Excerpt for the Executive Summary of front-end evaluation study prepared by the USS Constitution Museum in conjunction with Dale Jones, Research Associate, Institute for Learning Innovation, Annapolis, MD, September 8, 2003.

Overview

In August, 2003, interpretation staff from the USS Constitution Museum conducted a front-end evaluation of Museum visitors to gather information about a proposed exhibit entitled “Sailors Speak: Life Aboard CONSTITUTION in 1812.” The Museum hoped to gather basic visitor demographic data and to gauge visitors’ potential interest in an exhibit about life at sea aboard “Old Ironsides” during the War of 1812. Museum staff sought to measure visitors’ interests in the exhibit’s humanities themes and the proposed exhibit outline. Staff also wanted to measure visitors’ concerns about representing battle to a family audience. Lastly, staff hoped to provide visitors an opportunity to make suggestions as to what they might be interested in seeing and doing in an exhibit about life at sea.

Visitor interest in an exhibit about life at sea

Visitors overwhelmingly expressed interest in an exhibition about life aboard USS CONSTITUTION during the War of 1812 with 98% of visitors surveyed checking the “very” or “somewhat interested” categories. When asked why they chose these categories, visitors most often cited an interest in learning about life at sea, USS CONSTITUTION sailors, and an appreciation for learning about history.

Visitors were highly receptive to the proposed themes for the exhibit with 85% of visitors surveyed choosing the “very” or “somewhat” interested categories. Eighty-one percent (81%) of visitors also felt their families would find the themes compelling or relevant. Visitors cited interests in life at sea, people working together, the contributions of individual crewmembers, and service to country/patriotism as reasons behind their interest in the themes.

The interest level in the proposed exhibit outline was also very high with 93% of visitors expressing interest. Here again, visitors indicated an interest in learning more about the personal stories of crewmembers as well as crew discipline and training, how individuals reacted to wartime situations, and the returning sailor’s experiences on shore. Many visitors liked the chronology of the outline and how it was presented as a story, from beginning to end.

One area that the Museum staff should explore further is the topic of “communities.” The “Joining a Seafaring Community” theme rated slightly lower in the theme and visitor outline interest categories than others. It is unclear as to why this is true. The broad variety of Museum visitors’ comments suggests that visitors might not have understood the meaning of the “communities” theme or the word “community.” Some visitors suggested that the “communities” theme was not as important as other exhibit themes. Some felt that the exhibit should focus more on the crewmembers rather than their families. A few visitors suggested that the “communities” theme, as worded, was vague while others felt it would be difficult to put the theme into an exhibit format. These comments suggest a variety of things. Perhaps the “communities” theme should be refined and more focused. Or museum staff might consider giving less prominence to this topic, and instead presenting it as a sub theme within other themes. In either case, focus groups might help to clarify how best to interpret ship and shore side communities in both the exhibit themes and outline.

The survey revealed that 78% of visitors traveling with families do not have concerns about how battle is represented in the exhibit. The majority of these visitors suggested that children today are exposed to violence through television, video games, and the media. They expressed that history should not be romanticized and children should learn “what it was really like.” Twenty- two percent (22%) of the visitors who expressed concerns suggested that graphic depictions and loud sounds could be too much for young children. The Museum might consider further formative evaluation using exhibit prototypes that depict battle violence to measure the degree to to which families are comfortable with the interpretation of the topic.

In the final question of the survey, staff told visitors that the Museum wanted to make this exhibition experience interactive and interesting for adults, children, and families. Staff then invited visitors to tell the exhibit designers what they or their family would be interested in seeing and doing in an exhibit about life at sea. This open-ended question drew a wide range of responses including a variety of “life at sea” topics including ship operations, cannon drill, eating, sleeping, clothing, food, medicine, etc. Visitors also wanted to see objects and documents associated with life at sea such as paintings, diaries, personal accounts, weapons, etc. Twenty-eight percent (28%) of visitors (the largest percentage of a single comment) consistently mentioned that they wanted the exhibit to be “interactive” and “experiential.” Some visitors simply stated these words. Others described that they wanted to see the crew’s living and sleeping quarters recreated. Perhaps visitors found these areas particularly important since they do not get to see them during the tour of USS CONSTITUTION.