This post is from second-year Museology student, Ginger McCormick. Ginger explains about the online exhibit she created for a class she took that focused on archaeological looting and loss.
Let’s Wrap This Up: The World’s Fascination of Egypt & the effects it had on looting
For Archaeology 512: Looting & Loss, I created this digital exhibit to dive into the messy and often uncomfortable realities of looting and how museums have been part of that story. This class gave me a whole new perspective on these issues—from the ethical challenges to the systemic structures that have allowed cultural heritage to be taken from its communities. It’s made me think a lot about what museums should be doing now and in the future.
With this project, I wanted to do more than just explore the history of looting. I wanted to spark conversations about restitution, repatriation, and the evolving role of museums. The exhibit is designed to be accessible and educational for a broad audience. On top of that, I created teaching resources for elementary, middle, and high school students to help them dig into these topics in an age-appropriate way. Developing these resources was such a valuable experience for me—it gave me insight into how to make big ideas relatable and engaging for different age groups.
By including these teaching materials, I hope this project can be a real resource for educators. It’s important to help students understand why cultural heritage matters, what happens when it’s lost, and how museums can take responsibility for past and present actions. Creating these materials also pushed me to think about balancing being informative and thought-provoking while keeping things accessible.
Working on this project has been a journey of reflection and learning. It’s reinforced for me how crucial it is for museums to acknowledge their past and step up as spaces for advocacy and collaboration. Moving forward, I believe museums need to focus on working closely with source communities and making their voices central to the narrative.
I hope this exhibit and the teaching resources inspire educators and students to question, discuss, and rethink the legacy of looting. Together, we can start imagining a more just future for cultural heritage.
The link to view the exhibit is https://playlikeagrrrlvirtualexhibit.my.canva.site/looting-loss-exhibit
