The Associate Press discusses how Civil War museums are struggling to modernise their collections under tremendous budgetary strain.
“One of the interesting things is that the [Ken Burns] series did in the North was it really provided a sense of ownership of the Civil War, which had been since 1865 the province of the South,” Burns said. “We ceded the interest generally to the South, which is unusual, because it’s usually the winners who write the history, not the losers.”
But he notes museums that may have once been shrines to one side or another are adapting new kinds of displays exploring the war from new angles.
“I think a lot of that is changing and getting more centered on the war and not a distorted idea of it,” Burns said. “Basically museums have started to interpret a more holistic look of the war.”
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-01-08/civil-war-museums/52456006/1