Paying Tribute to 911 Jersey Style

Going through the  NJ State Museum for the first time one exhibit stood out from the rest, Remembering  911. My first thought was New York.  Remembering 911 talks about New Jersey  tragedy in the historic event.  there are these blue panels placed on the walls  that give the tourist information about how many people died in 911 that were from NJ, the heroic fire fighters and policemen the PATH (port authority of New York and New Jersey) and personal stories from the different family members and friends of the people that died that day. one part of the exhibit that is interesting a wall filled with messages from love ones on how much they love and miss their family members.  


The exhibit  also displays actual artifacts from 911. The artifacts that are displayed look like pieces of junk, but yet they are not because these a are all we have left of that historic event. Being an archaeologist these artifacts that are displayed fascinated me because I am not used to looking at artifacts that are so young.  


This is a very heart breaking exhibit but I encourage everyone to go see it because I truly don't think that the majority of America knows the New Jersey story of 911 as well as they know New York's Pennsylvania's and Washington DC. 

Dr.Bruggeman and Dr. Lubar

On Friday there was a presentation with the infamous Professor Lubar of Brown University. This was different from most presentations because it was a conversation between Dr. Bruggeman and Dr. Lubar.  They talked about the future of museums and how they are rapidly changing. The museums are different internally from Dr.Lubar started working in museums; he talked about traders, educators and exhibit societies. I did not fully understand the concept of the job of the traders.  He talked about how different museums conveyed different messages. This made me think back to the different types of display modes that exist; the archival, the experience, the interactive and the diorama. These different models help convey the different messages that the museums try to convey. This is an excellent talk to have towards the end of the class because it connects all the different ideas together.  An interesting topic that was addressed in this talk was how people resisted digital history. I have the same feelings about change and I probably would have resisted too, but at the same time America is becoming more technologically advance so for a museum not to have digital tours/histories would be silly. There are some museums that should advance with the times, especially the different house museums and the Wagner Museum.  The Wagner Museum main mission is to preserve the history of the museum and to present it to the public as it was when it first opened in the late 1800s.

                I felt like Dr. Lubar was talking very quietly so I did not hear what he said properly, what I did heard was very interesting. This is a topic that should be address to temple students in the future because museums are what hold the knowledge about the past and the present.

Response to: What is America?

The students at the University of East Anglia gave some pretty interesting definitions of what American means to them. I thought that it was interesting that some thought that Gossip Girl was an unrealistic example of what Americans are but the O.C and The Hills were more of a realistic view. In reality not everybody gets to live a rich life style especially in America.  But some of them did talk about Friends, the Simpsons and South Land, which give more of a realistic view on how Americans are.  It is very difficult to define any type of culture, but the  American culture is very difficult because of the diversity.  My favorite example that was given about American history was To Kill a Mocking Bird. That is one of the best examples to talk about how Americans were prejudice at moments in history.

Reading the response about how American Universities focus a lot of their free time on sports; whether it is playing them or watching them. It is surprising to find out that colleges do not have sports teams over in  England. I think their main sport was soccer /“football”; I thought that colleges went and played against each other. My main question is where do the British get their school spirit?

High school was another topic that was address by the students in East Anglia. I did not know that the students attending high school have a “different culture” than the American high school students. Even though England and America are two different countries with different cultures; I thought that people globally especially two countries in 1^st world countries would have the same dramas. The word drama is used here since I felt that a good portion of my high school career was drama.  What were the high school experiences you‘ve encountered in Britain. The topic of Obama was very interesting; I would not have thought to mention him as being a major impact on America Culture. He is our first African American President but at the same time I think that there are more influential “blacks” in American Culture, like Martin Luther King and Sammy Davis Jr. Sammy Davis Jr. was one of the first people in American media that was bicultural; since he was African American and Jewish. Diversity was a main theme and in America most people considered themselves belonging to more than one culture. Sammy Davis Jr, being a part of American pop culture is important since he inspired the African community like Obama, who is also bicultural, to be a take part in America’s mass culture. In other words Mr. Davis Jr. inspires people to embrace both cultures they might belong to. Today that also applies to our Latin American community.  Hopefully that did not confuse whoever is reading this response.

There are some things that I would have mentioned about Americans and their culture is that we love fireworks. If we can have fireworks at an event we do. Also I thought that people would have mentioned how America is like the game of monopoly.  I know that American culture had an impact on British television but I didn’t know it had a huge impact. I only know of a couple British shows, like The Office, Are you Being Served, and Dr. Who. Are these shows even on anymore? When

The American Museum

The American Museum

Background

The Simpsons

The Simpsons are one of the best examples of American Culture. The show has been on for over 21 years. It started on the Tracey Ullman show which aired from 1987 until 1990. Marge and Homer have three children, name Bart, Lisa and Maggie. Homer is the bread winner in the family; his occupation is being a safety engineer at the local nuclear power plant, while Marge is the stay at home mother. Bart is the oldest of the children he is 10, Lisa is 8 years old and Maggie is 2.

Walt Disney

He was an innovator that was born to two immigrants in Chicago in 1901.  In 1928 the most infamous cartoon character was released to the public, Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie. Today the Disney corporation is one of the most well known throughout the world. In 1932 the first Disney classic was created, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which was the first animated full length movie. It lead to other creations like Cinderella (1950) and Sleeping Beauty (1959). Walt Disney died in 1966; his last movie that he is acclaimed for creating was The Jungle Book.

To Kill a Mocking Bird

To Kill a Mocking Bird was written by Harper Lee, which discusses the topics of racism among the people in the Alabama in the 1920’s and 1930’s. This story is based on a true event that happened in the author’s life, when she was growing up a group of African American men were accused of raping Caucasian women. The people who lived in her neighborhood knew that the trials were full of prejudice against these men and thought that the women were lying. In 1957 To Kill a Mocking Bird was release and this story and this told through the eyes of a young girl name Scout Finch. She tells the story of how her father, Atticus Finch, defended an innocent man that was accused of rape. Racism was apparent in Alabama at that time in history. Scout’s community knew that, Tom Robinson was innocent and didn’t rape the Mayella, the woman accusing Tom of rape. Since Atticus chooses to stand up for Mr. Robinson and his identity, Atticus’s children were ridiculed.  

 Old Exhibits

The Magic Kingdom

Magic Kingdom is such an important part of Walt Disney and “American History”. The first idea was to create an experience museum like the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia.   Disney has a big impact on American culture. One of the main messages that is convey throughout Disney and America is that “A dream is a wish that comes true”. In the endings of most Disney movies the main characters live “Happily Ever After”. I did not want that to be the main message that was convey in this museum. Instead of making the Magic Kingdom an experience museum, I decided to borrow an idea from Henry Ford and create a museum with that building.  Today in the Museum there is an exhibit on the history of the building and people get to experience it like it was, but with a twist.

Science of the Simpsons

The exhibit shows the audience through the beginning credits how the main character Homer, evolved from a bacteria, and became the human being he is today.   The tourist would go on a visual tour and experience what Homer experienced.  Also within the exhibit there would be a painting of Homer as a non human primate to what he is now, a homo sapiens.  This did not quite fit with what the Museum message was going to convey, so it had to be removed from the plans.

The Arts and Banksy

In the Simpsons, Bart is known for being a graffiti artist. So in the opening credits, they creators of the show pay tribute to the British Artist.  In this exhibit there were going to be pictures/paintings of Bart’s art work and Banksy. The main problem with this was that Banksy was a British artist who is well known and inspired many Americans, but he was not from America. Also there was a huge controversy that went along with the Simpsons and Banksy being in the opening credits. Many people thought that the opening credits were grim. People did not respect the Banksy graffiti over Krusty’s face. They saw it as vandalism. I thought it would have been a great piece in talking about how diverse the US is and how we are influenced by our British friends. The curator of the Museum wanted it pulled; she said it was too controversial.

The Mission

The mission of the American Museum is: to show the aspect of diversity; the importance of it; and how it affects Americans today.

The Present Exhibits.

Disney Princesses

There is an exhibit where all the Disney Princesses are displayed in a case. There is a dolls are in chronological order from when the movie came out, from Snow White to Rapunzel. Under each doll there is an “index card” displaying their name, the movie they were in, the year it came out. Since Snow White is the “first” princess, there are many dolls in the exhibit that portray her throughout the years and only one doll portraying Rapunzel since she is the last princess.

Different Religious beliefs and The Simpsons

There are many religions that are exhibited in this television shown. The Simpsons themselves and most of their fellow community member are of a protestant religion. Lisa Simpson is a member Buddhist Church.  The owner of the convenient store, Kwiki Mart, Apu is Hindu. Krusty the Klown, another important character in the show,  is of the Jewish Faith. This exhibit is shown as a visual tour and people get to experience the different religions that Springfield has to offer.  The visual tour consists of watching the episodes of the Simpsons that talk about these religions. An example is when Lisa decides to become a Buddhist. When watching these episodes of these shows people tend to form stereotypes about people who belong to these different faiths.  There is a sign and a disclaimer in the video saying that watching these episodes may think you to believe that people of these different religions act only one way but in reality that is not true. Then at the bottom of the screens there are index cards explaining the different religions and the rituals and practices. In this exhibit there are people that practice these religions as well to explain what the viewer should have taken away from the television episodes.

There are different paintings from the episodes as well that depict the different religions, like for example from the episode where the Simpsons join a cult and the Episode where Bart and Homer want to become catholic.

American History and the Road to Diversity

Throughout American history we learned about how many different groups of people came to America to be free. Everybody was not free while living in America. There was a lot of discrimination. One of the main messages that should be taken away from this museum is that everybody is equal.  People need to learn from the mistakes, a way in which the American Museum does that is have dioramas from the different Scenes in the inspiring book and movie To Kill a Mocking Bird.

Throughout this exhibit there are scenes portrayed in these dioramas. Towards the end of the exhibit there is a Simpson episode that people can watch called the Color Yellow. In this episode Lisa is has to do a project about her family history, and she discovers that her ancestors were slaves. Here the main message is that more of the population in America is bicultural and that diversity is very important to Americans.

There are many depictions of the Simpsons of throughout this portion as well, the Simpsons being depicted as Indian, African and African American are some examples.

The Home of Medical Fascinations

Yesterday we visited the Mutter Museum, it was very fascinating.  The Mutter Museum was a College for Physicians that opened in the mid 1800s. A bigger portion of the collection was donated by a man name Thomas Mutter.  The Museum opened to the public in 1970s and it now sees over hundred thousand visitors. While looking at all the artifacts/collections all I kept thinking about was how most of the artifacts had their markings on them. It brought me back to when I was an intern at URS, an archaeological firm, and I had to mark artifacts. My boss, Becky, told me that the markings get removed when they go on display in a museum.  In the Mutter the artifacts still had markings on them. A person who never worked with a collection of artifacts wouldn’t have noticed that the artifacts on display weren’t supposed to be marked.  When looking at the different collections, the concept of the index card was popping into my mind as well. The index card was a technology, enabling data to be stored in standardized form and systematically retrieved (Henning; 132-133).   With every “artifact” there was a card with information on it. Marcy, our tour guide, pointed out that some of the index cards were written by the doctors themselves.  In the Warden collection, the catalog card was written for the audience and they want to change all of the index cards so that it is written for the visitors. When looking at the “index card” the language on them was a bit different from the cards that were written by the doctors.

This was my second trip to the museum. It was a different experience prior to the first because of all the knowledge I have of museums. I knew that this was a collection from Thomas Mutter but I never thought of these artifacts as archival. According to an online dictionary an archive is a place or collection containing records; documents, or other materials of historical value.  This definition could also define a museum as well, since it also serves the same purpose.  I think the main thing that differentiates museums and archives is that in museums the artifacts that are more publically displayed than in an archive. When the term archival comes to mind I cannot help to think of the word storage and library.  So the Mutter is a place that brings both of these definitions together.  

The many collections were very interesting to look at, the dermatology, the rack of skulls, the Siamese twins, the soap lady, the tall and short humans and the man whose colon had 8ft of waste inside of it. I sound a little morbid but my favorite collections were the babies in the jars and the skeletal diseases, because I am an anthropologist.  The rack of skulls were interesting to look at, especially their catalog cards. I want to know how they got all of that information about the skulls. Marcy told us different ways they could have gathered the information. I thought it was interesting that grave robbers used to steal human remains as well as material culture. The dermatology section was interesting because my Poppop has that same disorder that the lady with the “horn” had or the tree man has. So I learned something new since I always thought that what was on his ear was a mole. I forget the technical term that Marcy called it. It was interesting that in the beginning people were allowed to borrow specimen.

I liked this Museum.  I thought t it was interesting that this was the museum we went to last. It brought all of the different concepts together that we have learned in class, except for the diorama, so I can see why our teacher did that.

Silence is Reforming.

Yesterday we went to Eastern State penitentiary. It was different experience from the other museums we went to. Linda didn’t consider the penitentiary a museum she said it was a historical site, which made me think back to the beginning of the class when we came up with the definition of a museum…“Power, knowledge and meaning,”. This historical landmark conveys these words. Power is being conveyed through the design of the building; the walls are 30ft high and 10ft deep.  The building is considered to be a panopticon because when you stand in the middle of it you can see everything that is going on.  The Panopticon was remarkable invention because cameras weren’t invented yet, and this design gave the warden a way to watch the guard. This concept can be considered conveying power as well.    Meaning is conveyed because the penitentiary was built to reform the criminals that were sent there and in the 1913 it was meant to punish criminals. Knowledge is presented in this museum because of the tour we went on, and the different signs that were posted throughout the building.  There were different pieces of artwork that were in the museum as well.

Eastern state penitentiary opened in 1829 and closed in 1971. Between 1829 and 1913 it was a place of reform, a place to show penance. There are many religious themes that are through the penitentiary my favorite was the skylight that was sought up to be as the Eye of God. It started out as a reform institution, they were getting educated, and planting their own food.  Nick said that the penitentiary is like a city; it has a hospital wing, it has police, a school and a “prison” for the prisoners that were too bad to be near others. In 1913 the penitentiary changed dramatically from a reform institution to a corrections center. There was more than one prisoner per cell; it was kind of going back to the older days where criminals weren’t paying for their crimes. There were problems with the 1829 edition people were going insane from being detained in a room by themselves for years.

This week’s reading expressed the ideas of a museum focusing more on the aesthetics and universal value than the artifacts themselves. In the reading it focused on the Pow Wow museum in Brittan; it emphasized on the story of Pocahontas than the historical context.  This museum is a bit different; the public is very much involved but doesn’t exclude the historical context of the penitentiary. Our tour guide Nick gave us a very vivid tour of the penitentiary, went through the history and showed us the display figure of the penitentiary.  

My favorite parts of the museum were the tunnel and how we could go into the room where it was built, being able to look in a cell where one of the inmates lived and looking into Al Capone room.  I know that the lamp and chairs were not his real things but the way it was set up gave an idea on how he lived there.  The question that bothered me was how they knew where Al Capone cell was. I wish I’d asked.  I also wish that we could walk through the tunnel. My favorite pieces of art were the bones in the “yard” and the picture that showed how prisoners were before the penitentiary was built. It made me think of the aesthetic values of the museum.  I liked how in the cells there were sculptors of how the different prisoners lived. 

People Can Learn Science by Looking at the Artifacts!

Today we visited the Franklin institute. This museum is an example of an interactivity museum. The exhibit we got to experience was Electricity; Kristen who was the designer and manager of the exhibit gave us a talk about the use of artifacts and history; they are an important part of the exhibit. She claimed that the people wanted to see artifacts of Ben Franklin. I agree with her, maybe because I am bit bias since I study archaeology or because looking at the artifacts can give people an idea on how Ben Franklin lived his life.   This is the one of the first exhibits to have touch screen monitor in the country. The touch screen lets the audience read the book written by Franklin himself.  It also gives a better view of the artifacts that are displayed in the cases. She talked about the importance of the artifacts and it made me think of  what Hilde Hein said ‘that by using everyday things and examples drawn from day to day experiences,…the wonders of the world are everywhere, directly under our noses and go unnoticed,’( 1986:30; Henning ,86).

We got to venture through the exhibit looking at all of the different activities. My least favorite was the light bulb where the person had to turn the crank to light the light bulb. None of them lit up, so I’m guessing it takes a lot of energy to light a light bulb. The display about how much energy a city uses was my one of my favorites beside the telephone screen and the dance floor. The city displayed made people work together to “build” a greener society and the color changed green when there was least energy was being used and red when the most was being used; yellow indicated a medium.  The telephone screen was neat. I think it lights up more when an AT&T costumer is calling someone because the lights go crazy and they didn’t do that with a different cell phone provider. The dance floor was interesting because the more people that dance on it the more it lit up.  Kristen was telling us that the main messages being conveyed through this exhibit was everyday messages. An example is that people need to work together, and the dance floor is a prime example of that.  This made me think of this week’s readings and how the Exploratorium.  How the creator of it wanted to show that science can be fun but it was also dangerous. That message can be seen in the display with the key and how when the key was touch people felt a shock. This display surrounds the myth of Ben Franklin and the key, but it teaches people don’t touch metal objects in a storm because you can get zapped.

            The whole process of how an exhibit is interesting to look at especially how everything gets displayed. Kristen touched based on this a little bit, and she explained to us how much work it is to create a display. I’m glad we got the opportunity before class to looks at all the design plans.  For example in the 2008 plans there was an exhibit or displayed that show people the electricity in their brains.  That wasn’t displayed in the exhibit, but instead one about electricity in the muscles which was pretty fascinating, this was a good experience and the museum was interesting to see. Allison, Alex, and I got a sneak peek of the heart exhibit. It was cool to listen to all of the different animals heart beats; we didn’t go through the art though. I guess I will save that for another trip.

This is a terrible picture that I took of the Telephone screen.