Some form of contextualization is needed for users to make
sense of what an object is and how it is useful or meaningful.
We do not refer here to the usual museum descriptions and
classifications. These do contextualize the objects, as does
any classification, but they are far too specialized to be of
much use, even to other specialists. The evident expectation
of images is telling here not simply for the user to visualize the
object, as is often assumed, but because images allow the user
to both contextualize the classifications and expert accounts
offered by the museum and provide a means to make the object
meaningful through their own expertise and understandings
of the physical world.