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Small Wonder: Using SEM Images to Exhibit the “Small Stuff”
Author(s) -
Beaudoin Alwynne B.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
curator: the museum journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.312
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 2151-6952
pISSN - 0011-3069
DOI - 10.1111/j.2151-6952.2009.tb00350.x
Subject(s) - exhibition , wonder , subfossil , visual arts , art , art history , archaeology , history , psychology , holocene , social psychology
Digital image enlargements can be a powerful method for displaying small specimens in museums. In 2007, the Royal Alberta Museum held an exhibition of 28 SEM (scanning electron microscope) images of seeds and other subfossil macroremains, which were shown in a fine‐art format. The exhibition was prepared by a museum team using images derived from in‐house curatorial research work. This paper describes the exhibition components and reports on an attempt to engage the visitors more closely with the images by asking them to suggest identifications for some “mystery” specimens.