Table Of ContentState University of New York College at Bufalo - Bufalo State College
Digital Commons at Bufalo State
Museum Studies Teses History and Social Studies Education
8-2014
City2 Bufalo: a smartphone app designed to
establish a mobile museum without walls,
exhibiting the living city of Bufalo, NY and its rich
history and environment, with a purpose to inform
and inspire all toward global cultural awareness and
civic engagement, in order to collectively create a
beter future.
Deborah L. Russell
Advisor
SUNY Bufalo,
2
City Buffalo:
a smartphone app designed to establish a mobile museum without walls, exhibiting the
living city of Buffalo, NY and its rich history and environment, with a purpose to inform
and inspire all toward global cultural awareness and civic engagement,
in order to collectively create a better future.
By
Deborah L. Russell
An Abstract of a Thesis
in
History with a Museum Studies Concentration
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements
for the Degree of
Master of Arts
August 2014
SUNY Buffalo State
Department of History and Social Studies Education
ii
ABSTRACT OF THESIS
2
City Buffalo:
a smartphone app designed to establish a mobile museum without walls, exhibiting the
living city of Buffalo, NY and its rich history and environment, with a purpose to inform
and inspire all toward global cultural awareness and civic engagement,
in order to collectively create a better future.
The present environment, including the technological capabilities inspired by the
Information Revolution, requires American museums to reconsider their traditional
practices. American history museums are specially challenged to address future
possibilities and difficulties resulting from social, economic and demographic change.
This paper proposes a new type of history museum of the future, one that utilizes the
resources of the Internet and related technologies to practice the new kind of history
demanded by the current environment, one that is inclusive, open-ended and relevant to
2
the public. City Buffalo is a smartphone application, intended to create a mobile
“museum without walls” to exhibit the history of the living city of Buffalo, NY. The
museum aspires to facilitate public participation in history every day, in the hopes of
inspiring cultural awareness and civic engagement among its users, to support a better
future for the city.
Deborah L. Russell
August 2014
iii
SUNY Buffalo State
Department of History and Social Studies Education
2
City Buffalo:
a smartphone app designed to establish a mobile museum without walls, exhibiting the
living city of Buffalo, NY and its rich history and environment, with a purpose to inform
and inspire all toward global cultural awareness and civic engagement,
in order to collectively create a better future.
A Thesis in
History with a Museum Studies Concentration
By
Deborah L. Russell
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements
for the Degree of
Master of Arts
August 2014
Cynthia A. Conides, Ph. D.
Associate Professor
Department of History and Social Studies Education
Andrew D. Nicholls, Ph. D.
Professor and Chairperson of the
Department of History and Social Studies Education
Kevin J. Railey, Ph. D.
Associate Provost and Dean Graduate School
iv
THESIS COMMITTEE SIGNATORY
Cynthia A. Conides, Ph. D.
Associate Professor
Department of History and Social Studies Education
Jill M. Gradwell, Ph. D.
Associate Professor
Department of History and Social Studies Education
v
Acknowledgements
I wish to express my deep gratitude to my thesis review committee, Dr. Cynthia
Conides and Dr. Jill Gradwell, for their insightful guidance, enthusiastic encouragement
and constructive critiques of this work. I am indebted Dr. Conides, who has served as
my advisor over the long-run of this project, providing valuable advice and support,
including the important idea to incorporate new app technology in the project. Dr.
Conides is also to be credited with the clever idea to represent the project’s working
2
name of City Square as “City .” I am grateful to Dr. Gradwell, who has served as my
instructor for a number of courses during my studies at SUNY Buffalo State College.
The hands-on experiences created by Dr. Gradwell through these courses inspired the
idea of presenting Buffalo, NY as a living history “museum without walls.”
Finally, I wish to thank my family, for allowing me to indulge in my passion for
museums by visiting them with me wherever we travel.
vi
Table of Contents
Chapter I: Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Anticipating Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Framing the Opportunities and Challenges for Museums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
What is Going Right with Museums? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Will Museums Succeed in Reinventing Themselves? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Chapter 2: Literature Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
History as We Knew It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
Historymaking in History Museums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
City Museums, History and Civic Engagement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25
The Virtual History Museum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Chapter 3: Methods and Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36
Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .36
Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37
Sample Set: “Museums without Walls” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37
Sample Set: Apps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Future Trends. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Chapter 4: Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66
Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Sample Set: “Museums without Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
vii
Sample Set: Apps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Future Trends. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Chapter 5: Proposal and Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
2
City Buffalo Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79
2
City Buffalo Next Steps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88
Chapter 6: Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Implications for Future Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Implications for Practice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
End Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .112
Appendix 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .119
Appendix 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122
viii
List of Tables and Figures
Tables
2.1 Traditional vs. New Museum of the City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.1 Scan of “Museums Without Walls” for Sample Selection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.2 Summary Data for Sample of “Museums Without Walls” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .119
3.3 Summary of Future Trends Facing Museums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
4.1 Summary of Priorities for Sample “Museums Without Walls” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71
4.2 Summary of Testing Results of App Sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
6.1 Internet Users Using Apps by Age Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Figures
2
4.1 City Snap: Contemporary Photograph Snapped and Posted. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83
2
5.2 City Snap: Old Photograph, Digitized and Posted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83
2
5.3 City Snap: Old Photograph, Digitized and Posted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83
2
5.4 City Snap: Contemporary Photograph Snapped and Posted. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84
2
5.5 City Map: Photograph Snapped, Posted and Mapped. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85
2
5.6 City Map: Photograph Snapped, Posted and Mapped. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85
2
5.7 City Map: Photograph Snapped, Posted and Mapped. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .86
Chapter 1
Introduction
“Education is our passport, tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”
1
Malcom X, Civil Rights Leader
The present environment, including the technological capabilities inspired by the
Information Revolution, requires American museums to reconsider their traditional
practices. Given current social, economic and demographic trends, American history
museums are specially challenged to address future possibilities and difficulties. This
thesis examines the opportunity to create a new type of history museum of the future,
one that utilizes the resources of the Internet and related technologies to practice a new
kind of history demanded by the current environment, one that is inclusive, open-ended
and relevant to today’s public. With the goal of inspiring cultural awareness and civic
engagement among citizens of Buffalo and visitors to the Queen City, this work
2
presents a smartphone application entitled City Buffalo. The app is designed to keep
pace with the changing interests and preferences of the public, while avoiding some of
2
the pressures facing brick and mortar museums. While City Buffalo describes a city
museum of history for Buffalo, New York, this application can also be applied to other
cities around the world.
Anticipating Change
“The Digital Revolution is far more significant than the invention of writing
or even printing.”
2
Douglas Engelbart, Internet Pioneer
It is widely held that we are in the midst of a global economic revolution, often
referred to as the Information Revolution. This revolution, which began in the mid
