Decades after its successful run, the “Treasures of Tutankhamen” continues to define the museum blockbuster exhibit. The project carried major significance for Design and Production, which was responsible for installing the show at the National Gallery of Art, as well as subsequent installations at the New Orleans and Seattle Museums of Art. “King Tut” changed how the average person viewed a museum going experience.
“King Tut was the granddaddy of the blockbuster exhibition. There were blockbusters that preceded it, but this one was an international success.”
Catalog Cover, 1977
The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art fiercely competed to organize the show. The MET won. However, the National Gallery was consoled with the first hosting slot among the six venues selected. The National Gallery and its iconic director, J. Carter Brown, immediately engaged D&P, which was at that time the Gallery’s major exhibit fabricator and installer.
D&P Vice President Mike Smith characterized “Treasures of Tutankhamen” as the most awe inspiring exhibit ever produced by D&P. “This was the first museum exhibit I had any direct involvement with,“ he said. “I will never forget being alone in the galleries with those objects the night before the exhibit opened. The objects were almost magical in their elegance and the setting was magnificent.”
The exhibition proved to be the most popular special presentation in the Gallery’s history. More than 835,900 visitors saw King Tut during its Washington, DC run. It is reported there were days in which people began to line up eight hours before the Gallery’s opening time of 10 a.m., and several times the line completely encircled the building.
On the Road with Charles Karault immortalized the exhibit during this segment of CBS news magazine Sunday Morning.
King Tut’s 55 artifacts captured America’s imagination, sparking a romance with the Boy King that continues today. The innovative design recreated the excitement felt by archaeologists who discovered the tomb. The exhibit presented the artifacts in nearly the same order in which they were first found. Large-scale photomurals of the 1922 excavations and contemporary newspaper accounts added immersive, scenic elements. Future designers paid attention, and today specialty lighting, large-scale graphics, and scenic settings frequently add context and depth to museum exhibits.
“It is the ability to realize the combination of significant or beautiful artifacts in fine and exciting exhibit settings that makes the work was worthwhile,” observed Mike Smith afterwards. It is the knowledge that the exhibits have the capacity to change visitors emotionally, intellectually, and socially that reinforces the value of museums to society.
“It is opportunities like this, being able to be close to, in fact actually handle, materials of great age, beauty, or historic importance which has kept many of us in the exhibit business.”