Smallpox baby revisited: Exploring an authorised science heritage discourse in science museum exhibitions

Abstract

Based on research in two exhibitions in a science museum in the UK, this paper explores how science and society relationships are constructed through the display of one specific object, a WHO leaflet about smallpox. I trace the display of this leaflet through two exhibitions about medicine, 40 years apart. Drawing on the concept of the authorised heritage discourse and work in Black studies and Science and Technology Studies, I analyse the display of the leaflet, the stories it is used to tell and the modes of relation these stories contribute to. Rather than trying to evaluate which exhibition does a better (or worse) job displaying the leaflet, in this paper I argue that both displays were enmeshed with and reproduce an authorised science heritage discourse. I show how nationalistic, celebratory stories about science set up racialised and colonial modes of relation, and suggest counter-stories, not least critically engaging with the ever-present shadow of colonialism, present museums with valuable opportunities for change.