Museum Exhibit Design and Interpretive Planning | EDX - Work - Projects

Exploring the characters and commerce that shaped a Mississippi town.

Traditionally known for its grand antebellum mansions, Natchez, Mississippi, has other stories to tell. In our work for Natchez, EDX helped to illuminate the long history of the diverse groups and individuals who shaped this town. Working with Natchez National Historical Park, EDX designed exhibits for the William Johnson House, which focused on the life and journals of a free person of color living in pre-civil war Natchez. EDX also redesigned exhibits at the City of Natchez Visitor Center, a facility shared between the National Park Service and the City of Natchez. These exhibits inspire visitors to explore the city’s historic pre-civil war mansions, African American history, and the well-trodden pathways of trade along the Natchez Trace Parkway.

The design process for both projects included public workshops and input from all facets of the community. Exhibits did not shy away from controversial elements, instead using them to pull visitors into the dramatic story of a world in transition.

Links:
Article in the Natchez Democrat about the new exhibits.
William Johnson’s diaries are one of the few first-person accounts of a life between worlds—not enslaved, but not fully free. His writings are inscribed on a wall of glass that symbolizes Johnson’s ability to see but not fully engage in a pre-civil war society.

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Poster-like “chapter heads” provide overviews of key chapters in William Johnson’s life. By leaning the posters on floor-mounted rails, we avoided the need for attachments to the building’s historic walls.

Layers of sliding graphic panels and artifacts allow visitors to go deeper into the history, much as a historian would.

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The White steamboat pilot house is one of the signature elements of the Natchez Visitor Center.

Touchable cotton bales, baskets, rails, and other items tell how cotton ruled the Natchez economy, causing cycles of boom and bust.

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Visitors can explore the long history of Natchez in this wall-sized timeline, listening to oral histories and gazing on artifacts along the way.

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This board game recreates life in the 1800s on the rough-and-tumble Natchez Trace, challenging players to sell their goods in Natchez, then make it safely back home to the north.

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