Call 'Em Like Museum with Eric Johnson

Signs, menus, chopstick wrappers: Most of us see graphic design thousands of times a day without giving it a second thought. But behind every everyday object, someone somewhere was making careful, intentional design choices.

“There’s a human designing the letters that go on that chopstick sleeve,” says Stephen Coles, associate curator and editorial director at Letterform Archive in San Francisco. Even so, he notes, graphic design “has not really been a collecting area of major art museums until fairly recently.”
Letterform Archive began as founder Rob Saunders’s personal collection of calligraphy, rare books, and design. It opened in 2015 in his home, where he swapped out the living room furniture for big tables so friends could gather around the objects. Five years ago, the collection moved to the American Industrial Center in San Francisco's Dogpatch neighborhood, and today it holds about 100,000 objects. 
Unlike most special collections libraries, Letterform invites visitors to handle the material (with clean hands, no gloves) and to ask for anything when they come in for a research visit. Even, say, “stuff that’s yellow.”
Today on Call ’Em Like Museum, Stephen talks about why the art world has long looked down on typefaces; why AI generates those notoriously ugly restaurant menus; how cheap sheets of rub-down lettering helped the Black Panther Party get its message out; and the Archive’s efforts to go beyond Eurocentric design history, including new fonts for the Filipino script Baybayin. Plus: Why a typeface is a lot like a chair.
Full transcript of this episode
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This episode was hosted, produced, and edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod
Chapters

(00:00) - Introduction

(02:37) - Stephen’s First Museum Memories

(04:59) - The Origins of Letterform Archive

(06:52) - Why Museums Overlook Graphic Design

(11:55) - Classes, Workshops, and Research Visits

(19:16) - Why You Shouldn’t Wear Gloves

(23:20) - AI and Ugly Restaurant Menus

(29:23) - Show and Tell: Soda Labels and Rub-Down Lettering

(33:56) - Books, the Online Archive, and Global Scripts

(39:00) - Oohs, Ahs, and Susan Kare

(40:41) - Do We Really Need More Fonts?

(42:57) - Berlin’s Museum of Things

Music: www.purple-planet.com

Images:
Letterform Archive's Online Archive
The ChatGPT Flyer Pandemic
Epcot
Fake Japan
Behind the Seeds
Rob Saunders
The Newberry Library
AI Taking Over Food Menus
Museum der Dinge
Dishes
Lumio Book Lamp
Videos:
Baybayin
Susan Kare at Letterform Archive

Inside the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, it is easy to get lost. The 160-room mansion's notorious maze-like design features doors and stairs that seemingly go nowhere, cabinets that are actually windows, and windows that receive no sunlight.
Since becoming a tourist attraction in 1923, the estate's labyrinthine layout has earned it an eerie reputation, drawing visitors eager to learn about the ghosts that may have haunted its owner, Sarah Winchester. But even if you are not interested in ghost stories, you will still get a lot out of your visit.
Executive Director Walter Magnuson notes that many first-time guests arrive expecting a dilapidated roadside attraction, but are instead met with architectural beauty and exquisite craftsmanship. However, he makes no apologies for also telling visitors about the legends and lore.
"Who am I to say my interests are more highbrow and acceptable than someone who is truly fascinated by the paranormal?" he asks.
Today on Call 'Em Like Museum, Walter talks about the line between legend and history, why he feels unfairly slighted by others in the museum world, and everything the house does differently around Halloween. Plus: Why the scariest part of your tour may actually be the sound of an earthquake.

Full transcript of this episode
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This episode was hosted, produced, and edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod
Chapters

(00:00) - Introduction: The Winchester Mystery House in San Jose

(02:25) - Walter Magnuson's First Museums

(07:12) - Separating Fact from Legend at a Haunted Historic House

(12:07) - Who Was Sarah Winchester? Her Story, Reframed

(14:29) - Sarah Winchester's Philanthropy, Workers, and Artifacts

(20:47) - How the Winchester Mystery House Tour Is Structured

(22:10) - Recreating the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake

(25:03) - Halloween at the Winchester Mystery House

(28:16) - In Defense of Paranormal and Ghost-Hunting Fans

(33:47) - Why Getting Lost in the House Is Part of Staff Training

(35:08) - Visitor Reactions and Why House Museums Are Like David Bowie's Music

(38:29) - Walter's Favorite Small Details in the Mansion

(42:14) - Museum Inspiration and Future Goals

Music: www.purple-planet.com

Images:
The Met
American Museum of Natural History
Unsolved Mysteries Host Robert Stack
William Wirt Winchester Hospital/Winchester Center for Lung Disease
Bodie, CA
Alcatraz
Graceland Living Room
Graceland Pool Table
Meow Wolf

"I consider ghost stories the clickbait of history," says Laura Fies, Executive Director of the USS Hornet Museum. While supernatural tales are a fun thrill for visitors, they also serve as a powerful accessory to historical education.
 
"We will teach them history... We'll inject it somehow and they'll walk away knowing something more," Laura explains. "And if we have to wrap it into a ghost story, so be it."
As a premier destination for history buffs, tourists, and paranormal investigators alike, the USS Hornet offers something for everybody: Spooky supernatural tours, massive military aircraft, carefully preserved World War II uniforms, and fascinating wartime artifacts—including the crew's original recipe for baking 7,000 donuts at sea.
Today on Call 'Em Like Museum, Laura discusses the unique challenges of running a “midsize museum in a big museum body.” She explains how the Hornet’s exhibits successfully put visitors into the mindset of ordinary enlisted men during World War II, and highlights the crucial role the legendary ship played in recovering astronauts during the Apollo 11 and 12 space missions.
Full transcript of this episode
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This episode was hosted, produced, and edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod
Chapters

(00:00) - Introduction

(04:49) - Boarding the USS Hornet Museum

(08:55) - The Apollo 11 mobile quarantine facility

(11:00) - Daily life for a WWII sailor

(15:10) - Why the USS Hornet is considered haunted

(24:16) - Maintaining an 894-foot aircraft carrier

(34:39) - Operating the museum without federal funding

(41:11) - Baking 7,000 donuts during battle stations

(44:38) - Stealing ideas from other museums

Music: www.purple-planet.com

Images:
Museum of Ice Cream
Exploratorium
Charles Schulz Museum
NASA Snoopy Poster

If you learned about ancient Egypt in school, you likely heard a lot about pharaohs, tombs, and elaborate death rituals. A new exhibition at the de Young Museum juxtaposes this familiar royal history with the lives and afterlives of ordinary citizens. Here, you'll find golden jewelry and shining sarcophagi, but also everyday objects you have likely never seen before: a baby's rattle, a stone headrest, and a jar for cured meat.
"We are learning so much more about how people lived who were not royalty," says Renée Dreyfus, the curator in charge of ancient art at Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Renée oversaw the American debut of "Treasures of the Pharaohs," which expands our understanding of ancient Egyptian culture, fueled by archaeologist Zahi Hawass's recent excavation of the Golden City near Luxor.
Today on Call 'Em Like Museum, we talk about how ordinary people lived, worked, and prepared for an afterlife in ancient Egypt; Renée's collaborative work with global institutions like the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the Luxor Museum; and what she has learned during her remarkable 50 years working at FAMSF. Plus: Why the most interesting object in the whole exhibition might just be a wooden chair.

Full transcript of this episode
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This episode was hosted, produced, and edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod
Chapters

(00:00) - Introduction

(04:07) - What museums means to Renée

(07:02) - Misconceptions about Ancient Egypt

(13:37) - The Golden City & regular people

(22:55) - Renée's favorite object in the exhibition

(31:46) - Curating King Tut 30 years apart

(37:34) - The Etruscans exhibit

(40:29) - What to buy in a museum gift shop

Music: www.purple-planet.com

Images:
Several images courtesy Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
The de Young Museum
The Legion of Honor
Vincent Price
Brooklyn Museum
The Golden City of Aten
Amenhotep III
Zahi Hawass
Sitamun

Videos:
Video from Treasures of the Pharaohs, courtesy of Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Good museums are centers of art, culture, and education. But the richest and most famous museums are clustered in North America and Europe, and that matters more than you might realize.
Sociologist and Wellesley College professor Peggy Levitt describes herself as a decenterer for just that reason. In her books "Artifacts and Allegiances" and "Move Over Mona Lisa," she has explored how art has been shaped by colonialism, globalization and inequality.
In "Move Over Mona Lisa," Peggy asks what it might take to decenter this world. Historically, she explains, many well-intentioned museums have diversified their collection by invited artists from the Global South to relocate to Paris, London, or New York. But the center has not moved.
"There are people that are looking for a harder reform," Peggy says. "So they are happy to take less critical acclaim, less financial acclaim, if they can create their own institutions, their own networks of circulation, their own nodes of activity that don't rely on North America or Europe for permission or facilitation."
Today on Call 'Em Like Museum, we talk about how museums can represent the whole world more fairly; whether artists in the Global South should entirely opt out of the existing systems; and the importance of "having a spine" when your museum comes under scrutiny from donors & politicians.
Full transcript of this episode
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This episode was hosted, produced, and edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod
Chapters

(00:00) - Introduction

(04:11) - Museums and Nation Building

(13:53) - Culture Wars at the Smithsonian

(15:32) - How to Read Power in Museum Spaces

(21:11) - Globalization, Colonialism, and Immigration

(25:53) - Who Drives Change in Museums?

(30:37) - Move Over, Mona Lisa: Decentering Art

(36:49) - Opting Out of Traditional Centers of Power

(40:41) - Standing Up to Museum Donors

(42:38) - Gift Shops and Favorite Museums

Music: www.purple-planet.com
Peggy's Books:
Artifacts and Allegiances: How Museums Put the Nation and the World on Display
Move Over, Mona Lisa: Reimagining What We Read, Look At, and Learn
Images:
Met Christmas Tree
Danish Vikings
Museum of Islamic Art
National Museum of Singapore
Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Musée nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration