The animal

The Academy of Natural Sciences was a different type of museum than the ones we have visited before. Out of all the places it was probably my least favorite museum. Now, I still thought the place was very neat and people are able to learn from it, but I am more of history of the people person, so animals don't really do it for me. The museum itself was very nice and I couldn't believe that most of the animals have been there since the 1930's. They looked it great shape and you could tell the staff of the museum really takes care of them and takes pride in keeping the environments they are in 100% factual. In Michelle Henning's piece she brings up a point that I didn't really think about before, that when the person is looking at something at a natural science museum the person has to look very carefully, just like they would at an art museum. Just like paintings and pictures, the animals have so much detail to them and the surroundings around them. Our tour guide told us to that in the one diorama and you could see so much more when you gave it an in depth look. You could see little birds on the animals and plants, different types of plants, and you had little animals hiding in the back. To appreciate a piece of art you have to look at all the details and that was the same for these different "environments" for each species.
The Academy was one of the first of its kind and it's remarkable that it's been opened up with most of the same pieces for this long. You brought up on the tour how Hollywood was starting up just around the same time as this. This gave the people an actual feel for what it would be like to live in a world far from their own when they are looking at a 600 pound gorilla or a pack of lions. This was a new way of learning for the people of the time and it was going on during the Depression, so times were very tough for people and I would assume this gave people a cheap way to out and see new and wild objects. For using technology for the museum, I think that it has to be used the right or the Academy could lose its touch. It has been doing this since the 30's and I'm guessing it has been successful, but the times are changing to a more technological based society, so they are going to have to try and find a way to use it more. I think they are a in a tough position because they are right next to the Franklin Institute, which used technology so well and thats why people go there. The only thing I could think they could do would be to make a virtual tour of the different areas for each part of the museum. This would be something kids would enjoy and it's something I feel would even make adults interested. But the people working there seem to be pretty good at what they do, so I'll leave that up to them.

WE the People.

The National Constitution center was a very cool place and it was a good place to go to after reading about heritage museums. The center is a place where someone can go to and be proud to be an American. You can go and read the Constitution of America and stand in a room with everyone who signed it. I personally thought that was very cool and gave you a sense of what would it would have been like to stand in a room with Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, and Madison during such an important time in the history of this country. Although I though they didn't think they had that much information compared to size of the building, they did have information that you could learn from and see the important cases and events that happened and changed this country. From the Civil War, WW II, Roe v Wade, Reagan, 9/11, and the election of the first black president, it did show how not only how the country changed, but the people as well. Also, you could participate in activities that happened years ago, vote for your favorite dead president, and learn about how laws and amendments were passed.
One thing that I got out of the reading by Natalie Hopkinson, was that it is good to have both National and Heritage museums. A congressmen makes the excuse that only black people would go to a black museum, Native Americans will go to their own place and so on. My question is what's the difference if most of the people showing up to a heritage museum are from that heritage? The article says this is not true, but if it was at least people are learning about their heritage and can be proud of who and where they came from. The historian Faith Davis Ruffins makes a great point, he talks about how everyone knows about MLK, Rosa Parks, Rabbi Heschel, but there are others who you never hear about who fought the cause just as much as these people. And at a museum dedicated to their faiths and heritages, people will be able to go and learn about them.

A new view

I have to admit that I walked into ESP with a bias view, I didn't think that I would like and didn't think I would really learn anything. I will also admit that I was wrong, the tour was great and I picked about a lot of information about the place and penitentiary and jails themselves. I think people should definitely consider that part of Eastern State a museum. It gives you the history of the place, who the people who were to come up with the idea, the actual kind of people that would have been living in the cells, and the evolution of the place itself. If I didn't go today, I would have never knew that Benjamin Franklin was part of the idea or that people from all over the world came to see just how it was built and worked. For the haunted part of ESP, I think they should get a pass for it. The guide said they receive 65% of their budget from these kinds of tours and it helps them maintain the place so that they can give actual history tours of the place. The question I guess would be, how do you separate the two? And in all honesty, I really don't have an answer for it. It would be nice for everyone to think about this place as something that is important to the city of Philadelphia and also the country, but when most people hear Eastern State Penitentiary, they think of the Terror behind the walls.
For involving the community with ESP, that is something that I would have no clue on how to do. I am pretty sure the area is made up of college students, hipsters, young families, and young professionals. That is a very diverse group of people that have different motives and interest in life. Crooke talks about community development with the area, but with ESP the buildings are falling down and there didn't seem to be places where you could have neighborhood get together. Also, most people don't really grow up in the area. A few of friends have lived or live there now and they have never even been to the place before. In Crooke's essay she uses examples of communities and museums coming together, but these are very different than Eastern State. A museum in Cape Town and Northern Island are where terrible things have happened to the people who have lived there. They want the history of the places to never to be forgotten and let other generations learn about what happened to their families in the past. These places had a community to cater to, ESP doesn't really have one.

House Museums

Do I think there should be more house museums? I would have to say yes, but would need to know a few things about it opening up. My first question would be, what would the museums be about? If it was something relevant to the city of Philadelphia, I would back it. Also, where would the location be? The problem I think with the Cliveden museum is it to far from Center City. Let's face it, Germantown probably around a 20-25 minute drive from all the other major museums and exhibits in the area, so it is tough for people to get there. If a new house museum would be to open up around Center City, Old City, any university, Rittenhouse, etc I would be for that because these are populated areas were people are interested and already are most the time. If the new house was set up like the Powell, I think it could be a success. But, if they set it up like the two we read about with the slaves, than they should just save the peoples time and money. The Powell house staff didn't try to hide anything about what happened there and would answer any question. When your in a place like that you need honest answers because it gives you sense on who lived there and how these people were seen in society. The biggest thing a new house museum is how are they going to approach the new world of it. Godfrey talks about how American culture has changed and so do house museums. They have to figure out a way to get people interested and involved in what they are trying to sell. If a place can do that, than it will be a museum worth opening and going to.
The one thing about house museums that you really can't get anywhere else is the feeling of being there. I did get a little goosebumps when she said that the floor we were standing on was original and then she started to name Jefferson, Washington, Adams, and other founder fathers of the country stood on the same floor. That is something you don't feel or think of everyday and is very cool. Also, when your in a house museum, usually you are in a place of someone who was important during their time. You can see where Powell, Washington, and Franklin talked about the revolution and the ideas of a new nation. I would say this was my favorite place we went to so far because of all the history you see and feel.

America: In a different view

Walking into The Penn Museum, I expected to see the relics, paintings, statues, and the other artifacts they had. I knew they would have these things from Rome, Greece, Japan, China, Egypt, and the Middle East. The two things that I didn't expect to see were the things that I thought were the two most interesting galleries in the place; The 9/11 room and the Dopefiend area. The reasons why I think they were the two most interesting areas were because of what they each represented. Each area defines the people, places, and cultural of America at this time. 9/11 was the greatest tragedy most people in America have seen and will probably ever see. Also, when looking at the dopefiend wall, it didn't matter what race they were, black, white, hispanic. Everyone's life has been affected by the attack on September 11 and the lives of many Americans have been affected by drugs, whether it is the person taking them or the ones who love them. Also, each one shows what the museum is about, Archaeology and Anthropology.
 For the September 11 memorial, they had a sign on the wall about why they had the room and why they had these items from ground zero to show. I wrote down two lines that were really interesting to me: "The challenge of archaeology is to reconstruct lost moments in time", and "Through the documents recovered history is being documented and preserved". The items that they had on display were not anything major, but it showed that things survived the attack. They had a plate from one of the towers, name tags that people would have worn on the day, and a fire alarm from one of the towers. Even though these items might not have sentimental value to a lot of people, they show the world that if these tiny things can come out the fire, so can this great nation. The dopefiend area of the museum shows the Anthropology side of it. That was one thing that I thought would never be put in a museum. People say that they don't care about dopefiends and who cares if they die. But, at the same time the pictures and the write ups that follow them, show that these are or were normal people, just like the people at the museum. The wall of photos shows the people that this kind of thing can happen to anyone at any giving time. Just as 9/11 was a tragedy, the people who are hooked on heroin and crack are the same. When the terrorist attacked our nation, I thought how could someone do that to the greatest nation in the world. But, when you read the stories of these people, you can't believe you live in the same one.
When you said that museums categorizes themselves into place and time, I immediately thought of these two. Both of these galleries are about America at this time. We proved to the world and to ourselves that this great nation can overcome any tragedy and event that is thrown in our way. People say that even though September 11 was the worst time in this country, it also showed the best in what the country is about. Even though the pictures and captions of the dopefiend gallery show what some people in America have become, there is always hope that they can return to their normal selves.

American Man

When I skimmed the article about Charles Willson Peale, I was really excited to go and see his artwork. He had the likes of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe support his artwork, that is something that probably 99% of the people who ever lived could say. He was also able to set up his museum in Independence Hall, which was the most famous building of the time. That's how well respected he was and just how smart he was. After seeing his artwork and hearing the history behind him, I thought about what Glassberg said about how memories get selected for us. I thought about Political and Place for this museum. He wanted the people to see the evolution of the country through the most prominent people of the Revolutionary Period. He only painted people who mattered and fit his "type" of male. White, wealthy, upper class. Also, the place. All these men shaped the country into what we know as the United States. Whether it was Science, Business, War, Philosophy, these men all did something that was worth recognition in United States history. One of the things that I really liked about this place was, they had both something about the person and something about an event significant related to the persons field. For example, John Marshall had a plaque for just him and also something that had to do with the Supreme Court, so it wasn't just about him. You learned about the person and at the same time about the field in which the person was important to. Going back to the sections, I really liked how they broke the people into them. You learned a lot more about the person and even more about the history behind the section they were broken down too. Overall, I really liked this place because it holds so much of the nations history, with just portraits of the people.

Wagner

Going into the Wagner Free Institute of Science, I really didn't think much of it. It looks like a run down building, in a neighborhood that's not that well-known for museums. But, when you walked into the building and saw how it was built, you could tell that it was going to have a pretty sweet collection inside. The building had that Victorian style inside and it made you think that the things and people who built the museum were important. We found out that Wagner came from a wealthy family, but unlike the people we talked about from the 1400-1700's in Europe, he wanted to share his collection and knowledge of the sciences with normal people. You know the museum believes in evolution, because they base their lineup of animals, fossils, minerals, and rocks off of Darwinism. I also think that the Wagner hits the six primary functions we went over in class, collection, preservation, exhibition, education, administration, and public engagement. They have a great collection of animals, minerals, rocks, and fossils. They have preserved animals that I have never seen before and make them look like there about to job out at you. Their exhibition I thought was done nicely, big to small for the evolution of mankind and minerals. The education part was kind of bleak for me, but I still saw animals and other things I never knew or thought of and it gained my interest a little. For the administration, I thought the person who gave us the intro did a good job of explaining what it was and how it become what it is. And the public engagement was awesome for me. I could walk up to anything and look at it from a few inches away and thought that was really cool. The one thing that did piss me off was when, the fossils and a few animals that I looked at were in Latin and didn't know what the hell they were. But, when we got back to class and the topic was brought up it made sense. He wanted people to look at his collection, but at the same time learn from it also, by not just looking at it, but learning about what they were and where they came from during his lectures. I didn't think much of it from the outside, but the Wagner is definitely a very cool place and has a lot of history behind it. It was nice to know that he didn't want to just show off his collection like other rich people during his time, but actually god for bid have people learn something while they are there. That made the museum a lot more enjoyable for me.