Materializing humanity: memorial collecting after Pulse

ABSTRACT

On 12 June 2016, Orlando’s Pulse nightclub became the site of the largest single-shooter massacre in US history: 49 clubgoers lost their lives while celebrating Latin Night at a club popular with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community of Central Florida. In the days that followed the curators and collections staff of the Orange County Regional History Center found themselves affected both as community members and as museum professionals. This brief account addresses the complexities of facing a mass tragedy in real time at the human and museological level, describes the process of moving onto an active footing in the collection and preservation of memorial sites, and offers insight into what, unfortunately, has only become a more common challenge in both our communities and in our professional field.

KEYWORDS:

• Memorials
• trauma
• museum collecting
• collective memory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Adam M. Ware is the historian for the Historical Society of Central Florida’s Joseph L. Brechner Research Center, and oversees the research mission of the Orange County Regional History Center in downtown Orlando, Florida. He holds a PhD in American Religious History and Museum Studies from Florida State University.