Heartland Museum Report

I knew that my hometown of Blairsville, Pennsylvania was a rich historical place before my research. I turned to visiting the historical society in my town for my information, there I was given a tour of a historical house where all of the artifacts had been donated. After looking into the history and the other elements of the town, I found out that the place where I grew up was so much more history than I could have ever imagined.

Museums have long served a purpose as cultural staples. For every museum, big and small, careful consideration is used in selecting its contents. When securing new items for a museum, it is most important to consider public appeal, educational value, and cost-effectiveness.

On January 27th, 2015 I went to the Waterloo Regional Museum located in the city of Kitchener, Ontario. The museum scrutinizes the First Nations people, European settlement at the start of the 1800, the manufacturing peak of the 1900`s and the high sector boom of recent years. Many of the historical artifacts and paintings reminded me of some of the themes discussed in the Discovering the Humanities course. The story of human social development as displayed in the Waterloo Regional Museum focuses on the transition to European settlements. This gradual development can be connected to two main modules in the humanities course: the Iroquian creation story and the modern scientific advancement.

For my Museum visit I chose to go to the Atlantic County Historical Society in Somers Point, NJ. When I originally had gone I didn’t know what to expect exactly. I thought for the most part they would talk to me about the history of Atlantic county which they did however they had amazing objects and memorabilia that date back centuries. They had everything from old toys made of amazing wood to guns that were heavier then I had originally anticipated. While I was there the staff told me stories about everything from famous spots in Atlantic City to Margate even some things about my hometown of Absecon.

What I have found surprising about my professional experience so far is how much I have come to enjoy conducting oral histories and working in an archival setting. While volunteering with the Los Alamos Historical Society, my mentor has given me the primary task of helping them complete their oral history project, which has been an ongoing project for the society for nearly a year and a half. The oral history project has provided me with a new perspective of the past. The other task that my mentor has given me is to help the historical society to catalog their archive’s artifacts. I was surprised while cataloging the archive’s artifacts the amount of photographs, videos, and many other historical objects that the historical society possesses. While the projects that my mentor has instructed me to work on while volunteering with the historical society has surprised me in several ways, I

The Missouri State Museum provides an environment that can introduce diversity and cultural stimulation to children. The museum wants to be a part of the diverse team that provides support for families and staff aiding child development socially, emotionally as well as physically. Providing multicultural experiences and opportunities to teach children tolerance, respectfulness and accepting of differences is part of learning diversity. Diversity cannot be taught directly, it is not a part of a curriculum or a lesson plan. Diversity or multicultural education is a continuous approach to working with children, parents, families and the community. By children learning of people different from themselves, being exposed to activities, materials and personal experiences, they learn to enjoy and appreciate differences. Children discover there are a variety of ways to solve a problem, complete a task or answer a question. There are many people of different cultures that visit the State Capitol for a variety of purposes. These individuals also explore the State Museum which is located on the first floor of the capitol. This allows an opportunity for children to be exposed to a variety of diverse people. By exploring and investigating what is unfamiliar, children are exposed to new discoveries. A variety of perspectives in the museum’s exhibits and interactive areas allow cross cultural communication through sight and hearing. By touching a computer screen or triggering an

The historical site that I visited was the Overland Trail Museum in Sterling, Colorado. The main part of the museum that I will focus on is the Pioneer Village that they have there. I really liked this museum, because it is a more hands-on museum than other museums that I have visited. In the village, they have many different buildings. These buildings included Garrett Barber Shop, a schoolhouse, Evangelical Lutheran Concordia Church, a doctor 's office, a Dailey Store, The O 'Connell House, a Filing Station, a train station, and a train car. Every time you went into one of these buildings, there was a brief summary of where the building used to be located and the building was filled with things you would have found in that building a long time ago.

Artifacts from all over the world should be kept in museums. As we know, sites with artifacts are being looted, and all of the important items are being stolen. These sites should be preserved until archaeologists can remove all of the artifacts and bring them to a museum to be kept save in the right conditions.

We planned to visit Mill City museum after a friend recommended that we check it from the Minnesota Historical site. The museum is the most important and historical place where anyone who wants to know more about the Minnesota people. The museum contained historical articles and information. A lot of stuff was available including plant species and human origin. We later made our way to the science museum where displays of evolution. The main building of the Museum has its entire floor with colorful animated dioramas that display their traditional costumes of Minnesota people. On reaching the museum, we were met with a tour guide who took us through the place and described everything that we wanted to know about the Minnesota.

If you have time to view one gallery of paintings at the St. Louis Art Museum if you’re in St. Louis, the collection of European Art should be your only choice. European Art consists of varieties of paintings, sculptures, textiles, and metalwork made in Europe and parts of the British Isles between the 7th and 18th centuries. Early records of European Art came from the Ancient Middle East around 3000 BC, where art forms from the Ancient Middle East began to become abundant in Europe. As artistic development was made, different cultures would adopt their own forms of it and cause it to spread to most of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Eventually, as time went on, art would change, vary and types of it would flourish, depending on what was going on in society. It’s very rare

In children's museum, exhibits are activities based, often includes building blocks, puzzles, computer pieces and dress-up areas. Staff should keep these areas clean and neat. Items on the floor become stumbling hazards and impediments for wheelchair users and people with low vision. Messy areas also create a sense of disruption and lack of control. They do not feel safe and comfortable. If maintenance staffing is minimal, components need to be simple and built to last forever. As visitors flow through museums, they break and lose items. Designs need to be flexible, allowing substitute of components rather than entire exhibits to assist with the ongoing renovation.

In writing about the role of real objects in museums Rainey Tisdale mentions, “ While not everyone agrees, many museum professionals have come to believe that the increase in digital versions of objects actually enhances the value of in-person encounters with tangible, real things” ( Tisdale 2011). Similarly, the institution expects its audience to understand that the use of these devices will contribute to the development of a clear and successful connection with the historic site and the actual artifacts and objects that one can see when exploring the museum

I would of liked to know more about this story and on what other musical instruments were produced in New haven. It was also interesting to hear about streets that were familiar to me such as Chapel Street. Before I came to the Museum I was confused on why we had to do an assignment on a Museum. I did not realize what it had to do with our class until I was there and saw how it was research on New Haven. I honestly did not have much knowledge on New Haven so I did not know what to expect before reading these stories. However, this experience impacted my perspective of New Haven because I was able to learn an abundant amount of new information. This new information demonstrated to me the importance of New Haven, and the many goods made here. One thing I learned about myself from this experience, had to be that I had very little knowledge of the city I had been living in the last 4 years. I also learned that I should start being more observant of my

Even humans themselves take part in the curatorial process in a way, as the eyes take in information and the brain edits it down to the pressing matters. All these areas show in their own particular way how display can have a significant impact on the way in which certain ideas are reinforced and specific intentions understood. Current notions of display are rapidly evolving, with technological advancements changing the way in which people are able to interact with vast amounts of information and visual material. This has progressed a lot since times where collections were only accessible in person, and even more so since points in history where only those who owned personal collections, or were tasked with taking care of them, had access to

This thesis focuses on archaeology programming in museums and the common visitor misconceptions about archaeology that museum educators face, especially those promoted by popular culture. By recognizing the notions and understanding of archaeology that visitors and program participants carry with them, museums can create truly educational programs that go beyond the adventure/detective version of pop culture archaeology and successfully introduce the archaeological discipline to the general public. This thesis analyzes and explores what misconceptions of archaeology are commonly held by museum visitors, what their source is, and how museum programming can address these notions.