Week 3 - Taking Inventory and Identifying Challenges

The discovery of a forgotten artifact or identifying an artifact with particular historical significance has become less of a possibility every week and more of a foregone conclusion, but the hunt for treasures hiding in plain sight has yet to lose its thrill. This week I spent the majority of my time in the museum building. I gathered the museum's assortment of mail order retail catalogs from Sears Roebuck and Co., Montgomery &Co., and May & Malone from 1900-1930 into one area of the display cases in order to create a sort of miniature exhibit that will educate visitors on the role these mail order retailers had in the creation of rural area general stores. In attempting to organize the display cases in such a way that each artifact can be appreciated while also contributing to the narrative of the exhibit, the biggest emerging challenge is not identifying the artifacts, but the inadequate display space for the number of artifacts on exhibit. If the artifacts are to be rotated, there will need to be a way to store the artifacts and decide which portion of the museum would serve as a temporary exhibit space. In addition to addressing the overcrowding in the display cases, a temporary exhibit space could also be a way to address visitor comments about static displays.

With the identification of artifacts like a Rittenhouse seed spreader, a waffle maker, and buggy axle nut wrenches along the same wall of the museum, I've come up with a plan to divide the tools and various accoutrements along the wall into sections organized by their general use (i.e.. farming, forestry, buggy repair). There are some objects, like a telegraph tape ticker manufactured by Ford, that I have not yet found a place for in the museum building. The tape ticker is now on display in the welcome center near the working Edison phonograph, as a subtle nod to the friendship of the 2 inventors.