Museums, libraries and communities · For volunteers, board members and directors of small museums
Small museum exhibit ideas for when the walls are already full
In a small museum the cases are full, the walls are full, and the volunteers who know the stories are only in on Tuesdays. One touchscreen can hold more than another case would, and volunteers can keep it up from home.
No account needed to start. Free to use. No payment details required.
What are good small museum exhibit ideas?
Good small museum exhibit ideas make more of the collection visible without more floor space: rotating object stories, a volunteer-built gallery of local people, and the records already sitting in spreadsheets. HistoryShowcase puts these on one touchscreen, and volunteers can import a spreadsheet to add many stories at once, then fill in photos and write-ups over time.
Updated
- Made for
- Volunteers, board members and directors of small museums
- Where it goes
- Just inside the front door, Where another case won’t fit, The museum’s website and newsletter
- Layouts
- Photo gallery, Portrait gallery, Honors ledger
- Visitors can filter by
- Topic, Year
- Cost
- Free to use. No payment details required.
The collection outgrew the building years ago
Small museums usually run out of space before they run out of material. The storage room holds more than the galleries, the cases haven’t changed since a volunteer last rearranged them, and the best stories live in one person’s memory or a spreadsheet on the office computer. Another panel or case would help, if there were a wall left to put it on.
A touchscreen takes the space of one panel and holds far more than the wall it hangs on. Import the catalog spreadsheet to create stories in one go, undo the import if the columns come out wrong, and let volunteers add photos and write-ups from home. You choose who can edit, and change history shows what changed.
How do small museum exhibit ideas on a touchscreen compare with adding more panels and cases?
| What matters | More panels and cases | HistoryShowcase |
|---|---|---|
| Floor and wall space | Each case or panel takes room you may not have | One screen holds many collections |
| Seeing real objects | Nothing beats the object itself | Photos of objects, not the objects |
| Updating | New panels need printing and mounting | A volunteer edits the story from any computer |
| Upkeep | Dusting and the odd bulb | Power, and someone to check it’s on |
| Using your records | Catalog spreadsheets stay in the office | Import them as stories |
Small museum exhibit ideas that fit one screen
An object from storage each month
Photograph one stored object, write its story and add it to a From Storage collection. Swap in the next when a volunteer has it ready.
Neighbors and founders
A portrait gallery of the people your members remember, each with a short profile.
One-room schools and churches
Attendance rolls, class photos and building photos for places that are gone.
Your catalog, searchable
The accession spreadsheet imported as stories, so visitors can search for a family name or object.
Memories written down
What longtime members recall about a store, a flood or a dance hall, written up as stories with a photo.
Town businesses
Storefronts, ads and ledgers from shops that closed, in a photo gallery by street.
A setup volunteers can manage
Keep it to a few collections a volunteer can look after, and make one volunteer responsible for each.
Your siteMore Than We Can Show
- From storagePhoto gallery
One object at a time, out of the back room.
- Our neighborsPortrait gallery
Portraits and short profiles of local people.
- One-room schoolsHonors ledger
Each school with its years open, opening into rolls and photos.
Visitors can narrow it by
- Topic
- Year
How do you turn small museum exhibit ideas into a working display?
Start with the spreadsheet
Tidy the columns in your catalog or a volunteer’s list, import it and check the result. If it looks wrong, undo the import and try again.
Split the work by collection
Add each volunteer by email as an editor and give each one a collection to fill in with photos and write-ups.
Set up the screen once
Open the live site full screen on your touchscreen and save its address in the browser’s start-page setting so it comes back after a restart.
Where does a touchscreen fit in a small museum?
- Just inside the front doorVisitors see it first, and the volunteer at the desk can point them to it.
- Where another case won’t fitMounted on a wall where a freestanding case would block the aisle.
- The museum’s website and newsletterMembers who can’t come in can browse the same stories at home.
Small museum questions
Our volunteers aren’t technical. Can they keep it up?
If they can fill in a form and type in a spreadsheet, yes. Changes save automatically, Preview shows the screen as visitors see it, and undo and change history catch mistakes.
What if our Wi-Fi is unreliable?
Run the site full screen or as an installed app, and the screen saves the live site for offline use. It picks up new edits when it reconnects.
We’re a museum, not a school. Is this meant for us?
It was made for schools, so the setup screen asks for a school name and colors. Put in your museum’s name and colors and you get the same editor, layouts and touchscreen.
Can we try it before asking the board?
Yes. Go to /start, no account needed, and build a few stories. Your work stays in that browser until you create an account to save or share it.
Should we stop making printed panels?
No. Panels are still the best way to introduce a room. Use the screen for the stories and records that won’t fit on them.
Related ideas
Show more of your collection in the same space
Free to use. No payment details required.
