The need for more systematic and expeditious planning became evident, resulting in an allotment of $25,000 from the 1948 fiscal year Physical Improvements Program for use by regional offices. Region One employed Paul Hudson and Region Two selected Yosemite naturalist Harry B. Robinson as museum planning curators near the end of 1947.5 The rather chaotic planning situation for the four battlefield museums also brought the laboratory curators and artists into closer collaboration on exhibit design problems, a step toward later practice.

The Manassas museum, the first completed, opened on schedule May 28, 1949, after a typical last-minute installation scramble that saw Burns in the midnight hours cutting large sheets of plate glass unerringly on the museum floor. The exhibits exemplified the characteristics of park museums for the next several years. They retained their function as the primary medium introducing visitors to the park's significance. To underline this purpose a panel at the entrance to the exhibit area stated the prime meaning of Manassas as a historic site. The exhibits proceeded to develop this concept of significance by presenting facts and ideas in a logical sequence that visitors could follow as their time and interest dictated. In doing so the exhibits continued the prewar approach, but with important differences.

One change was the increased use of specimens. Artifacts provided specific visible evidence against which visitors could weigh the statements made. Other objects served as evocative symbols. Specimens associated with a particular person or incident added a sense of reality to certain parts of the narrative, such as an account of Captain James B. Ricketts, wounded and captured at First Manassas, who returned to exercise an important command in the second battle. One large case displayed a synoptic series of Civil War swords imaginatively installed. This provided a footnote to the main story and fostered the suggestion that Civil War parks specialize in different categories of pertinent artifacts to avoid duplication. Another important change involved the consistent use of graphics originally produced by eyewitnesses of the war in place of illustrations by laboratory artists. A contemporary photograph or field sketch was thought to embody an element of validity missing from the interpretation of an artist born long afterward.

The electric map at Manassas also represented a departure from prewar practice. The laboratory kept the mechanism as simple as possible and it required little maintenance during more than 15 years of hard use.6 Maintenance considerations affected the design and construction of the other exhibits as well. The Museum Branch believed that park museum exhibits should change about every five years to keep pace with developing knowledge and tastes, but experience taught that money to replace them might not come for several decades. The quality of craftsmanship that went into them precluded homemade repairs in most instances. So the exhibits were built to last.

Durability became especially important for open panels, which came into use for exhibit units that did not include specimens or that displayed individual objects within clear plastic protective boxes. Spray lacquers made the exposed panels washable and facilitated the application of background colors. The smoother, brighter finish also could be applied readily to the case backs and floors formerly covered with drab monk's cloth. The desire for more color in exhibits led to hiding the monk's cloth in several existing cases at Manassas under layers of paint. Lacquered panels also formed a good surface on which to letter labels. This new practice replaced the use of labels lettered on cards and then attached to the background, a distinct advantage from the design standpoint.