Provenance inconnu and other stories: developing engaging labels for ancient history collections

Abstract

Storytelling lies at the heart of how museums share their collections with the public. However, not all stories are treated equally. Archaeological collections, with their small finds and fragmentary artifacts, find that many of their stories are relegated to the succinct, objective language of a label, necessarily truncating the rich associations that each object embodies. This does not allow much space for stimulating visitors’ imagination, and is even less conducive to motivating a critical approach. In cases where there are gaps in the object’s origins, the regular label format may give little to no clarification on the object’s life. As a thought-experiment in the possibilities of object biography, we chose the case study of a humble bronze figurine in Musée L’s archaeological collections. Despite its missing provenance and incomplete provenience, we developed a series of display interventions through which we could tell its story in the museum in new way.