Silent stewardship: the management of difficult objects in museums

Museums are the stewards of objects such as Confederate statues, Nazi flags, or photos of crime scenes that can be viewed as "difficult." Their collections may also contain objects with complex, tragic, or hateful meanings. The management of such object presents many challenges for museums, from how they are identified and displayed to their access and care. In this thesis, how museums manage difficult objects will be examined. A review of the literature is conducted, followed by the methods used in the thesis, which included a survey of 100 museums associated with the American Alliance of Museums. The results of the survey were then presented and discussed, followed by several conclusions and a set of recommendations. It is concluded that museums can learn much from their experiences implementing NAGPRA; that museums need to develop working definitions of "difficult"; and that museums must involve communities in how difficult objects are managed.