Curating in
general is a very important job because you want the viewer to be able receive the
essential information about the exhibit piece as quickly as possible. This can
become quite tricky as many pieces are packed full of history. It’s necessary to
be able to choose what parts are more important to include verses others. This
can require a lot of analysis, taking careful note on details that the common
bystander would ignore. Then, take that information and pack it into a two
sentence statement. Things to look for when analyzing a piece are what the
creator wanted you to get out of it. Also, basic information such as the date
of when it was created, the title and who exactly created it. We took precise
and accurate notes on all the sources to get all the data spread out in front
of us. We then highlighted the information we found to be most important and
then displayed that on a small card. These are things that my group and I
looked for when creating our exhibit on the Industrial Revolution.
Our
exhibit was about the sub group of the Industrial Revolution. How the latest
invention of the steam engine advanced the revolution so much further. The
first source is a diagram of a steam engine which displays the basic functions
of it. It displays the science and why it was able to produce energy. Then, the
map of major products produced in Great Britain called Map of Coal and Metal Production with Canals and Rivers in Great
Britain. Made to represent the 1750’s to 1800’s. It shows that wool was
made in less developed areas and metal was produced in more developed areas.
Coal was produced towards the north. Next, we have Industrializing America, 1790-1850, a timeline display the
advancements that occurred due to the invention of the steam engine and how it further
improved daily life. There’s a photograph named Cutting at Blisworth on the London-Birmingham Line which shines
light on all the man power used to cut open mountains to get from one place to
another. The cuts in the mountain are ragged compared to how the rocks on the
highways are cut which proves improvement because of the Industrial Revolution.
Moving away from visual representations, we have letters written by Robert
Fulton. He records the times and speeds his first ride on a steamboat went. I
traveled a whopping 150 miles in thirty hours, which equates to five miles an
hour. Which seems slow now but at the time it was faster than anything else at
the time. Lastly, we have a debate on the railways one man named Wordsworth who
is against them and Smiles who is all for them. Wordsworth’s was written in
1844 when the skepticism of the steam engine was present since it was so far
out of their comfort zone. By the time Smiles writes his piece its 1859 and
people have decided that this is a good idea and have been persuaded by time.
Our
exhibit title is Hot Stuff: How the Steam
Engine Fired Up the Industrial Revolution. Our group came up with this
because I really wanted a pun in our title. I was thinking about how hot was
used for something being literally hot and important. The steam engine can be inserted
for both definitions. I recommended just “Hot Stuff” as more of a base idea but
they seemed to really enjoy the cheesiness of it. We then added onto it, with another
pun, to make it clearer to the future viewers. I hope that people get the idea
of how the steam engine was really a huge element in the Industrial Revolution.
It got people and merchandise from one place to another very efficiently. It
also carried out water from coal mines and coal made everything essentially run
in the Industrial Revolution. In fact, we still use it as a power source today. From walking around the other groups I got a
sense of cohesiveness and a lot of data in short statements. They also color coordinated
everything and it informed me a lot on what went on during the Industrial Revolution.
