Week 10 of my internship with the Museum of Military History concentrated on material gathering, planning, and construction of the First World War exhibition trench and creating “CC” or “Cardboard copy” mannequins that allow for additional uniforms to be displayed throughout the museum. As mentioned previously the museum is currently undergoing interior renovations, so the pictures I supply to Dr. Gannon may seem cluttered but it is only because many of the exhibition halls are shifting new items in and out of their display cases.
A majority of my time this week was spent with museum staff member Roger Ragland. I mentioned him briefly in my last blog post. Roger is a military history buff and a skilled handyman. He has worked on various film productions and has extensive knowledge about various conflicts regarding America’s military history. Roger can even be searched up on The Internet Movie Database (IMDB). This week Roger, myself, and a handful of museum volunteers and light duty workers began constructing the foundation or “skeleton” of the trench system. Roger and I have been working collaboratively planning this project for the last month and we “broke ground” better yet “broke wall” earlier this week. Roger has extensive experience in the worlds of carpentry and wood work, so we followed his direction in constructing the backbones of the trench in an efficient, effective, and safe manner. The trench is going to be doubled sided and built using sturdy lumber, and metals that provide an immersive field. As for this week, we installed corrugated metal panels, two by four wood pieces (varying in size 5-10 feet long), and sandbags. The trench will be situated in a location that pushes museum patrons through the trench system before entering the First World War Exhibition hall. Once the skeleton is completed, Roger, myself, and the crew will age the materials to give the trenches a worn and lived in appearance, while also adding “in-action” mannequins dressed in WWI American era attire. The goal is to immerse visitors within the conflict and present a historically accurate interpretation of what an American trench on the Western Front would have looked like. I will provide pictures to Dr. Gannon to showcase the construction and progress of the trench system. Next week we are going to be aging certain parts of the trench and preparing the installation of a communication wire, hanging planes (to simulate an overhead dog-fight) and creating a wooden cage that will support a German MG08 machine gun within the trench system.
My second project, which took place when Roger was not at the museum, focused on creating “CC mannequins” or “Cardboard Copy mannequins”. The museum has a vast and extensive collection that spans from the American Revolutionary War to the present day. (Pictures, trench art, dog tags, clothing, uniforms, militaria, knick knacks, etc) A recent problem the institution has run into is not having enough mannequins to display prominent uniforms found within the museum’s collection. Mannequins are not a cheap investment and with the institution's limited budget, and recent spending on the materials for the trench system, the museum’s Executive Director Chris Robertson instructed Mathuis (operations and curator) and myself in finding a cheap and effective way in displaying uniforms. What we came up with are what I call “CC mannequins”. Mathuis and I figured out a way of tracing the outline of a preexisting mannequin’s upper body onto heavy duty laminated cardboard (think of an extremely thick corkboard). Using a power jigsaw, we cut out the tracing of the mannequin’s body and attach it to a four by four wooden post. When attached to a base, it creates a near perfect half mannequin stand to display additional uniforms on. We showed Chris our idea and results and he loved it and gave us the green light to continue using this method. With the material available Mathuis and I should be able to construct roughly 16 more “CC mannequins” which will allow for 16 more uniforms to be displayed within the museum’s exhibition halls. That is all for this week, I will provide pictures to Dr. Gannon and will post updates in next week’s blog post.