Exhibit for a museum, or historical society

HIS 303 ST A Doing Public History Final Activity Fall 2017

Due December 15, 2017 Between 10:00 and 10:30 Room 244 Unistructure

For this activity I want you to develop plans for either an educational program or an exhibit for a museum or historical society of your choosing. Your response needs to include the following: Name and Location of the Actual Museum that might house the exhibit or educational program Actual Mission Statement for that Museum Topic and thesis statement of an educational program or exhibit with brief statement as to how it relates to the mission statement for the museum.. The Topic: If you are making an educational program, - you should find an existing exhibit or an on line exhibit that you want to enrich through a related educational program. You will also need to connect the program to the audience you plan to attract. For instance if you are developing something for an Industrial History – such as the change in foodways from pre-industry to industrial eras you would have to show how altered time schedules and the movement of work from the home environment to a factory \necessitated the invention of portable meals. How might this educational program be developed for the general public and why would that be viable for the institution. If you are creating an exhibit – you should link the end result more closely to the mission and if it relates to bringing in school children to the museum – then the state curriculum for the audience as well. (i.e. a specialized tour could be viewed as an educational program). Budget: Also in the real world you would need to develop a budget for the project and round up financial support for that budget. But you don’t need to do that here. Historic Materials to be used: Now that the ugly initial stages are done you need to see if your collection has what it needs to help you devise your educational program or exhibit. Even if your educational program focuses on the Sweated Trades – it might be educational to associate the materials for the educational program with the tools of the sweated trades, the work environments of the trades and business records. If it is an exhibit – it is worth the museum’s while to highlight some strengths of the collection rather than borrow from everyone else. If you don’t have what you need in the collection whether it is papers and documents to support an educational program start up or Washington’s false teeth or the shroud of Turin – well see what

you do have that is representational of your thesis and then look for collections you could borrow from for the rest. So since you choses a specific museum – search through their on line catalogue for the things that you need. You will need to provide me a list of all objects and/or documents you will use and also where they are from include both objects from your collection and from others. Link each thing to the thesis statement you developed earlier For the educational program you might consider selecting an exhibit that is already on display somewhere and develop your program to go with that. Narrative: 2.5 pages You will need to write about what your exhibit or educational program will entail and why. Is all this ethical – are there things that you have to consider and eliminate because of the ethics of the issue. With the educational program you will have to worry about wear and tear – with the exhibit design you will have to worry about whether or not you will receive the loan of objects you need from other collections. I know that Mount Vernon probably keeps their set of false teeth and we all know that the Shroud of Turin doesn’t travel. Since it is unethical to steal these things how does your exhibit achieve its goal. Included in your narrative will be a narrative that lays out the historical background of the exhibit (i.e. the content) (should be 2.5 pages). Remember to show me your accurate research on this with a bibliography at the end of your narrative – internet sources are not allowed unless you plan to use digitized primary documents or articles from peer reviewed journals. Final thoughts Come up with an exhibit design or layout as part of your submission. For the educational program consider developing a hand out that even the general public might use to understand the underlying meanings of the program. These should be a one page design or hand out.