Harrison Smith Museum of Military History Summer Internship Blog Post 5

Similarly to last week, a majority of my work for week 5 focuses primarily on research, development, and label making for items displayed within the Museum of Military History’s First World War exhibition. As mentioned previously the museum has a great collection of World War I era items. The items found within the exhibition are diverse and provide museum visitors with a lot of historic eye candy. However, many of the items within the cases don’t have labeling that gives context to the items. The exhibition has a great flow but lacks a “narrative” or the general historical themes found within the American experience of the First World War. Like last weekI continued to research major themes, experiences, and items found when researching World War I including trench warfare, trench foot, poison gas, barbed wire, artillery, blitzkrieg, etc. that aren’t properly presented in the First World War Exhibition.

The Museum of Military History has an extensive collection that covers all major conflicts that have occured in American military history. Due to this each conflict presented and its corresponding items have to be fit into the museum’s limited floor space. Because the collection is extremely massive, many of the display cabinets and spaces found on through the museum’s various exhibitions have countless items found in each case. As previously mentioned because of the amount of items on display within the cases, there is little room to add interpretive labels to each particular item. The museum has a handful of tour guides which provide context on items found within each exhibition space, however these tour guides are primarily unpaid volunteers and their presence within the museum can be limited. Meaning that a majority of the museum goers that come to the museum view the various exhibitions without a tour guide. Without a tour guide and with little labeling, the First World War I exhibition gives little historical context on a majority of the items found within the display. Which can result in museum visitors enjoying the physical appearance and aesthetics of the items on display but walk away with little understanding of objects' purpose or historical context. Using Beverly Serrell’s book Exhibit Labels: An Interpretative Approach I have begun brainstorming ideas of how to effectively label a large quantity of items in a limited space. I have mentioned in previous blog posts that I have been creating mock labels and an “exhibition pamphlet” to present to the museum’s executive director Chris and curator and operations manager Mathus. I will be submitting them this coming week and report back on their opinions.

Whereas the museum has limited floor space (display cases/cabinets) many areas have an excess of wall space. Due to this, I began exploring hanging options that can help museum visitors better engage with military history. In particular (in the First World War exhibition I am focusing on) I searched the internet for American propaganda, military service board paperwork, and American Expeditionary Force (AEF) primary sources that could be displayed by wall hanging. Three prime examples I found were primary sources showcases the differences between American Army collar buttons which usually signified what division or regiment a soldier was in, American propaganda about war bonds/Lusitania sinking, and the differences between uniform shoulder patches that helped soldiers diginstiush what division or unit they were a part of. (I found a great source highlighting the different patches found within the 81st Wildcat division). I plan on presenting these sources to Chris and Mathus and seeing if we can get them printed at poster size and use them within the First World War exhibition. These are small baby steps but if the labels, exhibition pamphlet, and posters are approved I believe will make a great addition to the museum and help give museum visitors a more effective learning experience. I’ll report my findings next Friday with blog post 6.