Yunmeng Du Blog 7: Pearls Exhibition--American Museum of Natural History

Pearls Exhibition is hosted by the American Museum of National History and supported by Tasaki Shinju, the world’s largest vertically integrated pearl company in Japan. Through three years’ effort, Pearls Exhibition is the world’s first and perhaps the only exhibition of such scope and magnitude, showcasing invaluable pear specimens, objets d'art and jewelry from around the world and across the ages.

Collection Principles

Pearls exhibition was designed and produced by the Museum’s Department of Exhibition. The Exhibitions Department, in cooperation with other Museum staff members and scientific divisions, is responsible for both the design and construction of the Pearls exhibition. It is organized by the American Museum of Natural History in collaboration with The Field Museum, Chicago. It is created as an online exhibition for educational purpose rather than an integrated collection.

Metadata

There is no significant metadata given to this collection, but each image was assigned its title, date, and a short description. Images presented in this collection are jewelries decorated with pearls. A free-text search engine powered by Google is available throughout the whole website of American Museum of Natural History. I typed “pearl” into the search box and it gave me a list of hits with the word “pearl”.

Object Characteristics

As we talked about the differences between a library and a museum, this website gives me a very good example of how well a museum can form an online exhibition to attract people. Pearls Exhibition set its goal to educate people with knowledge of pearls from every aspect. Different types of pearls have been talked about depending on the source where they came from. Each type of pearls has its own story along with a piece of amazing jewelry they formed. The navigation bar is right on the top of each page allowing users to go through the whole site. The history of pearls and how to obtain pearls are also provided within this exhibition. It’s very easy to navigate through this site and each topic has been discussed thoroughly. It is the most typical exhibition I found designed specifically for education.

Intended Audience

Since visitor information has been given on the homepage, this exhibition is certainly becoming another appeal for visitors to American Museum of Natural History. Its intended audience includes kids and their parents, travelers from other locations or countries, etc.