Museums Teach Scientists How to Tell Better Stories

A 200-year-old patient chart hanging five feet from a modern display case tells a powerful story about how much has changed in healthcare and how much has stayed the same.

At the University of Maryland School of Nursing's Living History Museum, curator Kirsten Hammerstrom recently faced a challenge familiar to anyone trying to explain science. How do you make invisible ideas like electronic health records visible and compelling to everyday visitors?

Her solution reveals what museums have known for generations. Physical objects become powerful when they connect past struggles to present solutions, helping people see themselves in the story of scientific progress.

Museums don't just preserve old equipment and documents. They transform artifacts into narratives that answer questions people actually care about: What did science feel like for the people who did it? What did it change? Who carried it forward?

For the nursing informatics display, Hammerstrom arranged conference programs and books in a case across from that 1893 patient chart. The five-foot gap between them represents over a century of technological evolution while highlighting what remains constant: the critical importance of accurately tracking patient outcomes.

Tara Wink, a historical collections librarian at the University of Maryland Baltimore, puts it simply. "Historical objects can be moving. Looking at something from 100 years ago and recognizing they're battling the same things we are battling today."

This approach works because it gives audiences multiple entry points into scientific stories. Someone might connect emotionally to the dedication of nurses past and present, while another person might marvel at technological progress.

Why This Inspires

Science communicators spend their careers asking how to make research come alive for people who don't live in labs. Museums have been answering that question through centuries of trial and refinement.

The lesson goes beyond just adding historical context. Museums excel at selecting the right objects and weaving them into larger conversations about science's role in our lives, making abstract concepts tangible through physical examples.

When the Health Sciences and Human Services Library created "Groundbreaking: Spring Botanicals" in 2024, they displayed enlarged 18th-century botanical prints with minimal text. Each flower illustration included only its name and historical medicinal use, inviting visitors to draw their own connections to modern pharmaceutical research.

By focusing on the human experience of discovery rather than just the discoveries themselves, museums help audiences see science as something created by real people facing real challenges. That grandmother fighting the 1918 flu faced the same fears as families during recent pandemics.

Science moves fast, but the questions driving it often remain remarkably constant. Museums remind us that today's groundbreaking research stands on foundations built by countless dedicated people before us, and that tomorrow's breakthroughs will build on what we preserve today.