Behind the scenes: Updates to the First World War exhibition area

Canada Day is the Canada Aviation and Space Museum’s biggest event — we typically receive our largest attendance of the year. The museum was pleased to welcome over 8,700 visitors this sunny July 1.  Amid the bustle of visiting families — legions of pint-sized pilots wearing crafty handmade hats — you will often find several new exhibitions or displays to explore. This year, visitors may have noticed some interesting changes in the First World War area. This redevelopment project is the latest in a series of so-called “quiet updates” (so-called because I made up the term for this article). 

As an interpretive planner for the museum, I consider quiet updates to be those smaller-scale projects that museums fund through maintenance budgets. These projects are not promoted to the public, and they don’t have official openings; they just seem to quietly appear “on the floor” as we say. Updates don’t generate the same excitement as “new builds” or blockbusters — everyone loves a shiny project — but they’re essential as we strive to keep our long-term exhibition areas current and engaging. In recent years, we have quietly updated the Early Aviation area (2015) and the Silver Dart display spotlighting the first airplane flown in Canada (2017). We also quietly created a Canada in Space exhibition area (2018). 

All of the museum’s quiet updates share a common goal: to maximize clarity. When the current building opened in 1988, the museum was noted for its innovative graphic approaches. Still, this was a time when aviation museums typically saw interpretation as a simple formula: park the plane, and place the plaque. The information on the plaque often prioritized the interests of experts and knowledgeable hobbyists. Technical details were front of mind, with the presumption that visitors already knew the general history. Museology has changed a lot in 31 years, as have museum audiences. As exhibition text panels reach the end of their lifecycles, ongoing changes like reducing word counts, increasing print sizes, eliminating unnecessary jargon, and using more images will help to keep our evolving audiences engaged for the next three decades. 

Themes show the big picture

In redeveloping the First World War area, the curators and I focussed on what makes each of the aircraft on display truly significant. We then examined how these points interrelate to tell the larger story of aviation during the First World War. This gave rise to four major themes:

• Weapons with Wings: how aircraft emerged as a military tool, and evolved for specific uses such as observation, bombing and dogfighting
• The Modern Airplane Takes Shape: from the delicate wood and cloth airplanes of the early 1910s, to the strong metal structures we visualize today
• The Aircrew’s Experience: the hardships of flying early open cockpit airplanes, and the reasons for low survival rates among new crew members
• The Canadian Home Front: Canada’s role in military aviation training and aircraft production