Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center

Special Features of the Permanent Exhibits

The permanent exhibits at the new Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, which opened on August 11, 1998, in Mashantucket, Connecticut, utilize the latest in exhibit design and technology. The dioramas and exhibits integrate sophisticated computer interactives, films and videos, sound sculpture, life-like figures, aroma technology and an infrared communications system.

Highlights of these special features include the following:

Computer Interactives, Nicholson, N.Y.
Nicholson NY developed six computer programs, accessible at 21 stations, for the permanent exhibits. Designed as learning tools for visitors of all ages and computer abilities, the interactives go beyond simple touchscreen technology. They utilize photorealistic renderings, 3-D graphics, hand-painted cell animation and digital video to recreate an archaeological site, glacial movement, and an ancient caribou hunt. The programs, which also are available in the research library for extended viewing, helps to teach visitors about woodland plants and animals, and methods of archaeology, to name a few. To learn more about the individual interactive programs and to experience online samples, click here.

Figures, Studio EIS, Brooklyn, N.Y.
The team at Studio EIS has produced 111 life-size, naturalistic figures that appear throughout the museum depicting Native Americans from 11,000 years ago through the late 1800s.

Tribal members and other Native Americans throughout the U.S. were invited to participate as models for the figures, and a team of model makers traveled to various reservations across the country to make the casts. The casts were sculpted, sanded and hand-tooled by artisans, then painted by a team of 20 painters. Finishing touches included authentic tattoos, applied by a tattoo artist, wigs by a wig master from the Metropolitan Opera, and hand-made clothing by Native American artisans and a team of costumers.

Studio EIS has been creating life-size figures for use in public, private and corporate institutions since 1976.

Sound, Wild Sanctuary, Glen Ellen, Calif.
Wild Sanctuary created unique sound installations for several galleries in the permanent exhibit. Wild Sanctuary has designed a new museum art form called "sound sculpture" for the 16th-century Pequot village, which utilizes 110 speakers, with hundreds of diverse sound components all controlled by one central system. These include the natural ambient sounds of forests, streams, estuaries and those of numerous birds, mammals, insects and reptiles, as well as wind and distant shore sounds. Each element is under a separate control, and the places and points of view of the sounds constantly change. Continually mixed and remixed with the natural sounds are the activities in the village, such as buildings being constructed, cooking, preparing skins, children playing, canoeing, and voices in a sweat lodge and other dwellings. Sounds were also sculpted for the Glacial Crevasse, using a combination of recordings made in Alaska at the Hubbard Glacier near Yakutat and at a glacier in the Antarctic.

Wild Sanctuary, a sound and media design company, created a technology to address existing problems in sound designs for public spaces by loading many levels of program material related to a single theme onto a hard drive and then directing the software to mix these associated sound fragments. Wild Sanctuary’s work also can be found at the Cleveland Zoo Rainforest, the Washington State Historical Museum (Tacoma), the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and the American Museum of Natural History.

Smells, Aroma Tech, Summerville, N.J.
Aroma Tec, a fragrance manufacturer, has created two smells to enhance the sensory perception of being in a 16th-century Pequot village. These smells, dispersed by blowing air past bead-sized pellets, are those of a campfire and the woods.

Films and Videos, Hillmann & Carr Incorporated, Washington, D.C.
Hillmann & Carr created film and video productions that are installed in 10 locations within the Mashantucket Museum and Research Center, some of them with multiple segments.

In order to trace the history of northeastern Native Americans from earliest archaeological evidence to the present, Hillmann & Carr used a broad range of creative styles to present different aspects of history. Their films and videos include dramatic vignettes portraying opposing Indian and European points of view; a documentary on the history of wampum; rich images of Native storytellers, speaking in their own languages; and intimate portraits of contemporary artisans making traditional crafts.

Following are descriptions of some of the films:

Arrival of the People contains four segments conveying the central elements of the creation stories of four tribes. The stories feature live-action production, including the filming of a storyteller from each of the tribes. Other films discuss the natural environment, including flora and fauna.

The Tool Theater features five segments on pre historic tools from Northeastern North America, their uses, and how they were made. The programs include knapping flint, weaving baskets, making bone or antler tools, and working with copper.

Prelude to War uses dramatic vignettes to present different positions and views on the events surrounding the massacre of the Pequot Tribe on May 26, 1637. Actors portray Dutch, English and Pequot characters.

History of Wampum chronicles the use of wampum (tubular, well-finished shell beads) in Native cultures, with an emphasis on the shift in its role from the pre-European to post-European contact periods. The film, which corrects the impression of wampum as "Indian money," traces its ceremonial use, its role in trade, and how the use of wampum changed as trade with Europeans began and escalated.

Making Clothes, Making Food, Making a Dugout Canoe, Making a Wigwam, Making Wampum, Making Baskets features contemporary Native American craftspeople in the New England region. Each craftsperson explains the process of gathering materials and the craft process. The finished work is showcased in the exhibit area, with the video projection’s light cues focusing attention on display items.

Our Remembered Sisters is a five-minute film describing the lives of three 19th-century Mashantucket Pequot women on the reservation.

Bringing the People Home incorporates archival photos, film and newspaper clippings, and features informal interviews with those Natives and non-Natives involved in the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation’s drive for recognition. It also chronicles the landmark application of the Indian Trade and Intercourse Acts (1790-1834), which ultimately prohibited states and private citizens from purchasing Indian land without federal approval. Hillmann & Carr produces films, videotapes and audiovisual programs for use in special settings, including museums, visitor centers and expositions.

Infrared Communications, Talking Signs®, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Digital Audio Tours, Acoustiguide’s INFORM, New York, New York
The museum is utilizing Talking Signs® technology, a remote directional human voice way-finding system, and Acoustiguide’s INFORM, a computerized, user-friendly audio interpretation system.

Talking Signs®, an infrared wireless communication system, makes navigation and orientation possible throughout the Museum and Research Center for visually impaired and print-handicapped individuals. The system consists of short audio signals sent by invisible infrared light beams from permanently installed transmitters to a hand-held receiver. The receiver then decodes the signal and delivers the voice message through its speaker or headset. There are approximately 360 sites within the facility utilizing this technology.

Visually impaired and print-handicapped individuals benefit from the supplemental audio interpretation of Acoustiguide’s INFORM system, a Digital Random Access Memory chip technology, available at more than 100 exhibit sites. After encountering a gallery or area of interest and hearing its identification through Talking Signs technology, visitors can access information on it instantly simply by entering an identifying number on the keypad of the hand-held receiver. More than eight hours of interpretation is available. The computerized, user-friendly guide system allows visitors to design their own personalized tours.

All visitors are given an Acoustiguide INFORM receiver upon entering the 16th-century Pequot Village, a 22,000-square-foot "immersion environment" diorama. Simply by entering a number displayed on medallions found throughout the village, visitors can access audio interpretation.

Talking Signs® is a privately held company formed in 1993 and developed by Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute of San Francisco. Talking Signs® installations are located in major public facilities in New York, San Francisco, Austin, Tex., Newton, Mass., Venice, Italy, and Yokohama, Japan.

Acoustiguide has been providing audio tours since 1957. INFORM is the first system designed specifically for museums and historic sites using Digital Random Access Memory chip technology.