A few weeks ago I
wrote about the Recruiting gallery at my museum, since it was about to be
updated. If you need to refresh your
memory and see some of the "before" photos, that post is here.
We’ve recently
finished with the first phase of changes to the gallery.
As you might expect, making changes to a museum gallery involves quite a
bit of planning and teamwork among the museum staff. Ideas for the new displays must be researched
and developed, some appropriate artifacts must be chosen and prepared for display,
informational panels and labels need to be written and printed, and mounts for
the artifacts and labels must be produced or recycled from the previous
display. Several of us work together
when it is time to install the new displays.
For this gallery
update, we decided to make the changes in two phases. Today, I’ll show you what we accomplished in
the first phase.
The display case
containing the instruments used by recruiting bands just got a little facelift.
We added some window clings to the exhibit case doors here to help convey the feeling of patriotism which the recruiting bands were trying to create in the prospective recruits. |
This panel was
only up for a few minutes before our visitors started opening the doors and
reading the answers. We did an informal
poll while we were working there and discovered that our visitors were
surprised at many of the answers! This
panel continues to be a popular draw in the gallery.
The recruiting
display case was changed as well. This
one required the most effort!
The case looks pretty empty now, but notice that there are still pieces of adhesive stuck to the back wall. These will all have to be removed before the new background images can be installed. |
Now that the new background is in, the lights inside the case need to be adjusted. |
While I’m working on the case our exhibit designer, Dennis, puts up the new panels. |
And, here’s the finished case, complete with artifacts which relate to recruiting. |
Phase two will
involve adding a couple more artifacts to the case, and installing two more interactive displays to the gallery. Check back later to find out what else becomes
part of our new Recruiting gallery!
Photos
courtesy of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine.
I sure wish we lived closer!
ReplyDelete