“Wait! Let me get a picture!” This is the famous line your parent or teacher said as you embarked on a school field trip. They needed to capture the moments of the day so the school bulletin board would look exciting. Although, let's be honest, most of the time those pictures never made it off the disposable camera.
Though they may not be documented well field trips are a vital part to any education. Presenting a lesson in a tangible way so that a person may understand better is irreplaceable. As a student I did not find learning about Plymouth Plantation very interesting but when we took a class field trip I had a whole new appreciation for life back in the 17th century. Because of the added benefits of actually seeing an object or display our museum board decided to take a field trip to three local museums.
I blogged a few weeks ago about how we were going to take this trip for a learning experience. If you remember, we went to the Travelers Rest Historical Society (TRHS), Library and Museum of Confederate History, and the American Legion War Museum. We wanted to see how local museums of our size displayed their artifacts and operated on a daily basis. I created a critique sheet for everyone to use at each visit. Though I had good intentions for the paper it was not as useful because I only printed five copies when I needed 15 (one for each stop). Need to work on that for next time.
The first stop was the TRHS in Travelers Rest, SC. We were all very eager to visit the TR museum because they were very eager to meet us! Upon walking inside members from their board greeted us with a warm welcome and asked each of us to sign the guest book. We all stood around the small museum and introduced ourselves. After a short meeting we were let loose to look around and ask questions. I was able to meet with Dot Bishop who is a Vice President of the museum gave me some great ideas about public relations and how to apply for grants. The museum's curators, Lynn and “Country” Hawkins, told us about how they created their table displays at a cost effective price. We spent over an hour discussing history, asking questions, and sharing our journeys as new museum to one another. This was our best stop of the day.
Our next stop was to the Library and Museum of Confederate History. You may be thinking why we went here especially all the controversy of late. I decided to go here because I wanted to see how the “rebel” side was displayed. We are a museum of Revolutionary War history and because of this we need to talk about the British involvement in the war.
The Confederate museum is a house museum tucked away on a side street in downtown Greenville. We all had a hard time getting up the mountain of front steps. Once we reached the top we were interrogated about what state we were from. A couple of us are originally from the North so the museum docent handed us a “greencard” so we could enter in. The inside of the museum was big but crammed with a lot of items on the walls. There was no big welcome at this museum because we just showed up at normal business hours.
As I walked around the docents were very helpful in answering any questions I may have had. I found one small exhibit on the Union soldiers but the rest of the place was dominated by Confederate history. We all liked the mounted displays on the wall and how that freed up a lot of walking space. We also liked the uniformity with the signage for each object. After about a half an hour we were done looking around and left out the ground level entrance in the back of the building.
Lunch Break! By this time we had been at it for a few house and had become hungry. Tom suggested we go to a local burger place for lunch. My husband met us there and we all had a very filling meal. It was nice to sit down and spend some time with the other board members and get to know them a little more. We all found out how much of an appetite Tom really has!
The last stop of the day was the American Legion War Museum. The building is the local American Legion post and a museum for all wars. To be honest this was our least favorite museum of the day. It was not very exciting to look at and the artifacts were all over the place. The library part of the museum was overtaken by mannequins dressed in uniforms. Tom did not like the small display on the American Revolution. It was a good experience though to walk through and discuss what we did and did not like about the museum.
Our field trip was a success! We learned a lot of new things and come up with some great ideas for our exhibits. Tom has already decided to go on one more trip this year. It was beneficial to see how other museums were designed and how each one has learned from one another. We are all trying to preserve history together. Can not wait for our next trip!
(Oh, and I actually downloaded some pictures from my phone for you to look at. Enjoy!)
Though they may not be documented well field trips are a vital part to any education. Presenting a lesson in a tangible way so that a person may understand better is irreplaceable. As a student I did not find learning about Plymouth Plantation very interesting but when we took a class field trip I had a whole new appreciation for life back in the 17th century. Because of the added benefits of actually seeing an object or display our museum board decided to take a field trip to three local museums.
I blogged a few weeks ago about how we were going to take this trip for a learning experience. If you remember, we went to the Travelers Rest Historical Society (TRHS), Library and Museum of Confederate History, and the American Legion War Museum. We wanted to see how local museums of our size displayed their artifacts and operated on a daily basis. I created a critique sheet for everyone to use at each visit. Though I had good intentions for the paper it was not as useful because I only printed five copies when I needed 15 (one for each stop). Need to work on that for next time.
The first stop was the TRHS in Travelers Rest, SC. We were all very eager to visit the TR museum because they were very eager to meet us! Upon walking inside members from their board greeted us with a warm welcome and asked each of us to sign the guest book. We all stood around the small museum and introduced ourselves. After a short meeting we were let loose to look around and ask questions. I was able to meet with Dot Bishop who is a Vice President of the museum gave me some great ideas about public relations and how to apply for grants. The museum's curators, Lynn and “Country” Hawkins, told us about how they created their table displays at a cost effective price. We spent over an hour discussing history, asking questions, and sharing our journeys as new museum to one another. This was our best stop of the day.
Our next stop was to the Library and Museum of Confederate History. You may be thinking why we went here especially all the controversy of late. I decided to go here because I wanted to see how the “rebel” side was displayed. We are a museum of Revolutionary War history and because of this we need to talk about the British involvement in the war.
The Confederate museum is a house museum tucked away on a side street in downtown Greenville. We all had a hard time getting up the mountain of front steps. Once we reached the top we were interrogated about what state we were from. A couple of us are originally from the North so the museum docent handed us a “greencard” so we could enter in. The inside of the museum was big but crammed with a lot of items on the walls. There was no big welcome at this museum because we just showed up at normal business hours.
As I walked around the docents were very helpful in answering any questions I may have had. I found one small exhibit on the Union soldiers but the rest of the place was dominated by Confederate history. We all liked the mounted displays on the wall and how that freed up a lot of walking space. We also liked the uniformity with the signage for each object. After about a half an hour we were done looking around and left out the ground level entrance in the back of the building.
Lunch Break! By this time we had been at it for a few house and had become hungry. Tom suggested we go to a local burger place for lunch. My husband met us there and we all had a very filling meal. It was nice to sit down and spend some time with the other board members and get to know them a little more. We all found out how much of an appetite Tom really has!
The last stop of the day was the American Legion War Museum. The building is the local American Legion post and a museum for all wars. To be honest this was our least favorite museum of the day. It was not very exciting to look at and the artifacts were all over the place. The library part of the museum was overtaken by mannequins dressed in uniforms. Tom did not like the small display on the American Revolution. It was a good experience though to walk through and discuss what we did and did not like about the museum.
Our field trip was a success! We learned a lot of new things and come up with some great ideas for our exhibits. Tom has already decided to go on one more trip this year. It was beneficial to see how other museums were designed and how each one has learned from one another. We are all trying to preserve history together. Can not wait for our next trip!
(Oh, and I actually downloaded some pictures from my phone for you to look at. Enjoy!)