While structural rehabilitation of the room proceeded, the Museum Branch began production. A special study by a Columbia University historian established the narrative basis for the exhibits. The plan that resulted called for three sizable painted illustrations to present information regarded as essential background: Zenger's arrival in New York as an immigrant boy, Governor William Cosby's autocratic attitude, and the local election that crystallized resistance. Four dioramas would highlight Zenger's role in the controversy and form the nucleus of the display. A few cases would show original issues of Zenger's newspaper, 18th-century tools of the printer's trade, and items concerning Andrew Hamilton, the prototypical Philadelphia lawyer who defended Zenger. Two verbal panels, one recognizing the jurors and the other the significance of their verdict, would provide a fitting conclusion.

Every aspect of the Zenger exhibits would tax laboratory skills, but the dioramas demanded the most time and effort. One showed Zenger at his press. Colonial Williamsburg's reconstructed print shop fortunately offered a convenient source of data. Burns, who determined to sculpture the figure of Zenger, discovered that the costumed demonstrator who operated the Williamsburg press resembled Zenger in age and ethnic background and used him as a model. Burns went on to sculpture the figure of Andrew Hamilton in the intricate diorama of the trial, a group requiring the laboratory curators to search out details of British courtroom procedure as practiced in the colonies. Problems of modeling in perspective loomed large for the diorama depicting Zenger's newspaper being burned by court order in front of City Hall. Both the building with its brick walls and the cobbled street had to recede convincingly into the background from wherever the viewer stood.

When the Zenger Memorial Room opened in April 1953, Burns could feel relief as well as satisfaction. The sponsors evidently were well pleased with their investment of nearly $50,000. As far as the Museum Branch could tell, the exhibits achieved their intended purpose. The interest and pleasure that visitors appeared to show suggested they were obtaining a heightened appreciation of one of their basic rights. The fact that a critic could later describe these and other exhibits at Federal Hall National Memorial as "without merit" pointed up a continuing problem of exhibit evaluation, to be considered subsequently.

The Zenger exhibits reflected a lifetime of skill and knowledge applied by one of the country's most respected museum workers. In a sense this assignment required Burns to carry to the extreme the sage observation of Hermon Bumpus that park museums should invert customary museum practice without upsetting it. The Zenger Memorial fittingly capped his career. Neither he nor his colleagues realized the extent to which his health faltered as the work progressed. Within five months of its completion he was bedridden; he died on October 12 at the age of 53.

During nearly two decades Burns made an immeasurable contribution to the park museum program. While the account so far has dealt mostly with his leadership in the development of exhibits, he defined professional policies and standards that guided all other aspects of park museums. His vigorous support strengthened interpretive efforts throughout the Park Service. His influence continued for at least as long as those who had worked with him remained on the job.

The four projects that dominated Museum Branch activity in 1950-53 did not encompass all the branch did. In 1953, for example, Federal Hall was among 15 parks for which the laboratory produced exhibits. When the Park Service took over from the city of Philadelphia preservation and management of Independence Hall and associated structures in January 1951, it became responsible for the city-owned historical collections in these buildings. They comprised a large number of objects ranging widely in significance but including such national treasures as the Liberty Bell, the inkwell used by the signers of the Declaration of Independence, the "rising sun" chair from which Washington presided over the Constitutional Convention, and the historic portraits of the founding fathers.

Burns appreciated the necessity of establishing close curatorial supervision over the recording and care of these artifacts as well as their use in exhibits. The city would expect strict accountability, and the importance of many of the objects imposed an even greater obligation. Burns accordingly arranged the transfer of James Mulcahy from the laboratory staff to Independence National Historical Park as curator. He could count on Mulcahy to maintain faithful and intelligent watch over not only the safekeeping and care of the collections but also their exhibition during a critical period of the park's development.

Before leaving for the Philadelphia assignment Mulcahy completed an unusual project. Director Demaray asked the Museum Branch to develop a display that might help solve a growing problem of littering in the parks. Mulcahy devised a trailside viewing box through which visitors might look at a scenic park feature. Ostensibly the contrivance would help a visitor focus attention on the inspiring view. Within the box, however, a representative assortment of litter provided a discordant foreground. Presumably this mild shock would induce the viewer to refrain from littering. Rangers at Shenandoah National Park observed visitors as they used a prototype. It did not work as intended: users debated whether or not the glass ends magnified the distant feature while scarcely noticing the interposed junk.