Echoes of Experience: Encountering Children and Childhood in the Canadian History Hall

Abstract:How are children remembered in public memory? Within most history museums, children are superficially represented in well-worn, overly simplistic tropes overwritten by adult nostalgia, romanticism, and sentimentalism. Rarely are the details of their lives—not to mention their ideas or perspectives—engaged in a substantive and nuanced way. This representation is especially true for racialized children and those from other historically marginalized groups. Children are often presented as examples of a generic type ("ten-year-old boy"), and overwhelmingly as historical victims. But curating traces of children's material and immaterial culture can offer insight into young people's understandings of cultural, political, and social matters—unique and valuable perspectives that deserve closer attention. This article explores the dominant narratives used to represent children as historical actors in the recently revamped Canadian History Hall at the Canadian Museum of History. Focusing on the possibilities and challenges of presenting children's perspectives, experiences, and voices, we take the new Canadian History Hall as a case study, and analyze both the narrative form and content of the many representations of children and childhood found in its three galleries.