Label: The Slave tag was a method of organizing and identifying slaves who were then rented by other entities outside of their owner. The tag is made of copper and stamped with a slave identification number. The tag comes from Charleston, South Carolina which was home to many plantations during the era of slavery in America. This specific tag was made in the year 1837, as depicted on the stamp of the tag.
Museums provide a very personal and up close learning experience for those who attend however, there are often specific silences that take place within the world of museums especially as it pertains to other cultures. Many museums fail to fully understand the respect/ weight of certain objects and artifacts. When displaying objects that once represented such a grave time in history it is important to understand how to go about the matter in a respectful way. A museum must not display objects in a specific manner that is offensive to those communities in which specific artifacts affect. I think that with specific American slavery objects, it is important to demonstrate the true evil of specific slave related objects while doing so in a respectful manner in order to preserve the history correctly. The difficulty of portraying history is in part due to how ugly certain parts of history are. When it comes to displaying certain former figures that were not good people, museums must not provide glory/make light of bad people throughout history. Much like how many early American leaders like Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, it is important to make light of the faults and evil within history instead of glorifying certain figures. Also when it pertains to specific cultures such as Native Americans in museums it should be required that specific exhibits/artifacts belonging to specific groups of people should be approved by the groups/individuals that such artifacts originally belong to or depict. In order to maintain a respectful learning environment for those at museums, approval from cultures is important.
Reference: https://moconfederacy.pastperfectonline.com/webobject/270BB8BA-6DC0-4EDC-AF3D-937234707752
I really enjoyed reading about your object label and additional reflections about the silences and challenges of museums. Your label includes solid information about the physical object itself as well as some additional interpretive context. Too often, object labels lack context for understanding. I also agree with your analysis about the issues that museum face in storing, preserving and displaying their collections. Although museums lack funding and struggle for resources to make changes, they can make simple adjustments like creating partnerships with communities or educating themselves about cultural protocols to ensure the protection (and/repatriation) of those objects. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and interpretations!