Museum Studies in Motion Summer 2012
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Be at the center of things.
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Volume 4, Issue 3
NEWSLETTER OF THE MUSEUM STUDIES PROGRAM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE
Collecting Experience Museum Studies students inventoried a historical collection. by KELSEY RANSICK kransick@udel.edu
Top: Historic postcard of Old Swedes Church (University of Delaware Library). Bottom left: Historic Preservation student Jennifer Anderson catalogs tombstone fragments. Right: Della Hall, Lee Roeche, and Retz Monroe inventory framed objects.
Congrats to the Class of 2012
What do gravestones, Swedish Fish, and the University of Delaware have in common? Not much, but this semester did see the Curatorship and Collections Management class completing a collections inventory and storage overhaul at Old Swedes Church in Wilmington, DE. Old Swedes Foundation, affectionately known as Old Swedes, consists of the nation's oldest standing church and the Hendrickson House Museum. The church boasts the oldest known pulpit in the United States, and the museum features a period room, a sizeable art and object collection, and extensive genealogical research opportunities. Under the direction of professor Frank McKelvey, the class spent about three months doing a total inventory of the Old Swedes collections and revamping the storage system. The students, from various areas of study, including the History, Fashion and Apparel Studies, and Botanical Sciences programs, got of taste of small museum life. (continued, pg. 4)
In this issue... Old Swedes Church Project, pg. 1
Director's Message, pg. 2
This spring we bid farewell to a cohort of nine Museum Studies graduate students: Jesse Gagnon, Laura Muskavitch, Kevin Impellizeri, Retzfellah Monroe, Christopher Chenier, Kate Duffy, Abbey Chamberlain, Stephanie Corrigan, and Mary Sidebotham (not pictured). All are M.A. students in History, with the exception of Kevin and Christopher, who will be continuing on at UD as doctoral candidates. Congratulations!
Air Mobility Oral History Project, pg. 3
Spring Event Photos, pg. 2-3
Museums & Technology Course, pg. 4
www.udel.edu/museumstudies
Director’s Message KATHERINE GRIER, PHD kcgrier@udel.edu It's late May as I write this, and I have to admit that I'm a little pooped! We began our IMLSfunded project, Sustaining Places, in December. Getting the moving parts of this complex project going has been a challenge – and a lot of fun. The SP graduate assistants Kelsey Ransick and Della Hall have made wonderful progress on our listserv and online resource website, which will launch in June and grow over the next two years. Museum Studies students have been vetting materials and creating annotations to post. A group is creating short videos on collections care, christened the "Two-Minute Technique" series. Take a look at the website, meet our mascot SPencer, and let us know about resources we might add. What we put up online is directed to small historical organizations and has to be accessible for both staff and volunteers. This spring we held our first SP workshop on integrated pest management at the Margaret Grundy Library and Museum in Bristol, PA, and it was a hit. Our next workshop, on podcasting, will take place in June. If you wish to be apprised of Sustaining Places workshops, subscribe to our listserv. Nine students completed the Museum Studies Entomologist Tom Parker led the "Uninvited Guests" workshop, part of our IMLS-funded Sustaining Places project.
Sustaining Places 2
certificate this year, and a score of others took our courses. Twelve students, including two undergraduates, worked together on the January volunteer project at the Auburn Heights Preserve and the Marshall Steam Museum. Five students attended the Small Museum Association conference; two gave papers while the others helped us collect data for the IMLS grant. Other articles in this newsletter describe some of the practicum activities in our courses; we are fortunate to have a strong cohort of adjunct faculty. Pauline Eversmann, our internship coordinator, is supervising 12 interns this summer, including students from History, the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, Fashion and Apparel Studies, and the Center for Historic Architecture and Design.
Museum Studies is celebrating its fortieth anniversary! Next fall Museum Studies is celebrating its fortieth anniversary! We are planning several programs in honor of this, but our major anniversary activity will be fundraising to built the Edward Porter Alexander Endowment, supporting professional development activities for Museum Studies students. If you are considering a gift to the University of Delaware, we hope that you will designate Museum Studies, and the Alexander Endowment specifically, as the recipient. Tony Shahan of the Newlin Grist Mill examined a sampling of paper items damaged by pests.
We held the first "Uninvited Guests: Integrated Pest Management" workshop session on March 31, 2012.
Museum Studies in Motion - University of Delaware - Summer 2012
MSST Student Interviews Veterans Mary Sidebotham, a Master of Arts student in History and Museum Studies, is carrying out an oral history project at the Air Mobility Command Museum in Dover, DE. As an intern at the museum, she interviews people who have served in jobs related to military air transport and refueling operations since the beginning of World War II, recording their stories on video. The internship draws on Sidebotham’s longstanding interest in military history and oral history. Over the last seven years, she and her husband Steven, a history professor at the University of Delaware, have recorded over 150 interviews with World War II veterans.
This project builds the museum's capacity to interpret the history of air transport in the words of those who have lived it. "Oral history makes history a little more accessible to the average person," said Sidebotham. "You actually get to hear the story coming out of the person’s mouth. You see their mannerisms and their gestures, hear the tone of their voice." This project is building the AMC Museum's capacity to interpret the history of air transport in the words of those who have lived it. The
museum has posted Sidebotham’s videos on the web, and the footage could be integrated into its exhibits and other interpretive efforts in the future. Thus far Sidebotham has interviewed seven different men, including pilots, navigators, and one tail gunner. Their experiences include Vietnam War service, participation in the Berlin Airlift, and supply missions over the perilous "Hump" of the Himalayas during World War II. Helping to preserve the stories of air transport has been a rewarding experience for Sidebotham. Not only has she taught herself to edit video, but through the interview process she has had the opportunity to make connections with veterans. "I’m getting to hear what life was like for them," she said.
Tea Party
Friends of the Museum Studies
Graduate students Abbey Chamberlain, Anne Reilly, and Danya Pilgrim were among guests at the party.
Guests contributed to a delicious array of food. Director Kasey Grier and Staff Assistant Tracy Jentzsch unwound afterward.
Program joined us for an end-of-semester tea party.
Museum Studies in Motion - University of Delaware - Summer 2012
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Students Build Digital Skills in Museum Technology Course
Old Swedes Church, con't from pg. 1 History student Della Hall learned how to enter the inventoried objects into PastPerfect, saying, "Filling out all those inventory sheets and then by KELLI HUGGINS entering them in [PastPerfect] really gave me a feel khuggins@udel.edu for the collection." One of the largest parts of the project was In this increasingly digital era, museum professionals who reorganizing the collection storage room. Students dismantled the old wooden shelves, replacing have the ability to work with various computer programs are them with four metal shelving units. Two of these at a distinct advantage. Luckily shelves hold the newly inventoried book collection that researchers use to discover more about the for technologically-challenged foundation and people connected to Old Swedes' students like me, the Museum past. Studies program offers a Hall really enjoyed the variety of tasks the class Museums and Modern got to complete, saying, "This class gave us the Technology course. This course is designed to opportunity to do a lot of hands-on work, and it's introduce students to a variety of technologies and really great to see all of our hard work pay off. The strategies for communicating information to visitors new storage room is a lot easier to manoeuver in, in multimedia formats. The class is taught by Tim and Old Swedes now knows what's really in their Goecke, an exhibit designer at the Smithsonian's National Zoological Park. collection." We began the semester by learning the basics of The students put in more than 275 hours of Adobe Photoshop. Using mold-covered photographs work at Old Swedes, and it will not go unnoticed. as our project, we learned how to digitally remove Hall says, "It's definitely nice to know that what scratches and dirt and how to enhance the quality of we're doing will be useful for Old Swedes in the an image. future."
Follow MSST Blogs This Summer After a couple of weeks of using Dreamweaver, I could create a basic, functioning website. After grasping the basics of Photoshop, we started to learn how to use InDesign. In InDesign, we focused on how to use the program to format text and images to create pamphlets and promotional mailers. The final, and perhaps most daunting, lesson for the semester was learning the basics of Dreamweaver. Before starting to use this program, I did not know anything about the process of website creation. After a couple of weeks of using the program, I could create a basic, functioning website. I was so excited when I finally made a website button that worked and successfully linked to another page. The practical applications for the material students learn in this class are unlimited. I will feel more confident entering the job market now that I can claim that I have these technological skills. While I will need to continue to practice using these programs to master more of their advanced functions and to sharpen my design skills, thanks to this class and Tim Goecke, I now have enough of a grasp on the basics to get started on this process.
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Museum Studies students have arranged internships from Delaware to Bermuda. Follow their adventures on the Museum Studies Internship Blog. In addition, departing student Kate Duffy will blog from Tenakee Springs, Alaska, where she will help set up a new local history museum. In the fall she will continue to Montreal, Canada as a Fulbright fellow researching and interpreting the built environment. Check out her blog at www.wunderplatz.net.
Contact Us The Museum Studies Program at the University of Delaware 77 East Main Street | Newark, DE 19711 (302) 831-1251 http://www.udel.edu/museumstudies museumstudies@udel.edu Katherine (Kasey) Grier, Director Tracy Jentzsch, Staff Assistant Kate Duffy, Graduate Assistant Della Hall, Graduate Assistant Kelsey Ransick, Graduate Assistant Read back issues. Subscribe to MuseWeekly, our email update with conferences and job oportunities. Follow us on Twitter. Friend us on Facebook. Link up with our LinkedIn group.
Museum Studies in Motion - University of Delaware - Summer 2012