The goal of this assignment is to use the knowledge and interpretive skills you have gained in this course to evaluate the exhibit(s). For the first Portraying the Past, the time period covered will be up to 1847 (Just before the Gold Rush, but NOT including the Gold Rush) , for the second, the period from 1848 to 1945, and for the third, the period 1945-2000.
Assignment and guidelines: The overall goal is for you to evaluate the portrayal of the past given by the curators of these exhibits. You should consider such elements as the signage, captions, material objects selected for the exhibition, images used, and the overall experience. Consider also the placement of all these things in relation to one another and the sequence of material as a visitor walks through the exhibit(s) chronologically. Visiting the exhibit(s), you should consider the following questions in the notes you take, and in your paper, but you are not limited to these:
What is the overall message and narrative that the NHM Curators present?
What is included, and why do you think it is there?
What is missing? How does this affect the exhibit’s message?
How do the curators present the historical process itself, and how might this bias the lessons learned by visitors in one way or another?
After you make your visit and gather these ideas, write a 8-10 page double-spaced paper, 1-inch margins, 10 or 12 point font only, in which you evaluate the exhibit for its strengths and weaknesses.
You need to start an introductory paragraph that presents an argumentative thesis. The thesis fully answers the prompt. It is specific, argumentative, and shows your own original thinking. This introductory paragraph should be no more than the first half of the first page. In it, you need to identify a theme that connects all three main “regimes” during this period: the Indigenous (10,000 years ago to 1769, the Spanish (1769-1821), and the Mexican (1822-1847). Examples of a workable “theme” include: violence, sexual relations, economy, gender, foodways. Other themes are possible too. If you are unsure, just check with your TA or with Prof, Ethington.
In the body of the paper, discuss at least one concrete example from each of these three periods that relates to your theme, and evaluate the exhibit for each of these examples. You may have more than one example from each period. Your evaluation will be your argument. The exhibit section that you focus on will have strengths or weaknesses, or both, and the reasons why those are strengths or weaknesses will be your argument.
This essay is evidence based. Make sure your evaluation in each period draws specifically from BOTH the exhibit materials (caption quotes, objects described by you, things that are absent or present), AND the class materials (assigned readings, lectures, documents, and screenings for this class). You must have at least 25 “citations” in the paper, which are specific references to material that you use in your critique of the exhibit.
In your conclusion, review your theme and make a general evaluation of the treatment of that theme across your three regimes.
You can include photos and diagrams in an appendix, but not in the 8-10 pp of the paper itself.
Use in-line citations, such as (Akins and Bauer, p. 35) or (LA Times, 3 April 1935, p, 22).
DO NOT include quotations longer than 2 lines. Preferably shorter. The point of quotations is to support your writing, not to fill up space with someone else’s writing.
THE PAPER MUST HAVE A MINIMUM OF 25 CITATIONS. PLEASE CITE FROM THE FOLLOWING SOURCES AS WELL AS UPLOADED DOCUMENT. (Document uploaded contains pictures from the exhibits):
Damon B. Akins and William J. Bauer Jr., We Are the Land: A History of Native California. (Berkeley: Univ of Calif Press, 2021). ISBN-10: 0520280490; ISBN-13: 978-0520280496
George J. Sánchez, Boyle Heights: How a Los Angeles Neighborhood Became the Future of American Democracy. (Berkeley: Univ of Calif Press, 2021), ISBN-10: 0520237072;
ISBN-13: 978-0520237070
Anna Deavere Smith, Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (Anchor, 1994). ISBN-13: 978-0822218418; ISBN-10: 0822218410
