diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/web/directives/dump/DescribeDirective.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/web/directives/dump/DescribeDirective.java
index 5851502b2..9b7ace9db 100644
--- a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/web/directives/dump/DescribeDirective.java
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/web/directives/dump/DescribeDirective.java
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@ import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.utils.StringUtils;
 import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.web.directives.BaseTemplateDirectiveModel;
 import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.web.templatemodels.BaseTemplateModel;
 import freemarker.core.Environment;
-import freemarker.template.Configuration;
 import freemarker.template.SimpleScalar;
 import freemarker.template.TemplateDirectiveBody;
 import freemarker.template.TemplateException;
@@ -31,7 +30,6 @@ public class DescribeDirective extends BaseTemplateDirectiveModel {
 
     private static final Log log = LogFactory.getLog(DescribeDirective.class);
     
-    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
     @Override
     public void execute(Environment env, Map params, TemplateModel[] loopVars,
             TemplateDirectiveBody body) throws TemplateException, IOException {
@@ -74,16 +72,17 @@ public class DescribeDirective extends BaseTemplateDirectiveModel {
                 varName + " is not a template model.");                 
         }
         
-        List<Method> methods = getPublicMethods(unwrappedModel.getClass());
-        List<String> methodDescriptions = new ArrayList<String>(methods.size());
+        DumpHelper helper = new DumpHelper(env); 
+        List<Method> methods = helper.getMethodsAvailableToTemplate(unwrappedModel.getClass());
+        List<String> methodDisplayNames = new ArrayList<String>(methods.size());
         for (Method m : methods) {
-            methodDescriptions.add(getMethodDescription(m));
+            methodDisplayNames.add(helper.getMethodDisplayName(m));
         }
-        Collections.sort(methodDescriptions);
+        Collections.sort(methodDisplayNames);
         
         Map<String, Object> map = new HashMap<String, Object>(); 
         map.put("var", varName);
-        map.put("methods", methodDescriptions);
+        map.put("methods", methodDisplayNames);
         
         try {
             map.put("stylesheets", dataModel.get("stylesheets"));
@@ -91,7 +90,6 @@ public class DescribeDirective extends BaseTemplateDirectiveModel {
             log.error("Error getting value of stylesheets variable from data model.");
         }
 
-        DumpHelper helper = new DumpHelper(env); 
         helper.writeDump("describe.ftl", map, varName);   
     }
     
@@ -116,56 +114,5 @@ public class DescribeDirective extends BaseTemplateDirectiveModel {
         
         return mergeToHelpTemplate(map, env);
     }
-    
-    private List<Method> getPublicMethods(Class<?> cls) {
-        List<Method> methods = new ArrayList<Method>();
-
-        // Go up the class hierarchy only as far as the immediate subclass of BaseTemplateModel
-        if (! cls.getName().equals("edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.web.templatemodels.BaseTemplateModel")) {
-            methods = getDeclaredPublicMethods(cls);
-            methods.addAll(getPublicMethods(cls.getSuperclass()));
-        }
-        
-        return methods;
-    }
-    
-    private List<Method> getDeclaredPublicMethods(Class<?> cls) {
-        
-        List<Method> methods = new ArrayList<Method>();
-        Method[] declaredMethods = cls.getDeclaredMethods();
-        for (Method m : declaredMethods) {
-            int mod = m.getModifiers();
-            if (Modifier.isPublic(mod) && !Modifier.isStatic(mod)) {
-                methods.add(m);
-            }
-        }
-        return methods;
-    }
-   
-    
-    private String getMethodDescription(Method method) {
-        
-        String methodName = method.getName();
-        methodName = methodName.replaceAll("^(get|is)", "");
-        methodName = methodName.substring(0, 1).toLowerCase() + methodName.substring(1);
-
-        Class<?>[] paramTypes = method.getParameterTypes();
-        String paramList = "";
-        if (paramTypes.length > 0) {
-            List<String> paramTypeList = new ArrayList<String>(paramTypes.length);
-            for (Class<?> cls : paramTypes) {
-                String name = cls.getName();
-                String[] nameParts = name.split("\\.");
-                String typeName = nameParts[nameParts.length-1];
-                typeName = typeName.replaceAll(";", "s");
-                typeName = typeName.substring(0,1).toLowerCase() + typeName.substring(1);
-                paramTypeList.add(typeName);
-            }
-            paramList = "(" + StringUtils.join(paramTypeList) + ")";
-        }
-        
-        return methodName + paramList;
-
-    }
 
 }
diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/web/directives/dump/DumpHelper.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/web/directives/dump/DumpHelper.java
index 74e9e222d..39170a09c 100644
--- a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/web/directives/dump/DumpHelper.java
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/web/directives/dump/DumpHelper.java
@@ -4,13 +4,19 @@ package edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.web.directives.dump;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.Writer;
+import java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException;
+import java.lang.reflect.Method;
+import java.lang.reflect.Modifier;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 
 import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
 
-import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.controller.freemarker.TemplateProcessingHelper;
+import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.utils.StringUtils;
 import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.web.directives.BaseTemplateDirectiveModel;
 import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.web.templatemodels.BaseTemplateModel;
 import freemarker.core.Environment;
@@ -73,7 +79,7 @@ public class DumpHelper {
             // view in the dump. Not sure if we should handle our application-specific, non-template
             // model objects in the same way. For now, these get assigned a shorthand type below.
             if (unwrappedModel instanceof BaseTemplateModel) {
-                value = ((BaseTemplateModel)unwrappedModel).dump();   
+                value = getTemplateModelDump((BaseTemplateModel)unwrappedModel); //((BaseTemplateModel)unwrappedModel).dump();   
                 type = className;
             }            
             // Can't use this, because tm of (at least some) POJOs are
@@ -123,4 +129,85 @@ public class DumpHelper {
         }          
     }
     
+    protected List<Method> getMethodsAvailableToTemplate(Class<?> cls) {
+        List<Method> methods = new ArrayList<Method>();
+
+        // Go up the class hierarchy only as far as the immediate subclass of BaseTemplateModel
+        if (! cls.getName().equals("edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.web.templatemodels.BaseTemplateModel")) {
+            methods = getDeclaredPublicMethods(cls);
+            methods.addAll(getMethodsAvailableToTemplate(cls.getSuperclass()));
+        }
+        
+        return methods;
+    }
+        
+    private List<Method> getDeclaredPublicMethods(Class<?> cls) {
+        
+        List<Method> methods = new ArrayList<Method>();
+        Method[] declaredMethods = cls.getDeclaredMethods();
+        for (Method m : declaredMethods) {
+            int mod = m.getModifiers();
+            if (Modifier.isPublic(mod) && !Modifier.isStatic(mod)) {
+                // if the method takes args, make sure the BeanWrapper used makes this method visible
+                methods.add(m);
+            }
+        }
+        return methods;
+    }
+    
+    protected String getMethodDisplayName(Method method) {
+        String methodName = method.getName();
+        methodName = methodName.replaceAll("^(get|is)", "");
+        methodName = methodName.substring(0, 1).toLowerCase() + methodName.substring(1);
+
+        Class<?>[] paramTypes = method.getParameterTypes();
+        String paramList = "";
+        if (paramTypes.length > 0) {
+            List<String> paramTypeList = new ArrayList<String>(paramTypes.length);
+            for (Class<?> cls : paramTypes) {
+                String name = cls.getName();
+                String[] nameParts = name.split("\\.");
+                String typeName = nameParts[nameParts.length-1];
+                typeName = typeName.replaceAll(";", "s");
+                typeName = typeName.substring(0,1).toLowerCase() + typeName.substring(1);
+                paramTypeList.add(typeName);
+            }
+            paramList = "(" + StringUtils.join(paramTypeList) + ")";
+        }
+        
+        return methodName + paramList;        
+    }
+    
+    private String getTemplateModelDump(BaseTemplateModel model) {
+        
+        log.debug(model.getClass());
+        Map<String, Object> map = new HashMap<String, Object>();        
+        List<Method> publicMethods = getMethodsAvailableToTemplate(model.getClass());        
+        Map<String, String> properties = new HashMap<String, String>();
+        List<String> methods = new ArrayList<String>();
+        for (Method method : publicMethods) {
+            String key = getMethodDisplayName(method);
+            
+            if (key.endsWith(")")) {
+                methods.add(key);
+            } else {
+                try {                   
+                    Object value = method.invoke(model);
+                    if (value == null) {
+                        value = "null"; // distinguish a null from an empty string
+                    }
+                    properties.put(key, value.toString());
+                } catch (Exception e) {
+                    log.error(e, e);
+                    continue;
+                }
+            }
+        }
+
+        map.put("properties", properties);
+        map.put("methods", methods);
+        return BaseTemplateDirectiveModel.processTemplateToString("dump-tm.ftl", map, env);
+        
+    }
+    
 }
diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/web/templatemodels/BaseTemplateModel.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/web/templatemodels/BaseTemplateModel.java
index 5d8c617e2..e0decfe72 100644
--- a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/web/templatemodels/BaseTemplateModel.java
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/web/templatemodels/BaseTemplateModel.java
@@ -43,8 +43,8 @@ public abstract class BaseTemplateModel {
         servletContext = context;
     }
     
-    public String dump() {
-        return toString(); // fallback when subclass doesn't define a class-specific dump()
-    }
+//    public String dump() {
+//        return toString(); // fallback when subclass doesn't define a class-specific dump()
+//    }
 
 }
diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/web/templatemodels/files/Files.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/web/templatemodels/files/Files.java
index 85dc413a8..e742ea9cc 100644
--- a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/web/templatemodels/files/Files.java
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/web/templatemodels/files/Files.java
@@ -74,10 +74,6 @@ public abstract class Files extends BaseTemplateModel {
         }
         return tags;
     }
-    
-    public String dump() {
-        return list.toString();
-    }
 
     protected abstract String getTag(String url);
     
diff --git a/webapp/web/templates/freemarker/body/partials/dump/dump-tm.ftl b/webapp/web/templates/freemarker/body/partials/dump/dump-tm.ftl
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..1a4c8b3de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/webapp/web/templates/freemarker/body/partials/dump/dump-tm.ftl
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+<#-- $This file is distributed under the terms of the license in /doc/license.txt$ -->
+
+<#-- Template for dumping a template model object -->
+
+<#if properties?has_content>
+    <ul>
+        <#list properties?keys as property>
+            <li>${property}: ${properties[property]?html}</li>
+        </#list>
+    </ul>
+</#if>
+
+<#if methods?has_content>
+    <ul>
+        <#list methods as method>
+            <li>${method}</li>
+        </#list>
+    </ul>
+</#if>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/webapp/web/templates/freemarker/body/partials/dump/dump-var.ftl b/webapp/web/templates/freemarker/body/partials/dump/dump-var.ftl
index 33c74add4..e23cae502 100644
--- a/webapp/web/templates/freemarker/body/partials/dump/dump-var.ftl
+++ b/webapp/web/templates/freemarker/body/partials/dump/dump-var.ftl
@@ -5,8 +5,8 @@
 <div class="var"> 
     <p><strong>Variable name: <em>${var}</em></strong></p>
     <#if value??>
-        <p><strong>Value:</strong> ${value}</p>
         <p><strong>Type:</strong> ${type}</p>
+        <div><strong>Value:</strong> ${value}</div>        
     <#else>
         <p>Variable is undefined in the data model</p>
     </#if>