The primary purpose of this project is to outline the different types of museum exhibitions about the Korean War that are currently on display throughout the United States, in the process problematizing the idea that Korea is somehow a ‘Forgotten War’ in terms of American public memory. While several prior scholars have written about specific Korean War exhibits, both in the United States and globally, no one has previously tried to provide a systemic assessment of American museum displays on Korea. My goal is to offer an overview and propose a typology, rather than just focus on a few sites as Tessa Morris-Suzuki does in “Remembering the Unfinished Conflict: Museums and the Contested Memory of the Korean War,” or as Suhi Choi does in Embattled Memories: Contested Meanings in Korean War Memorials.
The method of classifying Korean War museum displays I have adopted to assess these sites is adapted from the chapter ‘Toward a New Typology of Historical Exhibition in the United States,’ in Tammy Gordon’s book Private History in Public: Exhibition and the Settings of Everyday Life. Gordon posits a five-pronged typology that attempts to broaden the definition of what might be called exhibition by considering factors such as physical setting, purpose, and design. While I maintain three of Gordon’s categories outright (Academic, Corporate, and Community Exhibition) my assessment of Korean War exhibitions adapts two others. The equivalent to Gordon’s grouping of Entrepreneurial Exhibitions in my system are what I term ‘In-Reach Exhibition,’ with a primary mission of furthering the artisanal education of an In-Group, while the equivalent to Gordon’s grouping of Corporate Exhibitions in my system are what I call ‘Out-Reach Exhibition’ displays that use professional techniques to improve public relations.
The number of museum exhibitions focused on the Korean War has spiked over the last two decades. New facilities have been constructed to teach the public about specific parts of the conflict, while older institutions have updated their existing exhibitions in light of additional historical info and technological innovations. With the planned construction of multiple new museums that will include displays detailing various aspects of the Korean War, it seems likely that moving forward the public will tend to encounter even more exhibits about Korea. As this poster demonstrates, Korean War exhibits are most often located at national war museums or military academies (and are frequently found on or adjacent to active bases), but such exhibits can also be seen at presidential libraries, national park sites, and Smithsonian facilities.