Analysis of Family Visitors in Natural History Museums: The National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.

Museum professionals have become increasingly interested in the behavior of their visitors--why the come, what they do while in the museum, and what they take with them from the experience. Research is beginning to provide evidence for the common-sense notion that all vistiors are not alike (e.g., Diamond, 1979; Dierking et. al., in review; McManus, 1987). The two studies reported here represent attmeps to better understand the gross outlines of family behavior in natural history museums. The first is a follow-up to an earlier study suggesting that visitors' behavior is strongly influenced by how long they have been in the museum. The second concerns the interrelationship of the time they spend attending to exhibits with favors such as exhibit size, content, and location. Both studies took place in major natural history museums, the first in Washington, DC and the second in New Delhi.