Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Brown University
Aug. 1214, 2009
Cathy Stanton
Cars, Museums, and Progress in an Impending Era of Limits
Lately I’ve been thinking about historic sites and cars. This has given me a way to ponder
some possible futures for the history museum in relation to really “big picture” futures being
envisioned in environmentalist discourses about “peak oil” and global warming. Many museums
are beginning to grapple with these issues (for example, through efforts to “green” their
operations and to highlight past technologies and practices that are now being seen as
“sustainable” rather than as obsolete) and I hope and assume that we’ll spend some time thinking
about them in Providence. But my assessment of what’s happening so far in the field is that
museums are still largely replicating existing patterns that are actually part and parcel of the set
of problems that we’re beginning to try to solve, rather than doing the kind of fundamental re
thinking that I believe is needed if we take scientific warnings about anthropogenic climate
change and “the end of oil” seriously.
I’m focusing on the car because it seems to be one of the most intransigent aspects of our
current energy use patterns and because it is woven into historic sites and practice in ways that
are surprising, and too numerous and complex to get into here in any detail! Let me just note that
the car is a key technology that has shaped and reflected our modern, changedriven world, while
also beingan important means of temporarily escaping or unplugging from that world. Similarly,
the museum is fully a creation of modernity, and it has helped to frame and express many core
modern conceptions, while at the same time maintaining a kind of ambivalence about change and
the loss it usually entails. The interwoven relationship between these two characteristically
modern technologies raises questions about the extent to which historic sites, workers, and
visitors can or will truly change the assumptions of mobility, autonomy, and choice that underlie
so much of contemporary life. It seems particularly urgent to think about this at a time when
many of us are beginning to accept intellectually—and may soon find ourselves force to accept in
unavoidable ways—the limits of the kinds of growth, movement, and choice that have
characterized the modern world, especially in North America.
Some of the questions I’m posing in my current research are: How can we better
understand the paradox of historic places that were created as a refuge from the pace and
pressures of modernity but which are often accessible largely (or entirely) by car? Can historic
sites and museums in good conscience continue to market themselves to longdistance travellers
while simultaneously playing new roles within “relocalized” networks? Can (or should) we
practice what we preach and live what we interpret (for example, by refusing the many
conveniences of car travel in favor of other modes of getting around)? What relationships does
historical practice have with both the extension of automobility (for example, through the
addition of digital layers to travel and touring experiences, or with the transformation of larger
and larger units of space into themed and interpreted “places to play”) and resistance to its
appeal, its emotional demands, and its spatial and social consequences? How does the highly
individualized nature of car travel shape the way people—including museum workers—access
and experience these environments? And what might all of this mean for history museums’
potential to foster a more broadly participatory public culture and some level of collective
reflection about where our fossilfuelpowered society might be headed? I hope we can touch on
these kinds of issues in Providence, and I’m looking forward to our discussions!