>Other interventions have been made since then but the latest announcement said the Medicine Man display “still perpetuates a version of medical history that is based on racist, sexist and ableist theories and language”.
Modern medicine is based on a racist, sexist background. Understanding that is important to move forward, however its probably more useful for the researchers, medical students etc, rather than general public display.
Can’t they keep the items on display and provide context and modern interpretation within the exhibit?
>the Medicine Man display “still perpetuates a version of medical history that is based on racist, sexist and ableist theories and language”.
But if that history was racist, sexist and ableist then it is an accurate representation of history, isn’t that what museums are for?
As long as the exhibition has appropriate information about how the collection came into being it is a truthful insight into the collector and the history of the institute, closing it could be seen as cleansing history.
Isn’t this a little close to being literally 1984?
I feel like the activists behind these kind of decolonisation projects have two completely irreconcilable positions.
One one hand there is a demand that children and the public at large are educated and made aware of our colonial past, and the cruelty, prejudice and crimes that went alongside that.
For instance, ‘the bastards went over there, destroyed native beliefs and forced their religion on them’
Then on the other hand, there’s a demand to shield public eyes from a painting that depicts this very act. Which feels a bit like saying ‘We must hide the past’.
Let’s say (hypothetically) we had photographs of a bunch of red coated, rifle touting, British imperial soldiers, charging at a group of tribal clad, spear wielding Zulu warriors.
Are we supposed to show this display this to the public, as evidence of the war mongering, violent side of Empirical conquest? Or should the public be blinkered? It wouldn’t be right for them to think Africans were technologically inferior, or perpetuate exoticism tropes through the depiction of Zulus using of traditional weaponry and wearing tribal dress.
I just don’t get it. Do we want the shameful or unappealing parts of Britain’s colonial history to be put in the open, or hidden?
It certainly cannot be both.
> “The result was a collection that told a global story of health and medicine in which disabled people, Black people, Indigenous peoples and people of colour were exoticised, marginalised and exploited – or even missed out altogether. As a result we will close Medicine Man on 27 November 2022.”
On these grounds, we will have to close all exhibitions and museums in the country.
Applying modern ideals to history – and judging those people on it… it was a different time. I don’t see the value.
If you want to include detail on communities which weren’t the dominant voices in the U.K. at the time (ie white males!), then include them in the exhibition too. You may find there many, or any, given record keeping and who was the dominant voice at the time.
I also think hiding racial inequality in the last eg the painting mentioned, adds no value to discussions (or progress) on racial equality today. Just put a note on it explaining why it’s now deemed negative.
The world was racist, sexist, ableist. Use that as an opportunity to discuss it – I left school a long time ago, but we were having these discussions then. There was no question of hiding the content though – more ‘you won’t see many women mentioned as they weren’t allowed to work in these sorts of jobs’ etc.
“How far have we come?”
– we’re not sure we removed all points of measure.
Are we gonna start closing holocaust museums because that was racist lol
The article is – this thing happened and this is how some people on twitter reacted. I think a lot less twitter for everyone would help. Going on twitter and finding a few outraged people surely is not journalism.
This is sadly happening in museums all over the country. You cannot teach people about the mistakes of our predecessors by simply removing anything that is now deemed inappropriate in the name of decolonisation. Judging these attitudes and behaviours by todays standards is unhelpful to everyone.
Losing, in this case, valuable medical history (and a really excellent free museum if you’ve not been) in the name of “progress” doesn’t feel very progressive at all.
Having literally been to this exhibition last week, I find it a bit weird that the article shows a picture of the mummified body, even though in the actual exhibit the body has been removed and a sign discussing our new views on ethics put in its place to explain its removal. I find it a shame this exhibit is being removed since it’s quite an interesting focal piece on history, but they will hopefully use various aspects of it in their future exhibits.
Edit: the article’s since removed the picture of the mummy, but point stands.
Totally bizarre that the Guardian didn’t consult the Wellcome Collection website in addition to their Twitter post.
> Medicine Man will close on 27 November, which marks a significant turning point, as we prepare to transform how our collections are presented. Over the coming years, a major project will amplify the voices of those who have been previously erased or marginalised from museums, bringing their stories of health and humanity to the heart of our galleries.
So by the sounds of it, they’re closing some collections *in order to change how they are presented*. It’s not like they’re going to lock all the artefacts away never to be seen again.
Closing this collection is part of a wider project to change presentation.
What the hell? I saw this collection when I visited London in August and thought it was fascinating. Yes, some of the items were a little uncomfortable, for lack of a better word, but it was not glorified in any way – simply presented as an accurate slice of history and how medical professionals used to think.
In fact, I recall seeing a couple of displays had been replaced by notes that they were taken off public viewing due to concerns about the ethics of showing them, which I agreed with – I think one of the displays affected was a preserved body of some kind, which I agree comes up to/goes over the line and it’s more appropriate for that person’s remains to be returned to their community for appropriate burial rites – but to remove the entire collection wholesale?
Such a shame that it’s closing, I hope the collection is at least kept together behind the scenes so it can be shown again at some point.
[deleted]
The ones who can’t accept the past are the ones who will struggle the most in the future
And there the education ends. Closing a museum because history = bad
Isn’t that what history and museums are for? To show the past as it was, warts and all? Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it, but no, carry on your woke crusade.
There are lots of people in cultural institutions who hate everything.
“When our founder, Henry Wellcome started collecting in the 19th century, the aim then was to acquire vast numbers of objects that would enable a better understanding of the art and science of healing throughout the ages.”
And they now want to end that. You can’t have history without offensive facts.
Censoring history when it doesn’t conform to current values and views seems like a bad idea
This is just rubbish outrage-baiting journalism. They’re overhauling all of their collections over the next few years with the aim of re-presenting them to better highlight the context and show a more inclusive, and therefore truthful picture of medical history. They’re not pretending anything never happened, they’re not locking it away to avoid offending people, they doing exactly what any good historian would agree they should do; re-assessing the historical narrative in light of contemorary understandings and new information. Some of the stuff will go back on display with more appropriate context, some of it might not, but the whole “woke activists are censoring history!” dialogue taking place in this thread is irrelevant because that’s not at all what’s happening here.
It’s being closed down so they can redesign the exhibition and figure out how they can do a more effective job explaining the information and the history. It’s not some knee-jerk reaction to activists. It’s the directors of the museum making the choice to do a better job
The guardian left this key piece of information out so it would create the exact reaction in these comments (seriously folks, a quick google before screaming 1984 and snowflake tears. It’s not that hard)
…and this is why the British media is so poor. Even those outlets that I align more with (in terms of ideology) write such shite.
I always thought this part of the welcome collection. Was to.demonstrate how antiquated victorian and early 20th century medicine was and how far we came as a society since then
I didn’t get from the tone that it was celebrating this time period.
I disagree with them removing it. I would like to see it used to teach the history and the racism, sexism etc that comes with the collection. I’d like to see this taught in schools.
OK let’s be rational, obviously looking at history there were different variations of what was and is considered racist ,sexist etc etc as you may well be considered to have strange views in future generations.
However it is correct to be shut temporarily and make adjustments on deemed discriminatory items with calm and wise input from those aggrieved parties.
I hope this is a balanced approach, unfortunately there seems in general rather than people looking for solutions, certain reactions cause escalation.
The fact they are willing to do this because it doesn’t fit in to our modern day views is extremely disturbing. History is history and should not, under any circumstances, be altered or forgotten. As then the lessons learned from history will be lost and possibly repeat in the future.
It’s slightly narcissistic of them thinking they’ll do a better job of explaining it than it’s currently already doing, they’ll just be pushing their own bias and narratives on it and it’ll end up being just another version that’s no more or less accurate.
I find these kinds of actions akin to book burning. These exhibitions have lessons we must never forget or allow to happen again.
It’s a ticking timebomb for other museums like the British and history etc until all the woke brigade start to congregate en masse, protest, vandalise etc.
This is ridiculous. The UK is turning into an even shittier version of the US.
Isn’t this akin to closing down a Holocaust museum for portraying historical racism?
31 comments
>Other interventions have been made since then but the latest announcement said the Medicine Man display “still perpetuates a version of medical history that is based on racist, sexist and ableist theories and language”.
Modern medicine is based on a racist, sexist background. Understanding that is important to move forward, however its probably more useful for the researchers, medical students etc, rather than general public display.
Can’t they keep the items on display and provide context and modern interpretation within the exhibit?
>the Medicine Man display “still perpetuates a version of medical history that is based on racist, sexist and ableist theories and language”.
But if that history was racist, sexist and ableist then it is an accurate representation of history, isn’t that what museums are for?
As long as the exhibition has appropriate information about how the collection came into being it is a truthful insight into the collector and the history of the institute, closing it could be seen as cleansing history.
Isn’t this a little close to being literally 1984?
I feel like the activists behind these kind of decolonisation projects have two completely irreconcilable positions.
One one hand there is a demand that children and the public at large are educated and made aware of our colonial past, and the cruelty, prejudice and crimes that went alongside that.
For instance, ‘the bastards went over there, destroyed native beliefs and forced their religion on them’
Then on the other hand, there’s a demand to shield public eyes from a painting that depicts this very act. Which feels a bit like saying ‘We must hide the past’.
Let’s say (hypothetically) we had photographs of a bunch of red coated, rifle touting, British imperial soldiers, charging at a group of tribal clad, spear wielding Zulu warriors.
Are we supposed to show this display this to the public, as evidence of the war mongering, violent side of Empirical conquest? Or should the public be blinkered? It wouldn’t be right for them to think Africans were technologically inferior, or perpetuate exoticism tropes through the depiction of Zulus using of traditional weaponry and wearing tribal dress.
I just don’t get it. Do we want the shameful or unappealing parts of Britain’s colonial history to be put in the open, or hidden?
It certainly cannot be both.
> “The result was a collection that told a global story of health and medicine in which disabled people, Black people, Indigenous peoples and people of colour were exoticised, marginalised and exploited – or even missed out altogether. As a result we will close Medicine Man on 27 November 2022.”
On these grounds, we will have to close all exhibitions and museums in the country.
Applying modern ideals to history – and judging those people on it… it was a different time. I don’t see the value.
If you want to include detail on communities which weren’t the dominant voices in the U.K. at the time (ie white males!), then include them in the exhibition too. You may find there many, or any, given record keeping and who was the dominant voice at the time.
I also think hiding racial inequality in the last eg the painting mentioned, adds no value to discussions (or progress) on racial equality today. Just put a note on it explaining why it’s now deemed negative.
The world was racist, sexist, ableist. Use that as an opportunity to discuss it – I left school a long time ago, but we were having these discussions then. There was no question of hiding the content though – more ‘you won’t see many women mentioned as they weren’t allowed to work in these sorts of jobs’ etc.
“How far have we come?”
– we’re not sure we removed all points of measure.
Are we gonna start closing holocaust museums because that was racist lol
The article is – this thing happened and this is how some people on twitter reacted. I think a lot less twitter for everyone would help. Going on twitter and finding a few outraged people surely is not journalism.
This is sadly happening in museums all over the country. You cannot teach people about the mistakes of our predecessors by simply removing anything that is now deemed inappropriate in the name of decolonisation. Judging these attitudes and behaviours by todays standards is unhelpful to everyone.
Losing, in this case, valuable medical history (and a really excellent free museum if you’ve not been) in the name of “progress” doesn’t feel very progressive at all.
Having literally been to this exhibition last week, I find it a bit weird that the article shows a picture of the mummified body, even though in the actual exhibit the body has been removed and a sign discussing our new views on ethics put in its place to explain its removal. I find it a shame this exhibit is being removed since it’s quite an interesting focal piece on history, but they will hopefully use various aspects of it in their future exhibits.
Edit: the article’s since removed the picture of the mummy, but point stands.
Totally bizarre that the Guardian didn’t consult the Wellcome Collection website in addition to their Twitter post.
> Medicine Man will close on 27 November, which marks a significant turning point, as we prepare to transform how our collections are presented. Over the coming years, a major project will amplify the voices of those who have been previously erased or marginalised from museums, bringing their stories of health and humanity to the heart of our galleries.
So by the sounds of it, they’re closing some collections *in order to change how they are presented*. It’s not like they’re going to lock all the artefacts away never to be seen again.
Closing this collection is part of a wider project to change presentation.
Barely a story tbh.
Also feel it is disingenuous to not mention that this was a series of Tweets which finished with an explicit ask from the public to feed into how this changes: https://twitter.com/ExploreWellcome/status/1596091289082400768?t=tFA-6gADebg5297zDH-g-w&s=19
What the hell? I saw this collection when I visited London in August and thought it was fascinating. Yes, some of the items were a little uncomfortable, for lack of a better word, but it was not glorified in any way – simply presented as an accurate slice of history and how medical professionals used to think.
In fact, I recall seeing a couple of displays had been replaced by notes that they were taken off public viewing due to concerns about the ethics of showing them, which I agreed with – I think one of the displays affected was a preserved body of some kind, which I agree comes up to/goes over the line and it’s more appropriate for that person’s remains to be returned to their community for appropriate burial rites – but to remove the entire collection wholesale?
Such a shame that it’s closing, I hope the collection is at least kept together behind the scenes so it can be shown again at some point.
[deleted]
The ones who can’t accept the past are the ones who will struggle the most in the future
And there the education ends. Closing a museum because history = bad
Isn’t that what history and museums are for? To show the past as it was, warts and all? Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it, but no, carry on your woke crusade.
There are lots of people in cultural institutions who hate everything.
“When our founder, Henry Wellcome started collecting in the 19th century, the aim then was to acquire vast numbers of objects that would enable a better understanding of the art and science of healing throughout the ages.”
And they now want to end that. You can’t have history without offensive facts.
Censoring history when it doesn’t conform to current values and views seems like a bad idea
This is just rubbish outrage-baiting journalism. They’re overhauling all of their collections over the next few years with the aim of re-presenting them to better highlight the context and show a more inclusive, and therefore truthful picture of medical history. They’re not pretending anything never happened, they’re not locking it away to avoid offending people, they doing exactly what any good historian would agree they should do; re-assessing the historical narrative in light of contemorary understandings and new information. Some of the stuff will go back on display with more appropriate context, some of it might not, but the whole “woke activists are censoring history!” dialogue taking place in this thread is irrelevant because that’s not at all what’s happening here.
It’s being closed down so they can redesign the exhibition and figure out how they can do a more effective job explaining the information and the history. It’s not some knee-jerk reaction to activists. It’s the directors of the museum making the choice to do a better job
The guardian left this key piece of information out so it would create the exact reaction in these comments (seriously folks, a quick google before screaming 1984 and snowflake tears. It’s not that hard)
…and this is why the British media is so poor. Even those outlets that I align more with (in terms of ideology) write such shite.
I always thought this part of the welcome collection. Was to.demonstrate how antiquated victorian and early 20th century medicine was and how far we came as a society since then
I didn’t get from the tone that it was celebrating this time period.
I disagree with them removing it. I would like to see it used to teach the history and the racism, sexism etc that comes with the collection. I’d like to see this taught in schools.
OK let’s be rational, obviously looking at history there were different variations of what was and is considered racist ,sexist etc etc as you may well be considered to have strange views in future generations.
However it is correct to be shut temporarily and make adjustments on deemed discriminatory items with calm and wise input from those aggrieved parties.
I hope this is a balanced approach, unfortunately there seems in general rather than people looking for solutions, certain reactions cause escalation.
The fact they are willing to do this because it doesn’t fit in to our modern day views is extremely disturbing. History is history and should not, under any circumstances, be altered or forgotten. As then the lessons learned from history will be lost and possibly repeat in the future.
It’s slightly narcissistic of them thinking they’ll do a better job of explaining it than it’s currently already doing, they’ll just be pushing their own bias and narratives on it and it’ll end up being just another version that’s no more or less accurate.
I find these kinds of actions akin to book burning. These exhibitions have lessons we must never forget or allow to happen again.
It’s a ticking timebomb for other museums like the British and history etc until all the woke brigade start to congregate en masse, protest, vandalise etc.
This is ridiculous. The UK is turning into an even shittier version of the US.
Isn’t this akin to closing down a Holocaust museum for portraying historical racism?