musingsofahistorymajor

[musingsofahistorymajor]

This exhibit was AMAZING!!!!!!!!

I can see the amount of research and work that went into making this exhibit. It's very well done. I think I took photos of every single thing on display lol. It's so nice to see an exhibit that highlights the women who served in the military during WWII. It's such an often overlooked part of history but it's where my personal historical passion lies. I was geeking out at everything.

And there were some really great interactives inside as well. I enjoyed the code breaking one that used actual message center book forms! That's what the actual form looks like for a paper message!! I have original books of them for my reenacting!! And breaking the code was super fun too lol.

There's also this amazing digital portal with oral histories that you can interact with and it was amazing.

[musingsofahistorymajor]

The head of a dead Dunkleosteus in Jurassic World Rebirth.

[musingsofahistorymajor]

Me trying to figure out what the fuck time period the Buccaneers is supposed to be set in based on images alone:

[musingsofahistorymajor]

I am soooo excited for this weekend because I get to go to the Henry Ford Museum to see the "Our War Too: Women in Service" exhibit that's traveling from the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. I've been wanting to see this exhibition since it was first announced by the WWII Museum and now it's finally close enough to me that I can make the trip. I'm so excited!!!! I've also never been to the Henry Ford Museum and I'm dying to check it out.

[musingsofahistorymajor]

Archeosky was having fun with this

[musingsofahistorymajor]

[musingsofahistorymajor]

My workplace handed out these amazing Pride Flag lanyards and the "You are safe with me" pins (I added my own ace and aro flag pins) for Pride month and I absolutely love wearing them for 2 reasons.

1) All of us who work here and are on the LGBT+ spectrum get to show some pride and feel like we have support from our employer which is rare and not something I take for granted (and yes this a bit for show and I know that. Don't trust management. Don't trust corporations. It's still nice because they couldn't have done nothing at all) but I mostly love it because

2) The reactions I've been getting from visitors.

Several times now I've seen someone visibly relax when they see it. Not that they were super uncomfortable or anything before but the small smile they make and the drop of their shoulders when they catch sight of the lanyard is so heartwarming. And I've had several people give me a complement on it with a very knowing look and happy smile and I love that. Some saw it and relaxed and then we chatted at ticketing for a while and then when they left for at the end of their day that stopped and told me that they love my lanyard. Some have seen my lanyard and excitedly, outright, loudly told me "Happy Pride!" To which I enthusiastically say happy Pride right back.

I love that. I love it so much. Yes. You're safe here. You're safe with me. You're safe with my team members. Yes I am one of you and even those of us employees who aren't LGBT+ you're still safe with them. I love that just a small thing like a rainbow lanyard and a couple of pins can bring a little peace and a smile to people. I'm gonna keep wearing it long after June ends.

[musingsofahistorymajor]

A coworker once said that she wants a Parks & Rec style comedy show about a museum staff, and that lives in my mind rent free.

[musingsofahistorymajor]

Okay just to preface this story a little. So there's a reason I don't work in the education department in museums and why I didn't become a teacher right? I don't like kids. I don't. I have no desire to be a parent or have a child. I don't like being around them. I don't get them and I don't like interacting with them. That said! I'm not a dick to them. If a child comes up to me, I am friendly and patient and I try to be helpful and I play their games. Because even though I don't like kids, I understand that they are learning about themselves and the world and how to interact in those spaces and all that stuff so of course I'm not going to be an asshole.

Now today we had over 800 school kids in the museum today. They all arrived at 10am and I was stationed at the ticket desk located in the main lobby where the kids entered the building. 10am. 800 kids all at once. It was loud, it was stressful and it made me so anxious and I felt trapped and uncomfortable as all 800 stood around my tiny kiosk shouting and pushing and I hated it. So much. I don't work education for a reason!

But later I was stationed inside one of our galleries as an interpreter and the kids were all around. You'd think I'd hate it right? I didn't. Because here I get to find ways to help them engage with our exhibits. For example, some were doing a bingo for their school activity and they kept coming over to me for help finding things (or rather have me answer the questions for them which I won't do). Despite all of the above, I had a lot of fun finding silly ways to get the kids to locate their answers without giving them the answer. Like one group was trying to find out how many teeth Dunkleosteus has so I asked them well when did Dunk exist? Have you been inside this one gallery yet? Try looking for an area that feels like water is shimmering around you in the Ancient Ohio section. Like trying to guide them to where the Dunk exhibit is so they can find the answer themselves. Off they ran, excited. And yes they did find it.

Then I had another kid ask if we had any capybaras and I genuinely did not know. We have a lot on display and I wasn't sure if that was one of them. So I told him I wasn't sure but if we do it would be in this gallery over here. What's the worst that can happen? Now he has to look at the exhibits and maybe he'll learn something or see something he wouldn't have otherwise in his quest to find a capybara.

I also had a kid screech at the top of his lungs which normally makes my skin crawl but he screeched and shouted "A DIMETRODON!! IT'S A DIMETRODON!! MY FAVORITE DINOSAUR!" And ran at full speed towards our dimetrodon exhibit. This kid was like 6 and he was just full of pure joy that I laughed and had a smile for the next several minutes. That was awesome. I love that joy.

And there was this one young girl in our activity center who was mystified by this interactive hummingbird screen. She just stood there eyes wide, mouth hanging open, as she stared up at the digital hummingbirds flying around here. It was adorable. And once she was done she dragged her mom saying "let's go see more cool stuff!"

I love all of that. So much. Yes I don't like kids. They stress me out. But I LOVE seeing the kids who visit the museum and are just enraptured and engaged and to see them learning and discovering is amazing and I love every second of that.

So no I won't ever work as an educator but it makes me happy to see kids enjoying a museum and learning new things. It's fun.

[musingsofahistorymajor]

“I always remember having this fight with a random dude who claimed that ‘straight white men’ were the only true innovators. His prime example for this was the computer… the computer… THE COMPUTER!!! THE COM-PU-TER!!!

Alan Turing - Gay man and ‘father of computing’ Wren operating Bombe - The code cracking computers of the 2nd world war were entirely run by women Katherine Johnson - African American NASA mathematician and ‘Human computer’ Ada Lovelace - arguably the 1st computer programmer”

- Sacha Coward

Also Margaret Hamilton - NASA computer scientist who put the first man on the moon - an as-yet-unmatched feet of software engineering, here pictured beside the full source of that computer programme. #myhero

Grace Hopper - the woman that coined the term “bug”  

- @robinlayfield

[musingsofahistorymajor]

btw the katy perry/bezos' girlfriend/other four irrelevant billionaires 10 minute space stunt was not the first all female expedition no matter how much they try to market it as such. the first all female mission was in 1963 with soviet cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova, Irina Solovyova and Valentina Ponomaryova - all three of which were working class and had to pass incredibly hard exams to be chosen from 400 potential candidates. just in case we started falling for the propaganda machine again

[musingsofahistorymajor]

(1/2) Over the weekend I visited the 100th Bomb Group Memorial Museum at Thorpe Abbotts and IWM Duxford so thought I’d share some pics in case it’s of interest to anyone!

The museum exhibits are mostly housed in the (original!) control tower pictured, the displays are a little scattershot so better if you’re already familiar with the history (i.e. watched mota) but it’s very personable with lots of personal collections & items!! Some of my fave things:

Detailed displays about the Bremen/Munster missions

I was really charmed by this map/diary- the missions the author flew are drawn on in the red lines & the simplicity of the handwritten notes is so stark and heartbreaking

THE FEZ!!!! (Actually belonging to Frank Murphy, but there you go)

(They had a whole display dedicated to Rosie as well which I didn’t take a picture of for some reason 😭 I think because it was mostly photos/info that weren’t necessarily ‘new’ to me esp having read the book but it was really sweet!)

[musingsofahistorymajor]

[musingsofahistorymajor]

I'm sure people think that museums are just like charity shops. They can just drop off or send in whatever old crap they don't want.

Never ever do that.

If you've got something you think a museum might be interested in, reach out to them first. Get in touch with the right person, give them details and photographs of what you've got, and let them assess whether it is suitable or required.

Because if you just send in something unsolicited, 99% of the time it's something we don't want. We probably already have seventeen similar things, or it's outside of our mission or vision. All you're doing is taking up our already-stretched time and space, and we're going to have to pay the postage to send the damn thing back to you.

[musingsofahistorymajor]

Felt cute, might pressure the governor to dissolve the legislature later

[musingsofahistorymajor]

Integrating technology into museums should be to enhance the visitor experience rather than replace the human interpreters and loose that valuable human face and connection.