The 'rough and tumble': displaying complexity in the motor museum

The motor museum is traditionally a place to present motor vehicles as objects of art, speed and prestige to be admired and cherished by enthusiasts. At the same time, some museums have tried to present motor vehicles within a social history context, largely in order to attract a wider visitor base. Even so, transport museums and motor museums more specifically have considerable difficulty in displaying the more complex story of motoring, which takes in the full range of human interaction with the motor vehicle. This includes the tragedy of road trauma. This paper examines displays in some of the biggest and best-known museums in Britain and Europe and asks whether it is possible to offer visitors a more complex motoring story using the material culture of motoring.