Nostalgia and Celebration

This article explores museological interpretations of outdoor industry history in the United States by assessing the state of retail, corporate, and amateur exhibits and history displays. Both independent and chain retail shops focused on mountaineering, camping, and hunting and fishing across the US maintain historical displays. In corporate headquarters, polished exhibits welcome clients to those facilities, often highlighting important inventions or prominent athletes who wore the brands’ products. Since the 1990s, amateur collecting and interpretation online has thrived. Together, this set of collections and interpretations of the public history of outdoor sport matter because they represent the nascent work of preserving, documenting, and interpreting an industry that contributes both to the US economy and American culture.