Reina Young

Professor Petrides
English 101
Compare and contrast
25 March, 2016
National American History Museum
Between Maryland and Virginia lies Washington ,D.C. , a city that contains an enormous
amount of history. History that is responsible for the foundation of modern day society. One of
these buildings is the National American History museum that contains millions of artifacts from
the American history to African American History. Many of which were past down from many
generations such as history, to art, to music, and to African American history. All the different
type of exhibits in this museum holds a piece of the United States history in this building. These
pieces of artifacts can affect its visitors in many ways positive and negative, but their purpose is
to continue to keep the American history alive for the new generation to embrace. It also reminds
visitors not forget the struggles, and the sacrifices the past Americans made to establish todays
nation.
The American History Museum was built in the late 1950s. It is located at the National
Mall with the rest of the other 6 museum (Mission). The American History Museum contains
millions of artifacts that are considered the Americans treasure of the United States. This
museum also contains multiple exhibits. One of the exhibits, The Price of Freedom: America at
War displays the wartimes that involved the American military from the French and Indian war
to the present conflict in Iraq(Behring). Another exhibit that is displayed at the museum is the

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Through the African American Lens: Selection from the Permanent Collection, this exhibit
displays the different factors that represented the African American History. Both exhibits have
many similarities and differences of displaying their objectives towards their audiences, which
involves certain artifacts that are displayed for the visitors to admire, the different methods of
display, the presentation the exhibit, and the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning styles of
attracting the visitors.
The first exhibit the Price of Freedom: American at War exhibit displayed many artifacts
that dealt with the times of war. This exhibit is very large and displays the multiple wars that
America was involved with. This exhibit depicts the different learning styles in various ways in
order to attract the visitors through visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning styles. One example
for visual learners is the glass displayed that are protecting the artifacts from being touched. This
gives the visitors an opportunity to
visually connect with the history through
sight. Individuals are able to witness the
condition, size and even colors of the
items on display. This allows them to
connect visually and register the
information if that is there learning type.
The image on the right demonstrates how the different artifacts during of the Mexican War are
displayed behind the glass throughout the exhibit (Price).
For instance, this exhibit allowed patrons to walk through the exhibit while listening to
music from the colonial time frame of war to the modern military music. This example of

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auditory learning was very useful because one heard many children being captivated by the
booms in the background as certain smaller stations. This method of learning was primarily
captivating the children's attention. For instance, a young boy who was visiting the museum
explained how he could relate to the events because he told his mother he felt like they were
present at the time of the war.
The last example that helped the visitors grasp the history in depth was by giving the
visitors the ability to comprehend through a kinesthetic learning style. Certain items were on
display, which allowed the visitor to touch them. Many visitors needed the experience of feeling
so they could connect with the history behind the items.
The image on the right is displaying a fragment of the
Berlin Wall (Price). This fragment was accessible for the
visitors to touch. Visitors, such as myself, touched the
fragment and felt a sense of the struggle and sacrifices
that occurred during that horrible time in history. The
Price of Freedom: American at War exhibit contain many
different forms of presenting the history to the public by
providing visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning styles
to experience the exhibit to its full potential. This exhibit gives a wonderful sense of learning
experience and personally gave one a sense of appreciating as well as sympathy for the struggles
that occurred in the past to make modern day a better place.
The next exhibit that was displayed in the National American History museum was
Through the African American Lens. This exhibit displayed its artifact where the visitors can

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experience the African Americans through the culture, the community, and the history to be the
strongest roots of the African Americans history.

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The first section of the exhibit was the culture of African Americans. It expressed the
blend of African traditions and Americans traditions forming the African Americans culture.
They found a way to improve their culture. African Americans embraced art and music they
produced or heard around them to create their own that influence their culture in becoming
stronger. The image on the left is an outfit of a speed suit that was wore by Carl Lewis who won
many Olympic medals (Through African). As the visitors observe the exhibit many artifacts
are behind a glass display. Giving the visitors the opportunity to learn visually and see the items
closely, but still at a distance to protect the rarity. The next section of the exhibit was involving
the African Americans community displaying how the African community supported one
another. For example, the African Americans communities were very involved with faith, and
religion. In the African Americans brochure it explains how African Americans gained their
strength through faith and religion. During the difficult time African Americans used faith to
survive enslavement, segregation, racial oppression, and economic hardship, Islam, Judaism,
Christianity and other faiths (Through African Brochure). After, the abolishment of slavery, the
church not only became a sense of sanctuary, but it also became a meeting place for plans to
fight segregation. The image on the left is located in the exhibit, shows the embrace the African
Americans had with religion that also involved the community attending services (Through
African). This display is behind glass and gospel music was played around the area. The visitors
gained a sense of spiritual vibe of the African Americans community were their rights, beliefs
and values, make the community powerful when united.

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The last section of the exhibit was the history representing the meaning of being an
Americans from an African American perspective. Visitors in this part of the exhibit could see
the struggle the African Americans had to go through to completion a small portion of success in
the segregated states and fighting against the slavery. This exhibit showed the pride of the
African Americans had of respecting themselves and being
respected by other. The exhibit display many forms of
military items that embraced the pride they obtained even
through segregation (Through African Brochure). The
brochure helps the visitors learn visually by reading that
texts and kinesthetic by being able to hold the pamphlet
through the exhibit and match the paragraph with the
physical exhibit. Still having the right to serve their country
and conduct act of heroism for their country. The exhibit
teaches the visitors that African Americans were not equipped with same military issued
equipment as the white Americans for war. Videos were presented of veterans being questioned
about their military service during their time of service (Through African). They were not treated
equally. Visitors learned that the African American man who served gave his family a symbol of

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The two exhibits in the National American History museum contained a plethora of
history while using similar and different technique to attract their visitors. Both exhibits
demonstrated similiaries the setting of their theme for their own with the presentation of artifacts,
the music and sounds, the decorating of the exhibit that was appropriate for the visitors to
embrace the exhibits objective. Glass displays were presented in both exhibits giving the visitors
the opportunity to see the artifacts closely and witness that these items existed. As seen in both
exhibits they had many things in common that helped them achieve their goal in attracting the
visitors.
The two exhibits have contrasting aspects to them. For example, the Price of Freedom
exhibit gave the visitors more access to interact with certain artifacts being able to touch them
like the piece of Berlin Wall that was on display. But Through the African American Lens
exhibit the visitors had no access to touch anything in the exhibit only to observe which,
prevented the visitors to be more involved with the exhibit made the exhibit harder to connect
with. All the items in this exhibit were behind glass boxes only available for observing
preventing the visitor to become more involved. Another difference among the two exhibits was
their size. The Price of Freedom exhibit was three time the size of the Through the African
American Lens exhibit. Each exhibit had a limited amount of space to display their artifacts to
attract the visitors to visit the exhibit.
In conclusion, the two exhibits have many similarities and differences to reach out to the
visitors by applying different learning styles. They both used different styles of learning to help
the audience relate personally with the items within the museum. The different manner they
displayed their artifacts to make the exhibit flow smoothly for the audience made the gathering

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of information easier for each individual. The exhibits objective was to connect the past with the
present and giving history life to continue in the future generation to never forget the struggles
and successes achieve through those times. Both exhibits gave the visitors a powerful ability to
connects with several aspects of history by applying visual, auditory, and kinesthetic style and
methods of learning throughout the exhibits.

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Work Cited
Behring, Kenneth E. The Price of Freedom: Americans at War Online Exhibit Smithsonian.
Web. 17 March. 2016.
Mission & History Online Smithsonian. Web. 20 March 2016.
The Price of Freedom: American at War. Smithsonian Exhibit. National American History
Museum, Washington D.C. 19 March, 2016.
Through the African American Lens Smithsonian Exhibit. National American History
Museum, Washington D.C. 19 March, 2016.
Through the African American Lens Smithsonian Brochure. Print. 20 March. 2016.