AIC's 45th Annual Meeting

The National Museum of American History (NMAH) delivers the experiences of the American people through exhibitions utilizing various museum objects. Costumes are some of the most powerful examples of material culture and provide insights into an individual's historical background and characteristics. As a history museum, NMAH devotes to the preservation of the museum objects for future generations and the presentation methods available for their displays are limited with minimal handling of the objects to avoid unnecessary damage. In most exhibitions, costumes are displayed with a script and appropriate images, so the need to display costume in extreme figures have been avoided. However, some costumes definitely require action poses to get the true feeling of the action. This presentation will explore the methods, tools, and techniques to enable to display the costumes in action poses while continuously practicing our usual preventive conservation approach. Two of the costumes in my presentation were worn by Olympic medalists Shaun White and Mike Schultz. Shaun is a skateboarder and snowboarder, and Mike rides a motocross bicycle with a prosthetic leg that he built himself. These men are extreme athletes, so the project teams' decision was to show Shaun riding a skateboard and Mike on a moto cross bicycle at stiff angles in a display case that can be only bracketed at the ceiling. In addition, we mounted a scientist's protective suit and a Spiderman costume that are completely sealed at the feet, so other areas had to be bracketed in order to support the whole body. Lastly, Phyllis Diller, an animated stand-up comedienne who often laughed loudly, is presented in her signature stance: hand on hip, a side-bending posture, and holding a cigarette. The planning and execution of mounting these costumes will be explained in detail.