The Material Culture of Road Safety: Road safety as museum display?

Abstract

The museum does not usually spring to mind as a site for road safety promotion but no other institution has so much involvement in collecting and displaying the material culture of motoring and interpreting its history for the general public. Safety is part of the motoring story and should be part of its public history. This paper considers the place of motoring within museum culture and looks at trends in some of the biggest and best-known museums in Europe, the United Kingdom and Australia to introduce the visiting public to the idea of road safety as part of motoring history.