There are many ways in how people can inquire about the history of a particular event. Among them, museum exhibitions are considered the most suitable here because they present both theoretical information and material things that support it. Thus, those people who are interested in Los Angeles history should visit the Natural History Museum that is the largest establishment of this kind in the West of the United States. It describes a long way that the city has overcome, starting from prehistoric times to the modern era. The museum is scattered across three floors, which means that it offers numerous exhibits and displays to its visitors. Specific attention is often paid to the exhibition called Becoming Los Angeles since it focuses on the role of people in the city’s history. It refers to the fact that various groups of people have contributed to the emergence and development of Los Angeles, and this exhibit shows how it all happened.
The 14,000-square-foot exhibition embraces five centuries of Los Angeles history. It is exciting and useful for various people since it describes how the city has developed, paying attention to its social, cultural, and ecological peculiarities. Becoming Los Angeles is a reasonable source of information because it includes official documents, ancient artifacts, and various tools that were peculiar to a particular epoch. As a result, the exhibit provides its visitors with a comprehensive insight into the history of the famous American city.
The exhibit begins by introducing the first people who inhabited the Tongva Basin, which is the area that is commonly known as Los Angeles. It refers to the American Indians who had lived there before European colonists arrived. In Becoming Los Angeles, this group of people is represented by primitive tools and weapons that were made of stone. These elements were arranged so as to honor Native Americans and their role in making that area inhabited. Those people dealt with hunting to procure food, which made them draw significant attention to their weapons, including arrowheads (Hernández, “An Eliminatory Option” PAGE NUMBER). In a while, the American Indians started dealing with agriculture, and it resulted in appropriate cultivating tools. They were also primitive, but those people used wood to create them. Thus, the given exhibit demonstrates stone arrowheads and wooden implements to show the main activities of the first people of the Tongva Basin.
Another significant period in Los Angeles history is represented by a usual kitchen table that is also a part of the exhibit. It can seem strange to include an ordinary piece of furniture in the museum display, but it is not ordinary at all. This table is connected with the Mexican American War, and namely, with its end. Hernández mentions that “the U.S. and Mexican governments signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, making Los Angeles, California, a U.S. town” (“An Eliminatory Option” PAGE NUMBER). The most exciting fact here is that this official document was signed on the top of the given table. This object was included in the display to remind visitors of such a significant page in the history of Los Angeles. It is worth noticing that decisions that are crucial for thousands of people involve ordinary things.
Furthermore, the exhibition shows its visitors that numerous people in Los Angeles had some problems with laws. It refers to the period between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. At that time, many white people constantly migrated, disregarded social norms, and did not work much. Consequently, such people were incarcerated and included in chain gangs, which resulted in the fact that the Los Angeles jail system was one of the largest in the United States (Hernández, “Hobos in Heaven” 45). Even though these events are considered harmful, it is not reasonable to conceal them because nations should learn from their ancestors’ mistakes. As for Becoming Los Angeles, this exhibit points to that crime situation indirectly by displaying various weapons, newspaper articles, and gambling items. The justifiability of these showpieces in the exhibition is supported by numerous readings that prove that Los Angeles witnessed a high crime rate in those times.
Finally, it is impossible to neglect the topic of ranchos when considering the history of Los Angeles, especially by visiting the exhibit under consideration. It is proved that this particular kind of organizing and performing agricultural duties was famous for the Western United States. In those ecological and environmental conditions, people benefited significantly from farming and cattle breeding. Fertile soil and a large amount of sunshine were the main reasons for that state of affairs. This chapter of history is significant for Los Angeles because it contributed to the higher development of the city. As for the exhibition under consideration, many of its showpieces demonstrate the significance of ranchos for the region. On the one hand, it refers to numerous metal agricultural tools and kettle items. On the other hand, a taxidermied cow that is said to be the symbol of the ranchos era is a part of Becoming Los Angeles.
The presentation above confirms the information that has been learned from numerous readings. It is so because both the exhibition and the readings are based on official documents and proved historical facts. Thus, there was nothing surprising in the fact that the exhibit depicted the American Indians as hunters or that there was a relatively high crime rate in Los Angeles in the early 20th century.
The given exhibition provides its visitors with a few valuable things to consider. On the one hand, it demonstrates that history is a simple thing. It refers to the fact that an ordinary table or stone arrowheads contain information that is significant for understanding past events. However, not every object can have such a meaning for the history of the whole city. On the other hand, the exhibit shows that it is not reasonable to be ashamed of adverse events. If something was a part of the city’s history, as a high number of incarcerated people, it is impossible to neglect it. People cannot change the past, but they can benefit from it by avoiding mistakes, and it is possible only when people know what was wrong. Thus, the exhibit teaches visitors who to avoid severe mistakes.
In addition to that, visiting the exhibit is useful and exciting for people of different ages, sexes, and nationalities, provided they are interested in U.S. history. Becoming Los Angeles includes a comprehensive set of items that allow visitors to become familiar with people who have inhabited that region. Those people were diverse, and they had different peculiarities, but their place of living unites them through years and centuries. The exhibit indicates that the American Indians, Mexicans, white criminals, and successful rancho workers have played their part in the history of Los Angeles that is now the capital of American cinema and TV industries. Thus, the most valuable thing that visitors learn from visiting Becoming Los Angeles is that it has taken a long path of both positive and negative phenomena for Los Angeles to become a developed city.
Works Cited
Hernández, Kelly L. “An Eliminatory Option.” City of Inmates: Conquest, Rebellion, and the Rise of Human Caging in Los Angeles, 1771-1965, edited by Peniel E. Joseph et al., The University of North Carolina Press, 2017, pp. PAGE NUMBER-PAGE NUMBER.
Hernández, Kelly L. “Hobos in Heaven.” City of Inmates: Conquest, Rebellion, and the Rise of Human Caging in Los Angeles, 1771-1965, edited by Peniel E. Joseph et al., The University of North Carolina Press, 2017, pp. 45-94.