Interpreting Railways' Impact

Interpretation (an explanation as a way of teaching) is more effective when it is applied in a planned and thematic way. The Northwest Railway Museum’s Interpretive Plan establishes guidelines for sharing interpretive themes used in messaging and communication with visitors. It shapes the major themes that will bring visitors to our doors again and again over the years. It outlines the facilities needed to support the Museum’s collections and best enable the staff to effectively operate the Museum in a sustainable and efficient manner. It imagines a dynamic institution at the heart of the community—one in which the Northwest Railway Museum shares the stories of people and railways that engage both area residents and visitors from afar. The Plan codifies the Museum’s adherence to professional standards, best practices, and codes of ethics as defined by the American Association of Museums and American Association for State and Local History. In this way, activities and other forms of implementation arise from a clear direction and documented list of tasks or actions, all based on sound reasoning.

The Northwest Railway Museum began development of the Railway History Campus in 2006, and continues its growth. Staff developed interpretive themes for the focus of exhibits. Beginning with the original interpretive themes identified in the 2010-2012 Train Shed Exhibit Hall exhibit planning, staff began expanding original interpretive themes to create a cohesive plan for interpretation across the Museum’s sites. Exhibit topics were selected based on workshop participation by the Executive Director, Deputy Director, and Exhibits Committee during that period. This featured a multi-phase exhibit plan for the Train Shed Exhibit Hall which included an exhibit sharing how the development of the transcontinental railways fueled western expansion; an exhibit on how railways then impacted the Pacific Northwest; interpretive panels on each of the historic artifacts on display; and exhibits focusing on how the railway impacted diverse groups of people. It connected these themes to exhibits at the Snoqualmie Depot; creating an exhibit about the first railway into the Snoqualmie Valley, and connecting that exhibit to one on how the Snoqualmie Depot impacted Snoqualmie. Between 2010-2019 the Museum completed the first three phases and began working on the fourth phase with planned exhibits on Stewardess Nurses, Japanese-American Railway Workers, and Railway Workers of WWII (the Faces of the Railway exhibit). 

The Museum’s mission clearly describes two important themes: 1) the story of experiencing the excitement of a working railway; interpreting ways that visitors can be involved in the ongoing heritage and operations of trains.  And, 2) the story of how railroads influenced the development and settlement of Washington State and adjacent areas; interpreting how railways changed everything in the Pacific Northwest.

As the Museum has expanded exhibit offerings within the Train Shed Exhibit Hall, the plans for a fourth building, the Roundhouse Gallery, prompted the need to review and elaborate the Interpretive Plan just as the former plan neared completion and was due for review. This has coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic causing new social behavioral changes and social gathering size restrictions, which have necessitated new ways of envisioning traditional operating models.

Consequently, this spring the suspension of programming caused by the Covid-19 pandemic redirected efforts and allowed the Interpretive Plan and exhibits to be updated with additional content in the Train Shed Exhibit Hall.  Now, as visitors experience the Train Shed, they travel a directional route exploring how the arrival of the transcontinental railway changed settlement patterns, foodways, trade networks, leisure travel and industry. Additionally, they explore aspects of what people working for the railway have experienced with new exhibits on railway workers.  Additional exhibits will be arriving later this fall and winter expanding upon these stories with the installation of Asa Whitney’s Dream, an exhibit on railway car lighting, and an exhibit on the Japanese and Japanese-American logging railway workers of the Snoqualmie Falls Lumber Co. Tickets to visit the Train Shed Exhibit Hall are currently available at Shop.TrainMuseu
m.org.