Museums staff overwhelmingly in favor of behind-the-scenes tours

Gainesville, Fla --- If natural history museums can be said to have a problem, it’s that they have too many specimens for any one person to see and not nearly enough exhibit space to show them off. The Florida Museum of Natural History, for example, is home to more than 40 million specimens and objects. According to Julie Waters, manager of exhibit planning and development at the Florida Museum, only about 1,500 specimens are on display at any given time, which is 0.0038% of the total collection.

The specimens behind closed doors aren’t just sitting idly by and collecting dust — and not just because their curators and managers would be incensed at the idea of dust being allowed to settle on their collections.¹ Researchers from around the world are actively using them to create a more complete understanding of life on our planet.

But just because something at a museum isn’t on display doesn’t mean it’s also off limits. In a survey of faculty, staff and students at an undisclosed museum, 93% of the 44 people who participated said that giving people a look at what goes on behind the scenes is a crucial part of their job.

“I was expecting there to be more of a range of perceptions, but almost everyone said they felt that having the public in their collections was important for helping people understand the work we do and the value of museum collections,” said Megan Ennes, associate curator of museum education at the Florida Museum and co-author of a study summarizing the survey results.

In a series of follow-up interviews, one of the participants said, “If you’re not sharing what you do, what’s the point?” This brief sentiment is an adequate summary of the survey’s results. People don’t generally get into natural history because it’s a lucrative trade, and those who do invariably become disappointed. People get into the business of natural history because they are fascinated by the many varied forms that life takes, and the things they discover are often too exciting or too important to keep to themselves.

The motivation respondents had for sharing some of the lesser-known aspects of museums fell into three broad categories. The first was a ubiquitous sense of reciprocity — of wanting to pass on what they’ve learned and share a measure of the support they’ve received from others. These sorts of things grow stale if they’re held by any one person for too long.

“A lot of scientists became interested in the things they study when they were young,” Ennes said. “They want to engage young people to get them excited as well and bring in the next generation of scientists.”

Ennes added that, because most of the work in museums goes on behind the scenes, people don’t generally know about the variety of museum-related careers they could pursue. To bring this to their attention, museum staff “like to showcase the wide range of skillsets that you need to be able to work in these spaces.”

The second category had to do with a sense of responsibility. Many respondents emphasized what they felt was an ethical obligation to advocate for and teach people about the benefits of biodiversity, especially at a time when whole ecosystems are being systematically leveled and replaced with sprawling urban complexes.

One respondent stated in an interview that “[T]he mission of many natural history museums, or collections, is…to do science that relates to biodiversity…in the hopes that [it] will affect, hopefully, some sort of change….Critical to that is communicating with people that are outside of the museum, and I think tours are a component of that.”

Another respondent similarly stated that “…science literacy…is really important to being an informed citizen…and just seeing scientists in action, I think, can help with that.”

In the third category, some respondents were additionally motivated by the opportunity to improve their teaching and public speaking skills. They survey also measured areas in which museum staff thought they could improve the efficacy of their tours, and while the majority of respondents reported feeling confident in their ability to explain their work in a way that could be understood by people of various ages and backgrounds, 74% indicated they’d be interested in further improving by making use of professional development resources, were they to become available.

Because there is positive motivation on the part of those giving behind-the-scenes tours and the people taking them, the experience tends to be enjoyable for everyone involved. One respondent mentioned they liked talking with kids and their parents at public events, saying “It’s really fun. I learn from them sometimes.”

Though this was specifically on the perceptions of museum staff, Ennes has also personally had conversations with members of the public who’d been guided through the inner maze of museum collections, and all of them came back with a different type of appreciation for the things they’d seen. Once, when giving a tour to a group of school teachers, one of them mentioned they worked in a profession where they were seldom recognized or well-compensated for their work, and getting a private tour through the collections made them feel like a VIP.

“It feels like a very special place and helps people connect to and care about the work we’re doing,” Ennes said.

Positive motivations and experiences aside, behind-the-scenes tours come with their fair share of complications, the most obvious being limited leg room. Museum exhibits provide visitors with ample space to meander and peruse, but the space inside collections is mostly occupied by specimens. The rest is filled with work stations, offices and laboratories, making them a somewhat inhospitable environment for visitors.

“This is an active research collection, not a public display,” one respondent said. “…whenever we do tours, it’s very disruptive…we have to clean the aisles. We have to put away equipment. We have to cover [anything] that could be hazardous.”

Most museum specimens are also fragile, and inviting people back who haven’t received training on how to handle them increases the chances that something might break.

Still, 97% of those surveyed agreed that the benefits outweighed the risks. One respondent put it this way: “…if we’re concerned about this…level [of] stuff, nothing will happen. I mean, it’s so lopsided, in terms of the benefits….if we have the attitude of preserving specimens because they’re so valuable, and not letting people into the collection, there’s no real purpose in even having a collection in my opinion.”

The study was published in Curator: The Museum Journal.

Melanie Giangreco, Elizabeth Riotto and Sara Janelle of the Florida Museum of Natural History are also co-authors of the study.

Funding for the study was provided by the National Science Foundation (grant no. 2210415).

Footnotes:

1. Unless the collection is made of fossils. Given that they were covered in hardened muck and grime for thousands or millions of years before they were dug up by paleontologists, a little dust isn’t going to hurt them.

---

---