If you are in DC from now until July 4th, you should definitely check out the Smithsonian's Folklife Festival. Nestled in the National Mall between the many Smithsonians, tents and vendors are set up selling food, wares and sharing festive music. The featured heritages this year Mexican and Asian Pacific Americans, two cultures I often feel are undermined and underrepresented in American culture.
Another feature of the Folklife Festival is Smithsonian: Inside Out where visitors can see different departments of the Smithsonian and what they have, as well as a chance to talk to the workers who are often hidden away during museum hours. I think that is an excellent idea to get visitors not only interested in parts of the Smithsonian they might not have known about, but to also get them interested in museum work. This past Sunday my department, Numismatics, had a tent in the International section of the festival. Along with having my supervisor and resident curator in the tent to talk about their jobs, we also had coins to show off to the public.
Since I did not have the chance to attend the festival, and I wish I could have, I hope any of you reading this will have the chance to attend. I personally think this an ingenious event that the Smithsonian has put on since 1967 and I appreciate that it promotes diverse American cultures.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Votes for Titles!
The theme of this past week at the Smithsonian's Numismatic Department has been to narrow down the title of our upcoming traveling exhibition. For two days myself and the other interns went down to the public parts of the museum and asked people to fill out quick surveys on what they felt was the best title for our exhibit on American coins and the US Mint.
The titles that we have narrowed down are:
Coins! A History of Change
Mint Condition: The Story of America's Coins
Miniature Masterpieces: The Untold Story of Coins
(If you feel so inclined, you could leave a comment on which ones you like the most and why!)
At a place like the Smithsonian you definitely meet a diverse crowd, which is excellent for obtaining well-rounded survey results. It was interesting seeing what groups of people were more inclined to pick a certain title than others. Some people really took the time to give us great feedback and surprisingly many of those "people" were kids!
So, if you would like to contribute towards picking out the possible title of the exhibit (and perhaps hold a claim that you helped pick that title in the future) click on the link for facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/sitesExhibitions?v=app_20678178440
The titles that we have narrowed down are:
Coins! A History of Change
Mint Condition: The Story of America's Coins
Miniature Masterpieces: The Untold Story of Coins
(If you feel so inclined, you could leave a comment on which ones you like the most and why!)
At a place like the Smithsonian you definitely meet a diverse crowd, which is excellent for obtaining well-rounded survey results. It was interesting seeing what groups of people were more inclined to pick a certain title than others. Some people really took the time to give us great feedback and surprisingly many of those "people" were kids!
So, if you would like to contribute towards picking out the possible title of the exhibit (and perhaps hold a claim that you helped pick that title in the future) click on the link for facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/sitesExhibitions?v=app_20678178440
Sunday, June 20, 2010
The Life of an Intern
A few weeks ago I began my job as an intern at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. My job consists of helping out with a traveling exhibition in the Numismatic Department. This means I am surrounded by and thinking about coins all day long! Even though working with coins would not have been my first choice, I am enjoying learning so much about coins. Did you know that American currency started off as melted and redesigned Spanish coins? Did you know that there are types of pennies that are worth thousands, perhaps millions? That is just the surface of the many interesting facts I get to learn about coins and American culture every day!
Let me also preface this blog by saying that I cannot give you all the juicy details of my internship due to most of the information I am privy to is not public knowledge yet. So I apologize, because I would love to share all the exciting things we are working on, but you'll just have to wait and see the exhibit for yourselves!
My first few days at the internship were filled with meetings, research and getting settled into my new job. The meetings were actually pretty interesting because the museum issues that I had learned in my Museum Studies classes were actually happening all around me. One of the issues the meeting discussed was deaccessioning objects. For those of you who are not acclimated with museum terms, deaccessioning is when a museum decides to let objects in their museums go somewhere else, either auctioned off or to other museums, because of various reasons. The object could be now unable to be taken care of, most likely because the item is in a condition that the museum cannot afford, or the object no longer fits in with the museum's collection, or the museum has multiples of this particular item. The problem with deaccessioning is that museums just cannot sell off items if they want to make some money or if they want to dispose of an item quickly. It has to be done in the most moral and ethical way possible, especially since museums are public institutions.
The Numismatic Department that I work for has certain objects in their possession that are deteriorating and which the department does not have the sufficient funds to take care of them. Additionally, they have multiples of these particular items for which the Numismatic Department developed a plan for how many of these multiples they wanted to keep. For the other unwanted multiples, they would be offered to museums or organizations that could preserve and properly take care of them. Eventually, if there are left over multiples after museums pick them over, Numismatics would choose to sell some of the items. These various reasons are good enough to deaccession the objects in question as well as allowing the museum to be as ethical as possible when letting go of these items. It is important that these items are placed in the best care possible.
And, to those of you may be wondering, what is it like to work in a Smithsonian? Well, I can tell you it is worth the four hour commute everyday! In the mornings I usually get to work early, so I enjoy either a nice stroll around the Mall, with a view of the Washington Monument. Or I can choose to wonder around the Smithsonian before the public invades the space. These past few days I have made it my goal to explore a new section of the Smithsonian every day before work. And as the big history nerd that I am, I am loving every minute of it! I have walked through an exhibit on four different interiors of homes from Colonial America up to the 1950s and so far it is my favorite. Tomorrow it is my goal to check out the First Lady exhibit where you can see Michelle Obama's inaugural gown. Definitely one of the perks to working in the most famous museum in America!
Let me also preface this blog by saying that I cannot give you all the juicy details of my internship due to most of the information I am privy to is not public knowledge yet. So I apologize, because I would love to share all the exciting things we are working on, but you'll just have to wait and see the exhibit for yourselves!
My first few days at the internship were filled with meetings, research and getting settled into my new job. The meetings were actually pretty interesting because the museum issues that I had learned in my Museum Studies classes were actually happening all around me. One of the issues the meeting discussed was deaccessioning objects. For those of you who are not acclimated with museum terms, deaccessioning is when a museum decides to let objects in their museums go somewhere else, either auctioned off or to other museums, because of various reasons. The object could be now unable to be taken care of, most likely because the item is in a condition that the museum cannot afford, or the object no longer fits in with the museum's collection, or the museum has multiples of this particular item. The problem with deaccessioning is that museums just cannot sell off items if they want to make some money or if they want to dispose of an item quickly. It has to be done in the most moral and ethical way possible, especially since museums are public institutions.
The Numismatic Department that I work for has certain objects in their possession that are deteriorating and which the department does not have the sufficient funds to take care of them. Additionally, they have multiples of these particular items for which the Numismatic Department developed a plan for how many of these multiples they wanted to keep. For the other unwanted multiples, they would be offered to museums or organizations that could preserve and properly take care of them. Eventually, if there are left over multiples after museums pick them over, Numismatics would choose to sell some of the items. These various reasons are good enough to deaccession the objects in question as well as allowing the museum to be as ethical as possible when letting go of these items. It is important that these items are placed in the best care possible.
And, to those of you may be wondering, what is it like to work in a Smithsonian? Well, I can tell you it is worth the four hour commute everyday! In the mornings I usually get to work early, so I enjoy either a nice stroll around the Mall, with a view of the Washington Monument. Or I can choose to wonder around the Smithsonian before the public invades the space. These past few days I have made it my goal to explore a new section of the Smithsonian every day before work. And as the big history nerd that I am, I am loving every minute of it! I have walked through an exhibit on four different interiors of homes from Colonial America up to the 1950s and so far it is my favorite. Tomorrow it is my goal to check out the First Lady exhibit where you can see Michelle Obama's inaugural gown. Definitely one of the perks to working in the most famous museum in America!
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