388 | Museums and Representation of Animals History museums and historic houses seem to catalogue or freeze old attitudes, sometimes reinterpreting them, often ignoring their implications, especially those whose impact is felt by animals The historic homes of the early 20th century’s very rich, many of them robber barons, for whom exploitation of people, animals, and all natural resources was a way of life, a source of their wealth and motor of the nation’s growth, sport animal head trophies from tours of the great American West and African safaris Now many of these collect dust and act to mark their owners as belonging to a certain era, people who might well have caged or stuffed specimen humans had it not seemed somehow barbaric Still, their dusty attitudes toward people and animals pervade the air Safari trophy heads at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, raise the interesting question of the difference between the shoot and the photo shoot, something the contemporary photographer James Balog takes aim at squarely in his work While revisionism and political correctness have altered or appended the point of view of some history museums and historic homes, it is the rare historic house collection that comments with contemporary eyes on the morality of the day depicted Such asides, in addition to being considered bad form, destroy whatever theatrical leap of the imagination the fully appointed houseas-time-warp might create It is left to visitors to bring their own contemporary attitudes as they visit the past and to try to square the two Reconstructions, historic villages, farmsteads, and workplaces often stress domesticated animals and their care and feeding, as well as their uses in home, hearth, and community For contemporary visitors, often totally unaware of the processes that go into the making of things they use all the time, exposure to those processes can only increase awareness, and sometimes even change attitudes To watch shearing, carding, spinning, dying, weaving, and sewing is to understand clothing and, it is hoped, something about sheep, in a totally different light Since science centers and children’s museums, though hands-on in their learning presentation, are not petting zoos, the experiences and attitudes they present about animals are constructed around dramatic play, sensory input, and some didactic presentations, these last an especially difficult and underutilized mode within an interactive context They diverge largely because of their audiences For science museums, biology, evolution, the structures of categorization, animal behavior, defense of animal testing for human uses, extinction, and mutual dependence and cycles, are all valid and often approached areas With children’s museums, in an attempt to garner empathy for animals, the focus is often on animal babies, experiencing the world through the animal’s, mostly visual, senses, instructive help for young people and their pets, and initial steps at categorization Zoos, aquaria, and nature centers have the most insistent, if sometimes contradictory, stances toward the animal kingdom While zoos and aquaria collect animals, many of them are actively involved in attempts to save species, breed them in captivity, and return them to their habitat Zoos and aquaria often look to reproduce habitats so that humans can better understand the context from which