to have a coherent statement of the purpose. You have to have people excited to donate. Theur case, the design and fundraising went handinhand. It couldnt have been done in any shorter a period of time. In addition to the design and so forth, you have to make sure the money is in hand to do it. Herman these things have a longer timeframe, both for fundraising and creating them, than people often think. Keynt to talk about the elements that go into this process. One thing right off the bat is understanding your audience. You may have had a similar experience. We recognized our audience was changing. Draw fromim sure, we a local audience and people come from across the country, and we have international visitors, but there was a generational thing where the visitors who were young adults during the fdr era were a shrinking part of our audience. We were getting a bigger percentage every year visitors of history, not something that was their lived experience. That has important implications for the way you tell the story in the museum. I assume that is a similar issue for you at the truman. Clay sure. Years ago, before we did the first round of our renovation in the late 1990s, the exhibits prior were basically all static exhibits. They were objects and texts and photographs. It was sort of like a book on the wall, as they say. By can get by w cant get with that. You have to have more interactivity in the exhibits. You know the subject you are dealing with is interesting to you, but you have to find a way to pull people in and make it as exciting as it is to you already. There are always changing techniques. Think more context is needed. E needed to put a lot more information about what was the Great Depression and what was world war ii for younger audiences to gie th to give them the context to understand why president roosevelt matters, why he was important. In doing that, the museum becomes not just a place where you learn about president aboutelt, you learn a bit the 1930s and 1940s. Clay that is very true. I know you remember because you helped us with the exhibit we 2000s. He 1990s and when we did that round, we had to tell more about the period. Muchxhibit was probably as about what was going on in the country, to set the stage, as it was about truman himself. We are doing that now more so because the people coming in today are farther removed from the time period. So many of them dont know who harry truman was. You have to set that stage and put it in context and tell the story that way so it was not simply a story of he was president from x to y, here is what he did and so forth. You have to make people understand what the world was like at the time. Herman it is important they understand the context. That is key for understanding the world in which these president s operated. The related thing we are always conscious of here, it is very important to layer the experiences in the galleries so you can meet people that have different interest levels. Visitors come with different agendas. Some are intensely interested, some have a marginal interest, some have a brief encounter in the museum. We try to make it accessible to people of different interest levels so we can serve all those audiences. Clay right. The other thing people need to understand about a Museum Exhibit is there is no way a Museum Exhibit can cram in all t he information you cant put all the information in an exhibit. The thing we hope to do is get people interested enough in the subject that they will go home and check out books from the library or do more internet searching and dig down into the part of the story they like the most. I think it is very important to make people understand how the decisions made during our respective presidencies, yours roosevelt and ours truman, how those decisions made by those president s are still affecting everybody today. We go out of our way to make sure the exhibits include a component so people understand harry truman may have made a decision about x or y, but that s not the end of the story. It is still affecting us today. When a visitor comes in, they ask why is this important to me . Well, you are still living in a world where the decisions made back then have an effect on your life. Is vital to make those connections today so people become more engaged with the subject. It is striking a balance. An mentioned the expression, exhibit is not a book on the wall. People experience it standing. They are experiencing history in a different way than when you sit down in a comfortable chair and read a book. We need to always be aware of this. Curators are central to the process of doing exhibits, but the curator is really only part of a larger team of experts and specialists in many different areas. We have been alluding to that in this conversation. Modern exhibits are complicated things in addition to artifacts and documents. There is film, audiovisual experiences, immersive environments. These involve the work of a whole range of people. Exhibit designers, filmmakers, architects, lighting designers, editors, sound specialists. Interestinghas an role in the midst of that. I wonder if you can talk about what it is like to work with a diverse team of specialists. Clay it takes a large team. I would define the role of the curator is the person who needs to define the story. Who what is the story . What is the take away from the museum . From there, you bring in other people and they help flesh out theirory and provide expertise. The audiovisual archivist says i have these six films and so forth that will illustrate that idea. And the archive staff, their thesebution is weve got papers truman signed that illustrate topic y. The curators role is to say here is the story we want to tell, help us tell it in a compelling way. That is where you bring your team together. Anyou mentioned, it is Important Role of archive and av staff, but you need people who are experts in the latest technologies and graphic design, andous parts of fabrication installation. People to help with all sorts of tasks in putting various pieces of the exhibit together. In my mind, the starting point is what is the story . What is the compelling thing we want to tell . Herman i completely agree with your description of the proper role of the curator in all this. It is all about getting the story right and telling the story well. Model of museums, it was collection driven. Now the philosophy is much more, what are the stories you want to tell . Pick objects and documents that help tell that story. It is the story that drives that experience, not trying to get every single artifact into the displays. One of the things we had to grapple with at the outset, and i will tell you how we worked it out, where do you start the story . Our audience is changing and more people are coming in the building that need an introduction to the time period to understand the importance of the president and end what wein the decided to do was start our exhibit at the depths of the Great Depression. To plunge you into the state of the country and the world in 1932 at the low point of the depression when fdr is running for president. We take you through that process of his election and up to his inaugural. It is not until he is inaugurated as president that we step back and tell you the story, who is this man elected to lead the nation in this great moment of crisis . What is the story of his life prior . We look at his early political career back to that same moment of the inaugural. From that point on, we take you through his presidency. This business of frontloading the story and moving back in time because we wanted to make sure the audience coming in knew immediately the nation was facing a tremendous crisis one roosevelt was elected. Once they understood the skill of the crisis, they would be more interested learning who was this guy who grew up in hyde park and eventually is running for president. That was a decision made early in the process that then dictated what we did subsequently. I wonder if you were looking at the big picture in the beginning. Things you are thinking about and how did you come to a decision . Clay ironically we used very much the same approach. Did we want to do a chronological approach, start with Harry Trumans birth and so forth . We realized there is a real thing called museum fatigue. We figured if we started at the beginning and worked chronologically, people would get tired during trumans first year in office. We look for the dramatic moments. The dramatic moment at the depths of the depression. The dramatic moment for harry truman is the date Franklin Roosevelt died. Suddenly truman is thrust into the office of the presidency. Noboody really knows who he is. Franklin roosevelt has been president for the full adult lives of many people at the time. There were a few people who knew who harry truman was. Wee star we start with a dramatic walkin theater presentation with wall to ceiling, floor to ceiling videos that thrust people into the middle of world war ii with battles going on all over the world and so forth. Suddenly there is the news headline that Franklin Roosevelt is dead and harry truman goes into office. You are left with this big question. We use quotes from people at the time, but it is something we hope people will understand, who is president now . Harry truman . Who is this guy . He was only Vice President for 82 days. He was a senator from missouri before he became Vice President. We leave that theater with the question, who is harry truman . Was he up to being president . Background can make you believe he was capable of being president . Many did nothing he could fill roosevelts shoes. They walk out of that theater whereen we take you to harry truman came from, his experience i world war in, the maybe in his life that gave him the leadership abilities he would have to use later as president. Then we bring you back to the presidency and his first four months of presidency, which were certainly one of the most romantic fourmonth periods dramatic fourmonth periods of any president. Ending the war, using the atomic bomb. It is such a dramatic four months of his presidency that it brings you back into the drama of the moment. Herman it sounds like a great way to open too. It crams people by the throat right away. You mentioned the theatrical experience at the beginning. We have a similar thing that deals with the Great Depression. We put people in a small theater where there is a dramatic visual presentation of the crisis going on. That raises a question of audiovisual elements. They play a big role in modern history museums. I think they are very effective, but they need to be used in effective ways. Other times it helps to tell the story in a particularly vivid way. Museumre places in our where we use film effectively. One areas i think it works well for us is when we talk about polio and the impact it had on fdr. He is stricken with polio