Hope in the Archive: Indexing the Natural History Museum’s Ecologies of Display

Abstract

In 2017, a 25-metre-long blue whale skeleton was installed in the Central Hall of the Natural History Museum, London. ‘Hope’ became a symbol of the urgency of marine conservation, and of institutional relevance in the face of ecological devastation. However, the whale is but the latest in a series of dramatic installations of formidable specimens since the museum first opened in 1881. Originally intended as an encyclopaedia of nature, or ‘Index Museum’, the Central Hall’s history charts the intersection of exhibitionary aura and concepts of ecology. This article argues that the original Victorian framework, both institutional and ideological, continues to shape the museum’s ecological aesthetics, and therefore requires self-critical reassessment to be truly transformative.

The Art and Craftivism of Exhibiting Species and Habitat Loss in Natural History Museums

“…Here, a cast of a prehistoric dinosaur skeleton was taken off display and sent on tour around various UK sites in a testament to this mascot's popularity and was replaced with a blue whale skeleton dramatically suspended from the ceiling. 'Hope' offered an optimistic rallying cry and symbolized the ability of humans to intervene and change the course of a species' plight, since the blue whale was saved from extinction via an international whaling moratorium (Lowe et al 2020;Syperek 2020). This significant redisplay was both preceded and proceeded by other anthropogenic extinction-focused exhibitions in UK museums, representing a broader trend in exhibitionmaking unfolding in these institutions in which human impact on the survival of species is addressed directly through display.…”