National Day of Happiness

by: Regan Brooks- Registrar

Yesterday was the first day of Spring, also known as The National Day of Happiness (Coincidence? I think not!) And even though the forecasters are saying Winter hasn’t quite left the stage yet, the gorgeous day today makes me hope they’re wrong. Something about the coming of spring just puts a smile on your face. Speaking of smiles, (were we? Roll with it, folks) Curatorial has recently been reviewing some of our glass plate negative collection in hopes of getting some grant money for conservation. These are all from local photographer, Harley Ferguson and show a glimpse of the folks living in the area at the turn of the last century. Not too many smiles, huh?

Of course, we can forgive the young soldier for not smiling.  Not too much of a reason to do so when you’re about to get shipped off to the killing fields of Europe. Honestly, he looks a bit worried. But, shouldn’t you at least smile on your wedding day?

“But Regan, life was hard back then. You should know that!” “People had it rough, they didn’t smile as much.” “Pictures were a big deal; it was a serious affair. You couldn’t just whip out your camera and take a picture!” Right? Wrong. Now, I grant you, these particular photos were from a professional photographer, so yes it was a bit more of a ‘serious’ affair (how many times did your mom have tell you to stop playing and smile nicely for that family portrait?) But Brownie disposable cameras were widely available at your local drugstore for $1 in 1900. Picture taking was becoming pretty commonplace.

“Okay, we get that. But still, life was hard back then.” And it’s easy now? Different times, different stresses. And different behavior expectations. People smiled just as much back then as they do now, just not in pictures. To be sure, photography was a lot more prevalent, but society still wasn’t far from the days of having to sit for hours while an artist painted your likeness, a process both time-consuming and incredibly expensive. For such a product, you did not want to come across looking like a fool, so you sat still and looked somber. And that translated over into photography. Society in general still had the idea that regardless of how happy-go-lucky you were, for a picture, you sit still and don’t act the fool.

Of course, some folks’ personalities were apparently so jovial, they didn’t care.

                                                               






Do I detect a slight smile there, Dad? I'm thinking so!

How Museum’s Prepare for their Learners

by: Jeff Pruett- Director

A museum serves to educate its public in a variety of ways.  We are first and foremost a learning environment for our many patrons through our varied programming options and exhibits.  We also interpret, explain, and focus on meaning of various subjects.  Finally, we look at identity, motivation and interest of our learners.  These three themes each emphasize different aspects of the learning setting: the design of the environment, the interface between people and the environment, and people themselves.  These different themes when looked at together help us see that the whole is more than the sum of the study.  When staff creates this framework or foundation, it makes for a better learning experience for our visitors.

1. Learning and Learning Environments The first theme expresses the relationships between learning and the design of learning environments (such as galleries).  Museum staff addresses the many ways that images, text, models, etc. serve as mediators for learning, and they search how the findings from these studies inspire the progress and design of exhibits.  Learning and learning environments definitely go hand in hand.  Museum professionals look at theory and design experiments to determine the best experience for our visitors.     

2. Interpretation, Meaning and Explanation The second theme focuses on meaning, interpretation, and explanation as products and processes of social interaction.  Here, the interaction between curators, the institution, the designer, docents, is vital.  Again, text, images, etc. are focused on, but specifically how they affect the issues of meaning, explanations, and interpretation.  We address how patrons and varied groups make sense of their experiences in museums, focusing on the nature of intentions and social interactions among viewers, as well as between viewers and the museum. This theme guides our study of how meanings are influenced by interactions.

3. Identify, Motivation and Interests The final theme looks closely at the previous experience related to the individual’s identity as a learner.  This theme influences additional museum involvement and serves as a means in which a visit can continue to play out in a visitor’s future.  This theme also considers how museum experiences change the ways that people see themselves as learners of varied subject matter such as art or history.      

The Gaston County Museum would like to welcome our new Curatorial Intern, Fiona Shirkie!

Dunfermline Abbey and Palace by Paul McIIroy

My name is Fiona Shirkie and I am the new curatorial intern at the Gaston County Museum. I thought I would take some time to introduce myself. After a successful 10 year career in Customer Service I decided to return to my first love – history. I went back to school and have recently graduated with a Masters in Museum and Gallery Studies from the University of St Andrews, Scotland. I have been fortunate enough to work with the British Golf Museum, The BlackWatch Museum and Stirling Castle in the UK.

I am Scottish and come from a town called Dunfermline. Dunfermline was the ancient capital of Scotland and many Scottish Royals, including Robert the Bruce, are buried in the town. It is 3,784 miles from Dallas. To say that the weather is different would be an understatement. The usual forecast is sunshine and showers, even in the summer! The coast is only 3 miles away. At first glance the two towns appear to have little in common – but the tie that binds us is Textiles.

Textiles were big business in Scotland for hundreds of years. By 1838 more than 100,000 people were employed in the industry.[i] Dunfermline was famously the home of silk and linen, particularly damask linen after an early case of industrial espionage (James Blake stole the method of damask production from a Huguenot factory). The area had 34 mills and the larger ones had depots across Europe and the Commonwealth. The impact that these mills had on the area and its people was huge.

Issues such as child labor and workers disputes arose. Post WW1 competition from other countries, supply and tariff issues led to a decline in the industry. Sadly the last remaining mill closed in 1989.

The team here at the museum has been very welcoming. I am looking forward to learning more about the similarities and differences between our two countries and towns and to working with and learning about some of the fabulous objects in the museum’s collection. I hope that you are able to come along to the museum to see some of these objects for yourself. Each of them has its own unique story.

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[i] http://www.origins.net/help/resarticle-so-weaving.aspx

To Streak or Not to Streak

by: Stephanie Elliott- Curator

I get asked a lot about how we come up with the exhibits we do here at the museum. First you have to start with a topic. Easy enough, right? Well, then you have to decide how you are going to make that topic exciting and engaging for everyone from the 6 year old that is at the museum with his family to the person that was dragged along for the ride and doesn’t really want to be there.  It is our job as museum professionals to educate the public, but also to entertain them.  

So what kind of museum visitor are you?

Do you move quickly through exhibitions, scanning for points of particular interest, but rarely lingering for long? Then you are a streaker.  

Do you move more slowly, paying more attention or less at various places? Then you are a stroller.

Are you conscientious and diligent, moving very slowly through a gallery, trying everything and reading all of the text? Then you are a studier.

Now, I will admit that I have been one or all of these types of visitors in the past. “But you are a museum curator,” you say. I know, I know.  But sometimes an exhibit topic is just not that interesting to me or I’m just not in the mood to read every word on a text panel.  It’s okay to be a streaker sometimes.

So the trick to creating a great exhibit is to have something for everyone.  For example, in planning our current exhibit The Evolution of Recorded Sound, we wanted to include smaller interesting facts that a “streaker” could take away and have a broad sense of what the exhibit was about, but also include the nitty-gritty history for the avid phonograph or record player buff.  We also included several hands-on stations for kids to help occupy them while their parents are reading about the 1900s phonograph or reminiscing about their youth listening to a record player.  

Obviously there is a lot more that goes into the exhibit planning process – a lot of brainstorming sessions, research, budgets, fundraising, and designing – but it is always an exciting process and we hope that each exhibit we do appeals to our broad audience of interested (and sometimes not so interested) visitors. Plus, we are always looking for new ideas for exhibits, so if you have any please share with us in the comment section!