Issue 08-4, Winter 2008
What Is a Museum
One of the best times of our Museum year is spring. That is when activity at the Museum ramps up to get ready for opening day.
The time goes fast, and, before too long, we are running our first Mother's demonstration trolley ride. In a couple of months we get
ready for our season. There is a lot to do. Lubricating equipment, checking electrical systems, getting our train crews signed-up
and scheduled, operator training, track maintenance and car and grounds cleanup. Spring work reaches its crescendo on the last
Saturday of April-Spring Cleanup Day. It is a time when we invite all of our Members to come out to South Elgin and lend a hand. It is
exciting to see old friends, and it is exciting to meet and make new friends. The day
is full of energy and promise for the season to come. Everyone works together to do his or her part to get the Museum ready
to open. Everyone pitches in to get ready
for our Visitors.
Our Museum is a pretty special place to us, and it's a special place for the 1000s of Visitors that we host each season. But, what makes it special? What makes it a museum? What is a Museum?
Not too long ago, a museum was simply defined as a building or place where works of art, scientific specimens, and other objects of permanent value were kept and displayed. It's a simple and concise definition. More than likely, you probably have been to a museum just like that. You looked at display after display of specimens and objects that someone else thinks are valuable. Also more than likely, you only visited that type of museum once-maybe twice at the most. This kind of "museum" seems to hold little interest to most people. It doesn't touch people, so they rarely come back
But here is an interesting statistic. According to the American Association of Museums, there are an estimated 16,000 museums in the United States that receive over 800 million visits a year! That is a lot of people to just look at displays of specimens and objects. There must be something going on in the museum community that attracts and holds people's interest. There must be something that brings museum visitors back for visit after visit, because those 800 million people are not rushing out to simply look at dull dry displays.
There is something else. Those 800 million annual museum visitors along with the 1000's of annual Fox River Trolley Museum Visitors are visiting museums for an important and powerful reason. They come to museums, because today a museum is to a place of participation, a place of excitement and a place to connect with the world around them. Museums today are not just buildings and places with stuff; they are community-centered places where visitors can remember, discover and learn. And whom do they learn from; they learn from us-the Members and Volunteers. We are the real reason that Visitors return again and again. Our collection, as unique and as exciting as it is, would just be stuff on display without our Members and Volunteers creating an experience for our Visitors. Our work and effort has created a very special place where our Visitors can remember, discover and learn, again and again.
This concept of a museum is not that old-it seems to have gotten its start in the early to mid-1970s. It's a new concept to many museums, but not to us. Since 1966, the Members and Volunteers of the Fox River Trolley Museum have been creating a community-centered place. Our Visitors and Members participate together to create a place of remembering, discovering and learning. It's Education through Demonstration! So as we get ready for the 2003 season, think back on how our Museum was a pioneer in a new way of thinking about Museums. That's pretty special.
Edward Konecki
This President's message is being repeated because of its timeliness. -Ed.
