Storytelling in Museums provides a significant and timely contribution to our understanding of the practice of storytelling in public history. But the book offers more than the title suggests: this collection of essays reveals the essential role that storytelling can contribute as a tool for deepening community engagement and telling more inclusive stories from multiple points of view. Editor and public historian Adina Langer acknowledges that museums have accepted and indeed embraced storytelling over the past twenty years but considers this volume “the first to explore [the storytelling paradigm] holistically.” For the authors, storytelling “gains its relevance through the primacy of mission-driven audience engagement” (x). Stories are powerful tools to engage visitors. “Visitors identify with personal narratives,” Langer argues in the preface, because they help to create “emotional connections…that lead to deeper and broader curiosity” (xi). This collection of eighteen new essays documents creative, contemporary storytelling in the museum field, including descriptions of the process along with practical and ethical issues involved in this work. This book offers inspiration for museum professionals and consultants, public historians, and others involved with community collaborations that teach history as they consider new ideas and approaches for their own work.

The idea for this book originated in a 2016 American Association of Museums conference session, “Out of Many, One: Personal Stories to Public Narratives” (xiii). Four of the session participants and an additional nineteen authors contributed to this collection. They come from many backgrounds—curators, educators, exhibit designers, public historians, researchers, community collaborators, and others. Langer divides the volume into two parts. The first, “Storytelling Methods,” focuses on case studies that examine how storytelling functions across the museum. Benjamin Filene starts off the section with an excellent, concise set of recommendations for museum exhibits in chapter 2. Other authors examine how they have incorporated storytelling practices: developing oral history projects to create more inclusive stories, designing exhibits using storytelling and personal narratives at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, creating more inclusive programs at a public cemetery in Atlanta, utilizing storytelling to expand museum presence outside its walls through digital products and community toolkits, exploring new ways to use personal narrative at a Holocaust museum, and incorporating storytelling to make more relevant and personal label copy in a science museum. A surprising but relevant case study in chapter 8 reveals how dramaturgy also embraces storytelling in a wider understanding of public history practice.

The second part of the book, “Storytelling in the Community,” illustrates how museums can use storytelling in community collaborations. Here, the authors share how they have engaged community members through storytelling and thus have collaborated with these partners to build more meaningful and relevant experiences. These essays describe the opportunities but also the challenges of effective partnerships that center storytelling and personal narratives to bring diverse community voices into the museum. The case studies include developing an oral history program in Morocco, creating storytelling workshops in New Mexico, and engaging immigrant communities in producing programs and exhibits relevant to their lives to an ethnic museum that explores the community’s understanding of Chinese traditional medical practices. The essays in this volume consistently emphasize multivocality in storytelling to create the richest possible interpretation, from connecting with Indigenous communities to advance understanding of their material culture to engaging nearby community members in co-curating an exhibit at an art museum. The book closes with an essay on the pioneering partnership between Montpelier and its descendant community that resulted in award-winning exhibitions and programs.

The authors in this volume present their stories from a wide variety of museums; although most are focused on history, the essays explore art, science, and children’s museums as well. Most explore contemporary issues in the United States, although several essays also examine international museums and perspectives. The authors represent an array of museum positions, including a marketing director and exhibit designer, demonstrating how all museum staff can draw upon storytelling in their work. As Langer writes, the authors “embrace an ‘expanded definition of museums’ to include the work they do and the role they play in our communities” (xii). The case studies range in length from ten to fifteen pages, some with accompanying photographs. Although the use of footnotes varies across the chapters, the book provides an extensive bibliography of related scholarship to provide additional resources for the reader.

Perhaps one of the greatest strengths of this book is the authors’ careful attention to ethical considerations in storytelling, especially as the field of public history moves beyond the idea of “shared authority” to fuller collaborations (xii). How do we bring the many voices of our community into the museum? What do community collaborators want to see in museums? How do we create a climate of mutual respect for all? Since these kinds of collaborations are so new, several authors question how they will evolve over time and wonder how to sustain these partnerships in the future. As we all know, the process of creating more equitable collaborations is complicated and messy, but reading about the experiences of these practitioners offers inspiration. The authors who share their challenges and mistakes provide especially poignant lessons, as do those essays which include collaborator comments or engage community members to help author the chapter (see chapter 19). Storytelling in Museums will encourage those working in and with museums to continue to strive to make their institutions more relevant and to engage their communities in creative ways during this time of tremendous challenge and change in the field.

Ann McCleary, University of West Georgia