부산대학교 도서관

Since 1985 the shipwreck site and related artifacts from the steamship SS Xantho (1872) have been key elements in the Western Australian Museum Maritime Archaeology Department's research, exhibition, and outreach programs. This article describes a continually evolving, often intuitive, synergy between archaeological field-work and analyses, as well as museum interpretations and public engagement that have characterized the Steamships to Suffragettes exhibit conducted as part of a museum in vivo situation. This project has centered on themes locating the SS Xantho within a network of temporal, social, and biographical linkages, including associations between the ship's engine and a visionary engineer (John Penn), a controversial entrepreneur (Charles Broadhurst), a feminist (Eliza Broadhurst), and a suffragette (Kitty Broadhust), as well as to Aboriginal and "Malay" divers and artists. Achieved with few funds, the project may be a valuable case study at a time when funds allocated to museums and archaeological units are rapidly diminishing. * KEYWORDS: maritime archaeology, museum interpretation, new digital era, public engagement, shipwreck, Western Australian Museum
Maritime museums have regularly responded to social, cultural, economic, and political factors with exhibitions focusing on individual stories from locally relevant maritime historical events and activities (Stanbury 1991). Crucial to […]