Smithsonian
National Museum of American History
 

Smithsonian Without Walls
S. Dillon Ripley Center  Suite 3123
Washington  DC 20560-0705
sww@ic.si.edu

Smithsonian Without Walls (formerly the Environmental Awareness Program) grew out of the success of the Smithsonian's first virtual exhibition, Ocean Planet Online.  Launched in 1996, SWW's purpose is to explore the potential of new technologies to display engaging museum content in inventive, nonlinear formats.  SWW embraces online communication as a tool to reach new audiences, including those with a variety of learning styles and interests.

Revealing Things: An innovative online exhibition using the latest Web technology to show how everyday things reveal information about ourselves, our histories and our culture.

Revealing Things is the Smithsonian's first major online exhibition designed exclusively for presentation on the World Wide Web.  This informative and engaging program examines the material culture of personal and household objects, and how the things we use every day can have multiple layers of meaning.  Some of these meanings are personal and some are social.  Visitors can see each object in the exhibition from multiple perspectives by controlling the order and emphasis of the presentation.  The Victorian-era gas meter, flour sack dress, and bellbottom jeans pictured here are just a few of the wonderful objects contained in the exhibition.

Revealing Things combines the best qualities of a museum visit with the unique capabilities of online communication, while serving as a model for museum material on the Internet.  One challenge of this mission is to retain the resonance and wonder that are so critical to a successful museum visit.  Lacking physical objects, the program relies upon story- and activity-based presentations.  The content features objects and scholarship from the Smithsonian Institution, but also includes material from other museums and collections.  In the final version of Revealing Things, online material will be tied to real-world events, objects, and activities to bring people together in the physical world.  

The Prototype

The Revealing Things prototype, released March 5, 1998, is the first step in developing a larger version of the exhibition.  Gathering public comment on the prototype will help us to develop the final program.

We consider the prototype to be a skeleton for the larger exhibition.  Although the navigation and graphic design are still in draft form, the elements and they ways in which they relate to each other are in a more finished state.  Of the thirty-five objects, one, "Patched Bellbottoms," has been developed in more detail and shows how text, graphics, narration, and music will come together in the final product.  We plan to open the full exhibition in 1999.

Features of the Full Exhibition

The full exhibition will have some features that we did not include in the prototype: bibliographies, links to outside sources, live visitor interactions (chat), photographic sources, games, and tours.  Educational curricula, programming, and training will accompany the full show.

Response

Since the public release of the prototype, it has received more than 100,000 visitors.  About 400 of these visitors have taken the time to send comments or respond to surveys.  Reporters have covered the exhibition in more than forty articles, ranging from national periodicals to local papers.  As expected with an online exhibition, the majority of articles appeared in online forums.  Click here to see a partial list of press coverage.

Smithsonian Without Walls receives no federal funds and raises all program and operating expenses, including most of the staff salaries, from outside sources.  The Rockefeller Foundation and the Smithsonian's National Board currently provide program support.  The Merck Family Fund and The Rockefeller Foundation supported development of the Revealing Things prototype.

Attached to the National Museum of American History's Department of History, Smithsonian Without Walls works with the Counselor to the Secretary for Electronic Communications and Special Projects, and cooperates with other Smithsonian bureaus and outside organizations.

Judith Gradwohl, Director

Kathleen Connolly, Program Coordinator

Matt MacArthur, Project Manager

Revised 9/16/98

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