The Herbst Palace Museum, a branch of Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, and Museum Rotes Haus in Monschau are both museums of interiors - historic house museums. Talking about a common heritage, we take into account cultural, historical and anthropological values. In this context, the fact that both institutions are located in landmarked buildings, owned once by families that significantly contributed to the development and industrialisation of both cities, is of paramount importance. What distinguishes historic house museums, what determines their identity? In a historic house museum - museum of interiors, the narrative begins usually from its inhabitants and their stories. Other threads include the history of a given city and country or the family history integrated into political, economic and social events, etc. A tale about people who used to live in the house provides a starting point for getting to know the realities of everyday life in a given era, but also for instance for analysing social history. Such a multi-path imaging, the contradiction - the great history on one hand, a tale about daily home life realities on the other - determine the identity and uniqueness of this type of museum - a historic house museum.
Historic house museums in Łódź and Monschau share common roots: the family histories of the Scheiblers and the Herbsts, representatives of a wealthy social group - the bourgeoisie, which exerted a significant impact on the history, economic growth and transformation of cities.
Nowadays, both institutions are bound by a common mission focused on the efforts to preserve and make available heritage that is important not only for the local community. The Herbst Palace Museum and Museum Rotes Haus serve society by conducting historical research, sharing knowledge and educating. A visit to a historic house museum stimulates imagination, giving an impression of being transferred in time, and facilitates absorbing knowledge on a given era and exploring various topics connected for instance with art, artistic craftsmanship or even garden art.
The aim of the study visit of the professional staff of Herbst Palace Museum (a branch of Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź) at Foundation Scheibler Museum Rotes Haus in Monschau was the discourse in the area of cultural and historical heritage, as well as exchange of experiences in presenting social history and conducting research on the history of the culture of everyday life of middle and upper classes. Participants of this exchange of experiences were not only the staff of both museums, but also historians studying the family histories. An important part of the project was a film promoting the historic house museum – The Herbst Palace Museum, a branch of Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź. Our intention was to encourage the audience, including visually impaired people (the film is available also with an audio description), to learn about the history of the multicultural community of Łódź seen through the prism of the family history of one of factory owners. The film was made in three language versions: Polish, German and English, to enable the information to reach also foreign tourists. Numerous meetings at Museum Rotes House provided an opportunity to talk about the specific activities of the museum in Łódź as regards conducting research on the family histories of factory owners and to present results of long-term archival research carried out by the staff of The Herbst Palace Museum. This included presentation of the book The Herbsts. The History of the Factory Owners (published in December 2019 by Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź and Sopot Museum), the family’s first biography that allowed to fill a gap in the current state of knowledge.
Additionally, the results of research on Herbst genealogy were presented, based on which the following exhibitions at the Herbst Palace Museum, a branch of Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź had been prepared: The Herbsts. Unfinished Stories and Dream House.The Dream House exhibition was an experiment of sorts, an attempt to talk about history in an innovative way, a test of new methods of reaching the contemporary audience. The exposition was integrated into the permanent exhibition in the palace interiors and accompanied by a commentary in the form of an audio drama recorded at the Polish Radio Theatre, featuring famous Polish actors.
Issues related to exposition availability were presented also in the context of facilitating contact with art for people with visual impairment.
In the years 2011-2013, renovation and modernisation works were carried out at the Herbst Palace Museum, a branch of Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, during which the innovative Whispers system, developed by Museum employees, was installed in the historic interiors to enable visually impaired people to move about (navigate) on their own, both inside the palace and in the garden surrounding it. The interiors and paintings forming part of the collection were described by Museum employees using audio description. For the development and implementation of this system the Museum was honored with the Sybilla award - 34th Competition for the Sybilla Museum Event of the Year 2013.
The Whispers system provides the basis for educational activities aimed at activating people with visual impairment. The classes, a part of the Museum’s permanent offer, are dedicated to both adults and children. In addition, the Herbst Palace Museum organises training courses and seminars on audio description preparation and work with disabled visitors.
The study visit to Museum Rotes Haus provided an opportunity to share experiences as regards ways of making the exhibition available and narrating in this specific type of museum - a historic house museum. Furthermore, the meeting with German colleagues opened up new areas for continuing cooperation between the two institutions.
Dorota Berbelska
Magdalena Michalska-Szałacka
