SPACE, PLACE, AND STORY: MUSEUM GEOGRAPHIES AND NARRATIVES OF THE AMERICAN WEST by SAMUEL ALBERT SMITH A.B., University of , l999 M.S., Penn State University, 2008 A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Geography 2018 i This thesis entitled: Space, Place, and Story: Museum Geographies and Narratives of the American West written by Samuel Albert Smith has been approved for the Department of Geography Dr. Kenneth E. Foote Dr. Timothy S. Oakes Date: The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline. ii Smith, Samuel Albert (Ph.D., Geography) Space, Place, and Story: Museum Geographies and Narratives of the American West Thesis directed by Professor Emeritus Kenneth E. Foote This dissertation examines how the complex geography and contested history of the American West are presented through stories told in the region’s history museums. I examine how iconic regional-scale place images are juxtaposed with more critical perspectives on dissonant historical episodes in museum exhibits, and how the spaces of museum exhibits and galleries represent places, structure narratives, and suggest new thematic and geographical connections interpreting the region. Using a series of case studies of museums in Colorado and adjacent states, I develop new methods to analyze museum exhibits as “three-dimensional narratives,” in which spatial arrangements of objects, texts, and media structure narratives that interpret and contest the past. This research builds on cultural geographic research on how contested memory is expressed and presented, both in symbolic landscapes, and through media. I extend this work in three main ways. First, I extend research on monuments and memorials to consider how museum spaces present and contest the past. Second, I follow recent engagements between geography and narrative theory, examining storytelling as a distinct form of discourse, with its own spatial dimensions. Third, I situate this investigation amid increasing scholarly attention to heritage tourism, particularly in terms of how the “Legacy of Conquest” of the American West is made marketable to visitors. I explore this narrative geography through three case studies: First, a detailed examination of the History Colorado Center in downtown Denver highlights how spatial narratives organize and structure museum presentations, emphasizing some thematic and geographical connections while downplaying others. Second, a comparison of six Colorado museums highlighting race, ethnicity, and labor conflict examines the “genre conventions” through which these “counter-narratives” are iii linked to more conventional presentations of the regional past. Finally, a comparison of the state history museums of Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming explores how state geographies are presented as foundations of civic identities. This research contributes to the cultural geographic understanding of museums as significant venues in which cultural meaning is presented and contested, and develops new methods for understanding museum narratives geographically. Such methods can be productively applied in other heritage tourism settings. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As I conclude this extended research project, I am grateful to many people for their intellectual, material, and emotional support. I am most deeply indebted to Ken Foote, whose deep and engaging conversations were a wellspring of inspiration and guidance for my research, both during his time in Boulder and after his move to Connecticut. In addition to his invaluable guidance during the planning and fieldwork phases of this dissertation, Ken engaged deeply with the evolving texts of article manuscripts and chapter drafts. During our Skype meetings, Ken was quick both to recognize the merit of my evolving ideas, and to suggest ways in which they could be refined and presented more clearly. I am also grateful to the other members of my doctoral committee: Tim Oakes, Bill Travis, Rudi Hartmann, and Phoebe Young. Our initial conversations—often as part of coursework—led me to a wealth of literature which helped me to refine my project, and to situate it within a rich intellectual landscape extending well beyond the discipline of Geography. Subsequently, our discussions helped me to hone my research proposal and draft dissertation text. Outside of my committee, I owe additional thanks to Patty Limerick, both in her position as head of the University of Colorado’s Center for the American West, and in her capacity as Colorado’s State Historian. I’m further thankful to many of the staff at the museums and historical societies across the Mountain West. A summer internship with the Aspen Historical Society provided the initial impetus for my thinking about what stories are presented or absent from museums, and I thank Nina Gabianelli, the Society’s Vice Present for Education and Programming, for a chance to experience heritage interpretation firsthand. I also owe particular thanks to Brooke Gladstone of v the History Colorado Center and Irina Fartushnikova of the Wyoming State Museum for providing detailed maps of complex exhibits. Two of the this dissertation’s chapters were originally proposed, revised, and eventually published in the form of journal articles, which offered an invaluable opportunity to develop my thinking in dialogue with a rich scholarly community. I am thankful to Dydia DeLyser and Dallen Timothy for their work as editors, and to several sets of anonymous reviewers for their critiques and suggestions. My graduate peers in the CU geography department—among them Yang Yang, Siddharth Menon, Joel Correia, Lauren Gifford, Meredith Deboom, Caitlin Ryan, and Kaitlin Fertaly—joined in writing groups, offering both thoughtful commentary, and solidarity through the long processes of writing. I’m further grateful to several dear friends, including Alex Stum, Angela Cunningham, Betsy Keith, Tina Fields, Julie Lesser, and Rebecca Stoll, for joining me in wide-ranging and provocative conversations, and for their company on many of my museum visits. I am grateful to the Department of Geography, for their continued support of my research and teaching, even as I navigated the challenges of being a graduate student with an advisor at another department. My time at CU has offered me numerous opportunities to link and extend my research and teaching, and to incorporate insights from many semesters’ worth of class discussions into my overall thinking. Karen Weingarten and Darla Shatto are some of the department’s greatest assets, and I am deeply thankful for their friendship and kindness. I’m also grateful for the material support of a Dinaburg Memorial Research Fellowship, and a J. Tour Scholarship, as well as a summer research grant from the Charles Redd Center for Western History at Brigham Young University. Finally, I’d like to thank my parents, Dave and Penny Smith. Long before I entered university study, they have supported my interest in geography, history, and the West—a continuity they’re quick to remind me of! More recently, they have helped me weather the final vi push toward completing the dissertation, offering a place to stay during a spring-break writing retreat, sympathetic ears during looming personal crises, and rapid and insightful proofreading of several generations of drafts. Without them, this dissertation could never have happened. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction and Research Questions ........................................................................................................................ 1 Research Context and Significance .............................................................................................................................. 5 Cultural Geographies of Meaning in Place ........................................................................................................... 5 Heritage Tourism and Place Images. ..................................................................................................................... 9 Museums as Sites of Tourism.................................................................................................................................. 12 Portraying the American West ............................................................................................................................... 15 Narrative Approaches in Museum Research .................................................................................................... 17 Methodology and Research Design ........................................................................................................................... 22 Qualitative Research: Discourses of Museum Narrative Texts ................................................................. 22 Case Studies and Site Selection .............................................................................................................................. 26 Preliminary Fieldwork: Exploring Colorado Museums................................................................................ 27 Sites for Detailed Analysis .......................................................................................................................................