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

New York Times Article Review

The museum review of the International Civil Rights Center and Museum, written by Edward Rothstein in the arts section of the February first edition of the New York Times, I found particularly interesting. One of the things that I found most interesting was that the museum being reviewed was located in the old F.W. Woolworth Co. building in Greensboro North Carolina, where the famous first sit-in at the lunch counter took place. According to the article the famous lunch counter is still in its original location in the museum along with the original seats at the counter. The only thing that is missing from the counter is an eight foot section of the counter which resides in the Smithsonian Institute. The article gives a brief history of the segregation policies and practices that took place at Woolworth stores and the movement and events the first sit-in at the Greensboro Woolworth counter touched off, along with some background information about how the museum came to be and who the major people responsible for the museum coming to be are. The author then goes into a review and critique of the way the museum is set up and the different sections represented in the museum such as the “Hall of Shame” where photographs of lynching are hung and other objects showing the violence of the civil rights era and the “Hall of Courage” where the “path” that the four men who participated in the first sit-in at the Woolworth lunch counter walked. This “path” is lined with images of Martin Luther King Jr., Sojourner Truth and Gandhi along with other important figures in the Civil Rights movement.

Although I have not been to the museum personally, I found the author’s critiques of the museum helpful. One examples of this is when Rothstein makes the observation that one of the weaknesses of the museum is that it tries to make the events or sentiments greater and more intense when “the are powerful enough to speak on their own” (C5). The author supports his point by making the statement that visitors will almost feel a sense of relief when they enter the theater after they walk through the Hall of Shame because they are no longer required to look on the images of civil rights era violence. I think this statement makes a good point in that it shows that people do not need to be shown a large amount of images of a particular violent event or an event where the lack of humanity is particularly prevalent in order for the emotion that the exhibit’s designers are trying to convey to the visitor. However, there are exceptions to this idea such as in the Holocaust museum in Washington D.C. where the idea is to convey the all-consuming despair the victims felt.

I think Rothstein’s article helped me visualize what the museum that he was writing about in his article looked like and how the exhibits were set up a great deal. Before I started reading the various museum and exhibition review articles in the New York Times, the thought that you could review and critique a museum or a museum exhibit was something that I had never really given much thought. However, when I read Rothstein’s article, the article gave me a better understanding of how you can critique a museum or a museum’s exhibits. The article was interesting and I found it to be very informative. In addition to this, I plan on making a habit of reading museum and museum exhibit reviews because of the information and ideas they contain and because I find them interesting.

Works Cited

Rothstein, Edward. “Four Men, A Counter And Soon, Revolution.” New York Times 1 Feb. 2000, natl. ed.: C1+.

Architecture and the Museum Experience

In my opinion, architecture can “determine” how different individuals experience the materials and exhibits that are housed in a museum. I think that it is possible for a persons visit to a museum and what they get out of that visit to be influenced by the architecture of the museum, however I do not think the architecture of museum always has an influence in “determining” what an individual experiences when they view museum materials or exhibits. There are several examples of this idea that I have experienced in my own personal trips to museums.

One experience where the architecture of the museum did not in someway “determine” my experience of the museum materials was at the Lava Butte National Park Interpretive Center, which is located in the Lava Butte National Park about 15 minutes south of Bend, Oregon. Granted, the interpretive center of a National Park is considered to be a museum in the sense that it is a large in size and has many exhibits, however it is still a museum. The physical building of the interpretive center was quite plain. The visitor enters through the gift shop and signs in then can proceeded either to a theater where speakers can make presentations or to a large square room that holds all the exhibits and displays. The simple architecture of the museum, in my opinion, did determine what my experience with the museum materials was going to be like. This was mainly due to the fact that I did not pay much attention to the architecture because it was so plain and simple, and therefore, I could focus all of my attention on the exhibits inside the museum.

There are also times when the architecture of a museum has influenced how I viewed the exhibits within the museum or how I experienced the exhibits within the museum. I experienced the influence that museums architecture can have in determining how a person views the objects of the museum when I visited the Experience Music Project, better known as EMP in Seattle Washington. The building that EMP is housed in is itself is quite large and imposing. It is ornate and designed in a very stylized manner. When I view pictures of the building that EMP is in, I am immediately struck about how “modern” it looks and how the design and layout of the building is very much a testament to what popular culture determines as being “cool,” “hip,” or “in style”. The architecture of the building that EMP is housed in determined how I viewed the objects it held within it, in that before even entering the museum I already had a belief that the objects inside were important because they were housed in this amazing building. I perceived the physical building of EMP as being incredible and an amazing example of modern architecture. My ideas about the building being incredible and an amazing example of modern architecture transferred over to my preconceived opinions of the objects that the building held within it. I thought that the objects inside must be of extreme importance to the development of music and the pop culture that goes along with music because they were being held in a building like the one that EMP is in. Simply by being housed in the building that EMP is in, the objects in the museum took on more importance to me than they might have if they had been housed elsewhere.

While I do think that architecture can have an influence on how individuals view museum materials and the exhibits within the museum, I do not think that this is the case all the time. People tend to be more influenced by “grander” forms of architecture, such as architecture that is large in presence and grand in appearance. In addition to this, architecture has a greater effect on some people than it does others. Some people might see EMP as a hideous building, whose design and layout does not fit into the neighborhood where it is located. While others view EMP as an excellent example of modern architecture and as an achievement in design and construction. I think that the impact that the architecture of a museum has on someone is very individualized and the not everyone is going to be affected by the architecture, if they are affected at all, in the same way.

Essay #4 Response

In my personal experience the aspect of a museum, aside from the content, that struck me as particularly effective happened when I visited Experience Music Project (more commonly known as EMP) with my aunt and uncle in 2004 (check date). I had a vague idea that overall my visit to EMP had been a very effective museum trip, however it was not until recently when I looked up “About Experience Music Project” on the EMP website did I see how truly effective EMP had been in meeting its goals.

Here is what EMP says it is trying to accomplish with its museum.

“Experience Music Project (EMP) is dedicated to the exploration of creativity and innovation in popular music. By blending interpretative, interactive exhibitions with cutting-edge technology, EMP captures and reflects the essence of rock 'n' roll, its roots in jazz, soul, gospel, country and the blues, as well as rock's influence on hip-hop, punk and other recent genres. Visitors can view rare artifacts and memorabilia and experience the creative process by listening to musicians tell their own stories” (Experience Music Project | Science Fiction Museum).

Weil states in the chapter “Organization-wide Quality” from his book Making Museums Matter, that the effectiveness of a museum should be measured based upon how well they meet their purpose (Weil, 18-19). Based on my visit to EMP they met their purpose very well. The “cutting-edge technology” they are talking about was the most effective part of EMP in my mind. What they are referring to when they talk about “cutting-edge technology” is this little computer that you carry around with you as you walk through the museum. It has head phones plugged in to it and comes with a barcode scanner. As you walk through the museum the visitor will notice that many of the exhibits have bar codes to scan. When these bar codes are scanned the computer recognizes what exhibit you are viewing and then plays audio with additional information relating to the exhibit. Also by scanning the barcode links to more information about the exhibit are sent to you in an email, which extends your museum experience beyond the time you spend in the physical museum.

I thought EMP did and excellent job of using technology to stimulate interests and show the “…essence of rock ‘n’ role, its roots in jazz, soul, gospel, country and the blues, as well as rock's influence on hip-hop, punk and other recent genres” ((Experience Music Project | Science Fiction Museum). The use of these hand held computers that held thousands of hours of additional information, made the museum exhibit more individual in the sense that people who visited the museum could in effect control what exhibits had more information and choose what exhibits received more attention.

When I got home, I opened my email and sure enough there were over a hundred links in an email message from EMP. All the links were sorted together under the various labels of the exhibits, and even the time when I scanned the barcode of the exhibit was listed.

I have always been interested in music and my visit to EMP taught me so much more about music then I ever imagined it would. I gained a new appreciation for where the music of my generation developed from and because of this I would say that EMP achieved its purpose quite well and was therefore an effective museum.

Works Cited:

- Experience Music Project | Science Fiction Museum. "Empsfm.org - ABOUT EMP|SFM - About EMP|SFM." Empsfm.org - ABOUT EMP|SFM - About EMP|SFM. Experience Music Project | Science Fiction Museum, 2010. Web. 1 Mar. 2010. .

- Weil, Spencer E. “Organization-wide Quality: A Theory of Museums and Immodest Proposal.” Making Museums Work. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002. 3-23. Print.

Below is a link to the EMP|SFM website. I found out when I visited the site that EMP had expanded and added on a science fiction museum.

http://www.empsfm.org/

The Contextual Approach in Museums

When I think about the contextual approach to understanding that developed in museums, a few things come to mind. In my opinion, I think what is meant by a contextual approach is to view a single object in a museum as a single part of a much larger picture and to try and understand how that single object fits into the bigger picture and the role it plays in that picture. I also think that what is meant by the contextual approach, specifically in museums is that when you are viewing an object you try and view it as it was viewed during the time period that it came from. By viewing an object like this it is easier for the viewer to see how the perception of the importance of the object and what part of the bigger picture the object played. In addition to this, I also think that the contextual approach means grouping objects together based on the broader activity they were used for the environment they were used in, rather than just grouping objects that are the same type as other objects together. An example of the contextual approach that I have personally experience was at the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon. I viewed an exhibit that was about Native Americans who were taken off their land and forced to go to American boarding schools so they would become more Americanized. In the display were pictures of Native American’s in dormitories dressed in slacks and sweaters, there was a band uniform from one of the schools. In addition to this, there was a pennant from the school along with textbooks for various classes such as English, math and history. All of these objects would seem somewhat different form each other if I were to have viewed them individually but because they were grouped together, the display allowed me to see the bigger picture of what life at these boarding schools for various Native Americans was like.

I think the contextual approach differs from other approaches because it has the viewer look at a grouping of objects that are different form each other but yet they are all related to each other because they were all part of the same big picture. For example, a butter churn and a quilt don’t seem to be very similar. However if you view these objects from a contextual approach you can see that the objects relate to each other because they were used everyday in the frontier days to name a specific time period. I also think that the contextual approach is different from other approaches because it combines the small specific details such as what the object is with the bigger picture ideas such as when was the object used, what other objects were used along with it, and what is the common tasks that relates the two objects.

In my opinion, I think the contextual approach is likely to found at museums today, especially natural history museums, history museums and anthropological type museums. This is mainly because the contextual approach works the best in these types of museums. I think we see some contextual approach in art museum displays but not nearly to the extent that you see it used in natural history, history or anthropological museums. I also think that the contextual approach is very likely to be successful in museums because it helps people see the broad picture of how the objects relate to each other. The contextual approach in display design also provides the viewer with a snap shot of sorts, showing them various items that at first glance may not seem to be related to each other but when you look more closely at the context in which they were used you can see how the objects relate to each other. In addition to this I think the contextual approach will be successful in museums today because people generally want to see the whole picture, such as what all was involved in a certain activity such as daily life on the frontier or how people did certain activities such as mining for gold during the gold rush.

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