I am a recent graduate of the public history graduate program at Rutgers University. I currently serve as the digital media coordinator for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities, where I wrangle bloggers and tackle our social media platforms.
In the last two years I've created an oral history database using StoriesMatter for the Salem County Historical Society, collected data on school group attendance for the education department at Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and I've digitized the Balch Institute Ethnic Images in Advertising Collection at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. I volunteer at the Alice Paul Institute in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey and the Digital Center at HSP.
In my spare time I am often silly and irreverent.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Call for Bloggers: Join the MARCH Team! | The Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities
Posting this for emerging or established public humanities professionals in the Mid-Atlantic region (NY, NJ, PA, DE, MD & DC). It is a modestly paid (but still paid!) blogger position, once a month, on the topic of your choosing. Check out the call, pass along to people you think fit the call. Deadline is November 2.
Spring Break 2012: The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina and Charlotte, North Carolina. I have no fancy links for Charlotte, we just got here. I can tell you already that the no photography rule at Biltmore made me sad, even if I understand why they have said rule.
Ever lost something important on a plane ride? Knock on wood…I can’t say I ever have, unless you count that vitally important British celebrity tabloid magazine from 2005. Oh, darn! I needed that for my hoarding pile (joke). The Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama isn’t a museum, but it’s set up like one, and the best part is you get to take the stuff home. Actually it’s not so good. Supposedly the prices are still quite high, which is surprising, considering it’s all used. But hey, whatever. Instead go to Goodwill or Oxfam, it’s pretty much the same concept.
After months of exhaustive attempts to reunite the 1% of all luggage that doesn’t find its original owners, airlines contact the 50,000-square-foot Center of Unclaimed Baggage Store to purchase, sort, appraise, clean and fix truckloads of items. Some unusual objects found amongst the suitcases (and now part of a “real” museum located in the store, sorry this stuff’s not for sale, though it should be) include the Labyrinth puppet Hoggle, tribal breastplates, boa snake skin, Scottish bagpipes and a leather bound 1930s French newspaper. There is also a Starbucks inside, the second ever store opened in the state of Alabama. Yay! I can drink a frap while buying a used Starbucks mug.
Did you know about one billion passengers check two billion bags every year? I think this one chick I know is guilty of at least 20 million of those suitcases, which are usually full of shoes, hair products…and more shoes.
P.S. If you still can’t find the perfect wedding dress, no need to worry. They got one!
How on earth did a Hoggle end up stranded in Alabama?
solastyear said: I am also “intrigued and confused”! The bags shown on the website are really cool, but it would be difficult to choose which ones to have in the museum. For example, will they want to have all the reusable bags that so many grocery stores have now?
I was wondering that myself. How does one lift up the lowly plastic shopping bag? I am reminded of the above video.
The Museum of Bags
A friend posted this on my FB wall. I am both intrigued and confused. How would one decide what bags should be in a museum? Is it weird to make an “official” repository of bags, to somehow imply that some bags are better than others? Or maybe, it’s just a collection of cool pictures of interesting objects. You decide.
New York Historical Society birthday shenanigans.
We went to see the Santa Claus and Hanukkah exhibits specifically, and while they were not quite what I was expecting (small, less involved than I was hoping), the Society was definitely worth the visit. The Luce Center on the top floor gives visitors an amazing glimpse into the Society’s permanent collection. My only regret is that we didn’t have time to see the Children’s Museum (or store). Next time.
The gung-ho “Hooray New York” movie was as cheesy as expected, but honestly, less ridiculous than the movie at the National Constitution Center.
My favorite part of the museum was probably the opportunities I had to give impromptu “lectures” to my friends about things like slavery, the industrial revolution, and Christmas.
Wells Fargo Bank Museum in Philadelphia
Cass’ dress (circa 1967) from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum’s ”Women Who Rock” exhibit.
Someone posted on the CassElliot.com forum (which even though it’s not that active lately, it still has a LOT of Cass and M&P information if anybody is interested) that they have another dress and some sheet music on display as well.
Here’s the link to the photos of some of the items in the exhibit (Grace Slick, Ruth Brown, Madonna, The Runaways, Mary Wilson, Wanda Jackson, Queen Latifah etc.)
Wild how this shows up on my dashboard on the 41st anniversary of Janis Joplin’s death. Or maybe it isn’t weird. At any rate:
How I feel about Mama Cass, Dream a Little Dream of Me can never get enough play time. Her voice demands attention, it reaches into your soul, pulls out what’s inside and shoves it in your face.
China Comic & Animation Museum
Construction is slated to begin in 2012. I’m considering doing the Chinese Language Flagship program that would land me in China in 2014, and would love to go here/intern here if it’s open by then… :)
中国，我爱你这么多。
“Please do not touch, lick, stroke or mount the exhibits.” The Museum of Sex in New York
