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Friday May 9,2008

Learning from the Past and Looking Toward the Future: How We Care for the Past

by Jon N. Austin

Learning from the Past and Looking Toward the Future: How We Care for the Past

By Jon N. Austin

The study of history is the study of change over time: lives, events, technology, and conflicts. The preservation of tangible elements of the past facilitates those inquiries and offers a legacy to the future. By studying the past, we gain a unique perspective on our lives in the present, and we gain a sense of hope for the future because we know where we have already been. The study of history is not limited to the halls of the academy. On the contrary, evidence of our past is preserved all around us in museums, libraries, and in our communities both large and small. Thus, it can be studied and appreciated by all who remain open to the messages that it can teach us. Social history, a discipline within the broader field, examines daily lives and rituals, and it is here that a study of the history of funeral service aptly fits.

The Museum of Funeral Customs in Springfield, Illinois, opened April 3, 2001, and seeks to preserve the history of the profession in America and to educate three distinct audiences: those in funeral service, scholars, and the general public. The Museum exhibits avoid focusing on the quaint and curious. Instead, visitors see a serious examination of the subjects of death, grief, and mourning each of which touch all lives at one time or another. True to its development as a facility in accordance with the highest standards within the museum profession, its object and archival collections are far broader and deeper that the exhibits reveal.

The Museum’s roots extend to 1966 when the Illinois Funeral Directors Association, which is the Museum’s parent, began to collect historic objects in an effort to preserve portions of the history of funeral service.

The Museum’s object and library collections provide opportunities for funeral professionals and the general public to come in contact with the history of American funeral service and its roots. For the funeral profession, those who have just come into the field may only have read of the historical development of their work. Objects at the Museum will add dimension to what was previously text in a course lecture or to stories that they may have heard during a practicum or internship. Instruments and equipment from a bygone era may have changed only slightly with the passage of one hundred years. Likewise, photographs and manufacturers’ catalogs provide a visual record of the changes that have occurred in funeral supply.