Public History at Gloria Jeans: Part 2

The Blast from the Past exhibition has finally been launched at Gloria Jean's (Epping). It is quite small, and consists of about twenty photographs. Only two people contributed to this collection, which suggests that the idea did not engage many of Gloria Jean's customers. There are no captions to explain the photographs, which include brides and grooms, families, a woman reading, pictures of buildings, a football team, as well as pictures of children at a farm. The presentation of these photographs is particularly instructive. The exhibition consists of about five large photo frames, each containing a number of photographs. The photographs do not fill the entire frame, so they have been placed on brown paper, which gives them the impression of being old. One even has a strip of lace on one side of the border. While the photographs are all black-and-white, and are obviously ‘old’, these touches have been added to reinforce this. It is significant that this technique was used, as it mimics the strategies of many historical television programs. Perhaps the person who created the exhibit was influenced by the historical television programs they had viewed themselves. This certainly raises questions about how people understand what is meant by 'history'.