The Historical Museum Exhibition versus Historiography – an Outline of the Issue

Abstract

The article analyses the historical museum exhibitions in the context of their scientific nature and similarities to the professional historical narrative. The author rejects the thesis that the museum exhibitions are basic popularisations of the academic knowledge and suggests to look at the exhibitions as cultural creations which offer strategies of historical cognition other than written historiography. The article analyses specific examples of the traditional object-oriented museums as well as the new narrative exhibitions. In the end, the text does not settle the issue of the scientific nature of the exhibitions, but poses questions which are worth exploring, especially in the situation of the increasing number and popularity of historical museums.