Assignment Prompt: Alan Moss and Keith Skinner’s History of Crime in
100 Objects (The History Press, 2022) tells the history of Scotland Yard.
Using a similar method of material culture, your task will be to create a small
museum-quality exhibit for the National Museum of Natural History in Washington
DC that tells the history of science and technology in no fewer than 10
objects. The National Museum of Natural History has given you a display case
measuring 84” tall x 36” wide x 36” inches deep. The case sits in the middle of
an exhibit hall and can be viewed from all four sides.
Your exhibit should be a well-organized, thesis-driven argument or 12science
and technology is a huge topic. You, however, are limited by the space of your
display case. You will need to make choices on the best way to limit the scope
of the exhibit while still telling the history of science and technology.
The objects and text should work together to make a point (your thesis).
Do not rely solely on text to explain what the objects mean and how you are
using them.
The key is to use objects (material culture). In other
words, the items you use must be tangible. Scientific theories, gaseous elements,
light, radio waves, or astronomical events such as an eclipse or supernova, would
not be considered an object. You cannot touch them
You may assume that you have an unlimited budget and that any museum will
lend an object to you. That means you can (and should) look in online museum
catalogs to help you find potential objects. The Smithsonian’s online database
can be found at https://collections.si.edu/search/. The Science Museum
London’s online database can be found at https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/.
You should provide an introductory
paragraph of no more than 150 words. Each object should
have a caption of approximately 35 words. Do not exceed 50 words on the object
captions. Every object needs a citation.
This assignment is best completed in PowerPoint or another slide
presentation. Begin with the Exhibit Title (title slide) followed by your
exhibit introduction (slide 2). After that, place one object per slide along
with its caption, citation, and dimensions.
Objects must fit within the space stated above. A steam engine from the
industrial revolution will not fit in the space provided. Therefore, you must
provide the actual object dimensions. For this reason, it really is best to use
objects from museum databases.
1. Please address the assignment prompt in
a slide presentation containing at least 10 objects. You may include more, but
you must include at least 10. All 10 objects must fit inside a display case
measuring 84” tall, 36” wide, and 36” deep.
You are not expected to research this, but
rather provide an original interpretation of the history of science and
technology using at least 10 objects. You will need to cite the source of the
images you use. Additionally, if you directly quote or paraphrase another
source in your introduction or individual captions, you will need to cite them
using Chicago style footnotes. You can find information on footnote citations in
Chapter 14 of the Chicago Manual of Style.
I WILL POST THE SAMPLES.
