A blog post by JMM Marketing Manager Rachel Kassman. To read more posts from Rachel, click here.
A Look Back at Your Faves!
Everyone knows that the new year really starts on the 2nd, right? January 1st is for sleeping in, contemplating all your resolutions, and fortifying yourself against the winter cold. This January 2nd, I’m kicking off the new year with a look back at some of your favorites – that is, your JMM online favorites! Inspired by The Jewish Museum’s tumblr post of “The 10 most viewed objects” in their collection, I wanted to see what our most-viewed collections records were on the online portion of PastPerfect. And that, of course, led to checking our Google Analytics for the top blog posts of the year, checking Facebook for our top posts, and Twitter for our top post of the month. (Each platforms analytics work a little differently, thus why you’re getting different kinds of “tops” along the way.) I hope you find these as interesting as I did – and maybe take a quick walk down the 2018 memory lane with us.
Top 5 Collections Items Viewed on PastPerfect:
These records surprised me, because I can’t see any rhyme or reason to them – they aren’t items we’ve shared through our social media recently, no rare they specifically related to any current exhibits or programs. So there are folks out there doing research that is taking them to these items for one reason or another – fascinating!
Partially identified photo from the Talmudical Academy, n.d. JMM 2007.16.10Miriam Lodge K.S.B. scrapbook, 1992-1992. JMM 2005.1.45.69bB & P Hadassah Board, c. 1950 at Sarah Mabre’s house. JMM 1985.74.1Portrait of Joseph Hertz, painted by F. Wichgraf. JMM 2004.106.31Copy of Ernest Silversmith’s US Certificate of Citizenship, 1946 and German document for Franz Ernst Silberschmid and Julius Hans Silberschmidt, 1930. JMM 2012.46.2Also interesting, top search terms – for people, the most searched names were: Jacob Epstein (1998.98.001); Rabbi Samuel Rosenblatt (1986.129.026); Isaac Hamburger (1991.012.004); Evelyn Silber Krohn (1995.161.002); and Menasha Katz (1988.075.003).
I love that our #1 top Facebook post of 2018 was about the custom products we had created for Esther’s Place, the JMM shop! It’s heartening to see that our “Oy Vey” and “Shalom Hon!” mugs, magnets, and postcards were just as popular with you as they are with us.Perhaps unsurprisingly, our 2nd most popular post was a job announcement, for our program assistant position, which we were thrilled to fill with the wonderfully talented and hardworking Emma Glaser.#3? This fab CBS video interview with Ilene Dackman-Alon and Tracie Guy-Decker. They’re talking up Morrell Park: PROJECTED which was definitely one of our favorite 2018 program innovations!Numbers 4 and 5 were both related to our Inescapable: The Life and Legacy of Harry Houdini exhibit – the first being a link to Tracie Guy-Decker’s blog post about exhibit props (I think behind-the-scenes stuff is always interesting, don’t you?). The latter is about the Houdini button anyone can earn by completing our Inescapable family activity booklet (who doesn’t love cool swag, right?).
Our Instagram Top 9 of 2018!
Our Great Jewish Bake Off snagged 3 of the top spots! #2018bestnine
Top 5 Twitter Posts (kind of)
Twitter is one of the platforms that does their analytics a bit differently, so it was easy to find the top post for each month of 2018, but not necessarily the top 5 overall for the year. So here are the top 5 culled from those top 12 monthly tweets.
The #1 tweet, by quite a margin, was this one from July reminding folks to get their tickets for a talk with Victoria Kelly, the author of the novel “Mrs. Houdini. ” It was an excellent program!Next up came this post from August where we joined in on #MuseumVacay – many museums were sharing vacation related items from their collections.Unsurprisingly, this month’s top post (and #3 tweet of the year) was our our farewell to Gil Sandler, who’s passing has had a deep impression on so many.In February, our link to Jess’s blog post on Esther’s Place and Purim got a lot of love.And our #5, from November, shared the mysteries and magic to be found at the annual Houdini Séance! (I’m kind of tickled that this made the list, since the blog post itself is based on my live-tweets of the event.)
Top 5 Blog Posts of 2018
Now, to really start your year off right, here are some great blog posts from the JMM staff. If you missed any the first time around, today’s a perfect time to get reading!
#3 – I love that there’s some summer intern representation here, with Cara Bennet’s Finding MY Stories at JMM, about surprising connections between her life and the Museum.#2 – This one came as a bit of a surprise, as it’s a “reprint” from our 2007 edition of Generations Magazine, part 1 of “The Blaustein–Ben-Gurion Agreement: A Milestone in Israel-Diaspora Relations.”And the #1 blog post of 2018? Archivist Lori Rombro’s research dive into the Hebrew Orphan Asylum! The Hebrew Orphan Asylum has been in the news recently, as it transforms itself yet again, so perhaps this isn’t completely surprising, but as someone who’s background is in Museum collections, it warms my heart for them to be the star of the show.
Thanks for coming with me on this look back at 2018 – I’m excited for all we have to share with you in 2019!
