Museum fatigue

Are you aware of how exhausted your visitors become as they navigate through the museum, and stoop, peer and squint at your exhibits? Finding their way, concentrating on labels, objects and digesting information takes considerable mental power and committment.

This 1916 paper ‘Museum Fatigue’ by Benjamin Ives Gilman, and originally reproduced by The Scientific Monthly, details things to avoid in the museum. It’s a kind of health and safety survey and visitor experience checklist.

Recently summarised in an online Blog post by Museum Hack this paper is more than ‘a blast from the past’ – it provides some salient points to live by.

One hundred years on, make sure your museum isn’t making the same mistakes.

The original document is archived by Jstor.