The museums in DC are so inspiring. It makes me want to curate my own exhibit when I get home. I asked the kids if they wanted to make a small museum in our house and they said, Noooo! But I suspect if I just start on my own, they'll hop on board.
I can't decide if this will be a virtual museum or a real one. Maybe a little bit of both.
I have noticed a trend in some museums toward flash with minimal content. Not so here. The exhibits were sometimes flashy, but so deep as well.
They all start with a pithy title like:
If you can't make it to DC, try the book Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland (Exceptional Social Studies Titles for Intermediate Grades)
It was especially interesting to us since we had just visited Jamestown.
When you read about The Starving Time at Jamestown and see the graves it tells the story the usual way.
But when you see, in Written in Bone, the piles of horse, dog, cat and rat bones the colonists butchered and ate, it tells the story in a more intimate way.
My favorite part of the exhibit was where they identified colonists' occupations just by examining the bones.
Tailor's notches: chipping of the teeth and characteristic grooves made from holding needles in the teeth identify the owner of this jaw as a tailor.
The Library of Congress is making a huge push to digitize its collection and make it available to the public. On their website you can sign up for myloc.gov and make your own collection of books and documents housed at the LoC.
The National Park Service is going multimedia, too. They have virtual tours. I liked the flipbook documenting the construction of the Lincoln Memorial.
If you get inspired to curate your own exhibit, please share it with us and put a link in the comments section.
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