Putting together an exhibit

A blog post by Education Intern Emma Glaser. To read more posts by and about JMM interns, click here

I’ve been interning at the museum for just over two weeks and, so far, my favorite thing that I’ve gotten to do is help out with The Electrified Pickle exhibit. I was especially excited for the meeting held last Wednesday because I had been asked to look through PastPerfect, our collections database, and see if I could find a couple of artifacts for the exhibit.

We were taking out artifacts and seeing how they fit together because an artifact might be really interesting, but not quite work with the other artifacts in an exhibit. We started out looking at artifacts that could provide a backdrop for the Permanent Wave Machine, a really neat piece used in a salon in East Baltimore in the 1930s.

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Jobi arranging hat pins.

The other section of the exhibit we talked about was the science section. We figured out which pairs of eyeglasses in the collection would look best next to an optometer. When I was looking at artifacts in PastPerfect, I stumbled upon an eye examination box, an old fashioned version of the chart eye doctors use to test people’s eyesight. Seeing it in person was much cooler than looking at the photo in PastPerfect, and I was thrilled that something I found was going to be in the exhibit.

Exhibit designer Mark Ward with the eye examination box.
Exhibit designer Mark Ward with the eye examination box.

After that, we discussed whether all of the items in a section should go in one case or in multiple ones and looked at which items would fit in different cases. We also took pictures, to help us remember how the artifacts should be arranged. Then, it was time to put everything away until we set up the exhibit.

Emma (that's me!) preparing to put away an optometrical tool.
Emma (that’s me!) preparing to put away an optometrical tool.

Don’t forget to come and check out The Electrified Pickle when it opens on July 13!

Categories
Interns Past Exhibits

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