General Electric Co. wants its new Boston headquarters to be a showcase of the innovative technologies it plans to bring to industrial machinery. But the campus being planned for the Fort Point neighborhood will also include a paean to GE’s storied past as inventor of some of the great machinery and innovations of the modern age.  The complex will include a gallery or museum of sorts on the lower floors of its planned 12-story building that will mix new discoveries with historical displays of iconic past products.  “I don’t even necessarily like the word museum,” said Peter Cavanaugh, a GE executive who is leading the planning. “We think in this experience that we’ll have a measure of past, a measure of present, and a measure of future.”  For example, the space will likely include a table with a computer screen on its surface, showing visitors how data is collected, displayed, and analyzed using Internet-connected machinery. GE is betting big on “digital industrial” products that allow machines to communicate with one another. At the same time, the gallery will probably feature homages to the multinational conglomerate’s 124-year history, which traces back to Thomas Edison.  “Where we use artifacts, it will be artifacts with a story,” Cavanaugh said. “Every generation has its own game-changing products.”  Its many inventions and innovations range from lighting to locomotives and jet engines, power generators and X-ray tubes, plastics, and consumers appliances from electric fans to refrigerators.  The company’s former headquarters in suburban Fairfield, Conn., did not have public displays, but Cavanaugh said GE does have “innovation centers” at other locations around the world that showcase its work.  GE relocated from Fairfield, Conn., in August, setting up shop in temporary headquarters in Fort Point, while it draws out plans for a $200 million campus that includes two renovated brick buildings and the new 12-story structure.  Because the property is located along the waterfront, GE is required to provide public access to much of its ground-level space. Other public amenities will include a harborwalk, a cafe, a bistro, and a STEM education center for students. Cavanaugh said the company would probably plan a museum regardless of its public access requirement.  GE’s museum would hardly be novel. Coca-Cola, Harley-Davidson, Intel, and Wells Fargo have them. And in Boston, New Balance has a “visitor engagement center” featuring its history at its headquarters, while Massachusetts General Hospital features a medical museum.  Keri Koehler, a former archivist for Wells Fargo said corporate museums differ from many traditional museums because “everything is about the brand.”  “It fulfills a marketing or branding initiative,” she said. “But I also think there are corporations that have been around for a long time and they’re proud of their heritage.”  Koehler said “real museum” professionals sometimes disparage the corporate exhibits as marketing tools. But she defended the corporate versions, arguing that preserving major companies’ pasts helps tell the story of “the making of America.”  Cavanaugh said GE “wouldn’t shy away from” less glamorous moments in corporate history, though those elements would likely be couched to tell a broader story.  For example, the museum could include failed products as an example of how innovation does not guarantee market success. He also said it would be “in-bounds” to reference the company’s own history of corporate pollution as part of a broader message about GE’s environmental goals and green technology. He stressed that the company is not yet sure what the museum will specifically feature.
GE officials envision a museum space that will both showcase the company’s history and display the kind of technology it expects to drive its future.