Heritage, Commerce, and Museal Display: Toward a New Typology of Historical Exhibition in the United States

Recent social and economic trends in the United States, most importantly the increased marketability of local heritage and the national dialogue on identity, have contributed to the proliferation of historical exhibits in the United States, often in nonmuseum spaces like retail and service settings. Scholarship on historical exhibition, however, has largely focused on exhibits in large, professionalized museums. Dividing exhibit types into categories of academic, corporate, community, entrepreneurial, and vernacular, this article explores the diverse ways in which the exhibition medium emerges from different settings, social conditions, and epistemologies.