Review of the Smithsonian Institution's Website

The Smithsonian Institution is arguably one of the most famous museums in the United States, if not the World. The mission statement of the Smithsonian requires some background information. The mission statement is taken straight from the last will and testament, written in 1826, of a British scientist James Smithson. In his will Smithson named his nephew as his beneficiary and said that if his nephew died without any heirs (which did in fact happen in 1835), the entirety of Smithson’s estate was to go to the United States to form an institution that would increase knowledge and the diffusion of that knowledge among the American people (“Smithsonian: History”). On the Smithsonian website, the mission statement is under the label of “James Smithson’s gift”. It reads, “I then bequeath the whole of my property…to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge…” (“Smithsonian: Mission”).

At first glance, that mission appears to be a bit broad, however when one goes exploring through the Smithsonian Institution’s website, they will see that the Institute is quite successful at meeting the requirements that James Smithson laid down in his will. According to its website the Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum complex and every one of the individual museums that belong to the Smithsonian Institution has its own website. However the main website of the Smithsonian does a good job at showing the visitor of the site the many different exhibits that are on display at all of the various museums. By exploring the website I found that the Smithsonian has what they deem “affiliate relationships” with other museums around the country. This relationship allows the Smithsonian to share traveling exhibits with these museums and act as a mentor for the museum that it is affiliated with. Not only does the website give the name of the museums that it is affiliated with by state, for each individual museum it provides a description of what the museum’s mission statement it, the contact information such as phone number, address and website, along with the hours of the museum. The website also provides a brief description of how the Smithsonian Institution works with the affiliated museum. The Smithsonian’s website also has a section dedicated solely to the research programs that are taking place at the institution and the various research centers that the Smithsonian is home to. These research centers and programs give support to the Smithsonian’s claim that it wants to increase knowledge, one of the main goals of their mission statement.

When looking at what the two main goals of the Smithsonian Institution are, the increase of knowledge and the diffusion of knowledge, it was easy for me to tell that the Smithsonian was intent on meeting the goals of its mission based on what I saw on their website. It would take days to go through all of the material the Smithsonian has posted for free use by the people who visit the website. I found that on nearly every one of the different museums’ websites there was a link to different things that would further the visitors knowledge on the subject. Sometimes the links were to further reading on the subject, sometimes they were “finding guides” that lead the visitor to research that was accessed frequently, sometime the links were to pictures or to libraries that had additional information on the subject. The Smithsonian’s website also told the visitor about the various traveling exhibits the Institution currently has out around the country and where to find them. Again the Smithsonian provides the visitor links to more resources and information about the subject presented in the exhibit. In almost every part of the Smithsonian’s website that I visited, there were links to where the visitor could gain more knowledge on the subject be it from the Smithsonian Institution or through another academic source.

In my opinion, the Smithsonian Institution’s website does a suburb job at meeting the goals of the Institution that are set down in its mission statement. In fact, I have actually used the Smithsonian’s website in the past for research when I was writing a paper and thought that the information I found on the site was extremely helpful and was easy to find given how well organized the site was. The entire site is well organized and easy for the visitor to use which helps the Smithsonian to further reach the goals in its mission statement through its website. All of the information I saw on the website made me interested in the subject matter being talked about and made me want to go visit the different museums even more than I did before I visited the Smithsonian’s website. It is because of this, that I think the Smithsonian Institution did an excellent job at meeting the goals of its mission statement through its website.

Here is a link to the Smithsonian Institution’s website: http://www.si.edu

Works Cited

“Smithsonian: History.” About Smithsonian. 2010. The Smithsonian Institution. 19 April 2010 http://www.si.edu/about/history.htm.

“Smithsonian: Mission.” About Smithsonian. 2010. The Smithsonian Institution. 19 April 19, 2010 http://www.si.edu/about/mission.htm.

Exhibit Review of the WSU MASC exhibit on Mary Robinson Walter

Holland-Terrell library is a main fixture on campus, anyone who goes to Washington State University can tell you where it is. However many students do not know that the library houses the university’s Manuscript, Archives and Special Collections (known as MASC) department. Even less students know that the MASC has exhibits that various professors and the faculty at the MASC put together. The current exhibit is no exception. In honor of Women’s History Month that takes place in March, the MASC showed an exhibit that was about the life and experiences of Mary Robinson Walter.

Mary Walter was a missionary who came to the Pacific Northwest with her husband Elkanah in the spring of 1838. The exhibit, titled Baskets, Bonnets and Pincushions: Interpreting the Life and Work of Mary Richardson Walker, was designed and curetted by Jennifer Thigpen and Rachael Johnson. Thigpen is a professor of history at WSU and Rachel Johnson is a graduate student in the history department. Thigpen states in promotional video for the exhibit that the goals of the exhibit were to tell the story of who Mary was, the kinds of things she did in her life, the various kinds of work she participated in, what things she valued, and the things that she found to be of the most importance in her life. Also, in the video, Trevor Bond, the interim head of the MASC, says that exhibit highlights a number of collections on the WSU campus. Bond says the exhibit tells a very compelling story of a woman who rebelled against the situation that she was in. He also makes the statement that the exhibit tells of a woman who had difficulty with her husband and children, and that the exhibit tells the story of a woman who survived in a difficult place of the country to live in.

Because many of the visitors to the exhibit will not know who Mary Robinson Walter was, the designers of the exhibit decided that the first thing the visitor should see is a short biography of Mary along with a short timeline of her life. Below the timeline and the biography are various pictures of the Walter family and the Robinson family. The exhibit moves through the different areas of Mary’s life. To tell the story of Mary’s life the exhibit uses text and various objects that were either owned by Mary and her family or were from the same period and region where Mary and her family lived. The objects shown include clothes that Mary would have worn, which were provided by the Historical Costume and Textile Collection that is part of the Department of Apparel Merchandising, Design and Textiles at WSU. The exhibit also includes personal correspondence letters written by Mary, a passport from the US War Department allowing her to travel through Indian country and diaries of Mary. In addition to this, the exhibit features books from the Walkers personal library, plant specimens that show examples of the plants that Mary used for medicinal purposes. The visitor will also see things that Mary and her family may have traded for or bought from the local Native Americans. These objects include coiled and woven baskets, woven bags and a pair of moccasins. There are objects that show what life was like working in the mission field such as a wooden paddle that was probably used for baking and various pincushions that Mary made, and a shirt for a newborn baby. One of the main objects displayed is the traveling writing desk of Mary. Various paintings and drawings done by Mary are also displayed.

The exhibit does a wonderful job of showing what life was like for Mary Walter and her family in the missionary field, how she got into missionary work and what her life was like before she was a missionary. There is a good deal of text that is required for the visitor to understand and contextualize what the life of Mary of like, which I started out reading as I moved through the exhibit, however I found that by the fourth part of the exhibit, I had stopped reading the text that explained the objects shown below it and was just looking at the objects. In my opinion, less text would have been nice, however I understand why the curators had incorporate a large amount of text into the exhibit. The flow of the exhibit makes sense and is very fluid, one part exhibit flows nicely into the next part. Because some of the writing on the objects, especially in the personal correspondence and the personal diaries, the designers pulled out key phrases that illustrate or support the point the curators are trying to make in the block of text from the objects shown. Overall, the exhibit does an excellent job of meeting what Thigpen and Bond state as being the objectives of the exhibit or what the exhibit will show. As I walked through the exhibit I got a sense of just how hard life was for Mary and her family. I also gained a new appreciation for just how hard women who lived in the Pacific Northwest at the time that Mary did had to work. For anyone who wants a good look at what life was like for women who were settlers and missionaries in the Pacific Northwest from the early 1800’s to mid 1800’s, the exhibit on Mary Robinson Walter is definitely worth the visit.

Bibliography:

Haugen, M. (2010). Women’s History Month: WSU Exhibit of Mary Richardson Walker [online video]. (Available online from WSU Today, a publication of WSU News Service at the web address http://www.wsutoday.wsu.edu/pages/publications.asp? Action=Detail&PublicationID=18719&PageID=&ReferrerCode=uggc%3A%2F%2Fjjj%2Ejfhgbqnl %2Ejfh%2Erqh%2Fcntrf%2Ffrnepu%2Enfc%3FCntrVQ%3D%26Xrljbeqf% 3DZnel+Evpuneqfba+Jnyxre).

King, C. (2010, Feb. 25). Artifacts, diaries reveal pioneer woman’s life. WSU Today. Retrieved April 6, 2010, from http://www.wsutoday.wsu.edu/pages/publications.asp? Action=Detail&PublicationID=18409&TypeID=1

For more information on the exhibit take a look at these websites:

WSU Today Online – Artifacts, Diaries reveal pioneer woman’s life: http://www.wsutoday.wsu.edu/pages/publications.asp?Action=Detail&PublicationID=18409&TypeID=1

WSU Today Online – Video debuts artifacts from MASC mission wife exhibit:

http://www.wsutoday.wsu.edu/pages/publications.asp?Action=Detail&PublicationID=18719&PageID=&ReferrerCode=uggc%3A%2F%2Fjjj%2Ejfhgbqnl%2Ejfh%2Erqh%2Fcntrf%2Ffrnepu%2Enfc%3FCntrVQ%3D%26Xrljbeqf%3DZnel+Evpuneqfba+Jnyxre