A Pocket-Size Museum Visit
A traditional museum catalogue has heft and often carries an equally weighty price tag.
When Museum of History and War Museum staff set out to redesign their approach to exhibition catalogues several years ago, the idea was to come up with something simple, portable, affordable and, of course, still beautiful.
We wanted to offer visitors a takeaway of their experience, and a chance to learn more about our exhibitions in the comfort of their homes. But perhaps more importantly, we aimed to find a format that would travel well and could reach audiences across the country, to share the Museums’ content with those who may not be able to visit in person.
The souvenir catalogue series
Series design
We settled on a small, square, softcover format — one that fits comfortably in your hands. The series is designed with a simple, flexible grid that allows each book to highlight the exhibition content and design, while maintaining a consistent look.
Each book includes full-page colour photos of artifacts, artwork and historical images. We wanted to bring these objects to life and highlight interesting details that might be missed during a Museum visit.
A page from the Terry Fox catalogue
The catalogues are written by the curator(s) and generally follow the narrative of the exhibition, with captions to describe the objects and works featured. If you visited the exhibition on a busy day, you might enjoy the chance to revisit the panel descriptions. As well, reading the catalogue, you may just discover a new detail that wasn’t in the show.
Evolution
In four short years, the Museum of History and the War Museum have published 16 souvenir catalogues. The very first was about the Haitian spiritual tradition of Vodou, and we have since covered topics ranging from the ancient Greeks to women in times of war.
The Museums’ first graphic novel
It has been a challenge to keep a common thread throughout the series, while being flexible enough to best feature these very different subjects. For example, the authors of the Terry Fox catalogue wanted to take a different approach, inspired by a scrapbook, featuring news clippings and historical photos with excerpts from Terry’s diary.
More recently, we published our very first graphic novel, in the same series format but fully illustrated. This approach melded perfectly with the graphic novel presentation of the Deadly Skies exhibition, now showing at the Canadian War Museum.
And while most of the books have been about special exhibitions, we’ve also featured the iconic Grand Hall and LeBreton Gallery. A catalogue about the War Museum’s Second World War gallery is currently in the works.
Coming soon
We are already planning a book about that most Canadian of subjects, hockey — keep an eye out for it in early 2017. And to coincide with the opening of the new Canadian History Hall on July 1, 2017 — the 150th anniversary of Confederation — we are publishing a special edition catalogue that will feature highlights of this new exhibition.
Lee Wyndham, the Museums’ Publications Coordinator, with the IABC Gold Quill Award
We are also very proud to announce that the series recently received a prestigious Gold Quill Award from the International Association of Business Communicators.
These little books have travelled far and wide over the past few years, and we are thrilled that they have given Canadians access to the stories we all share.