All Aboard the Polar Express!

Museum Trends and Designing for the Future

Museums are facing huge challenges caused by a variety of factors, including technology, economic pressures, demographic shifts, and expectations about what museums are and how they should be used. The Augusta Museum of History is addressing these challenges by doing the following:

Creating positive learning environments that will work with the exhibits, collections, and the flow of the visitor experience.
 

The Museum is digitizing the collection and exhibits to have them available for viewing on-line.

Promoting the Museum as a place where people can gather and have constructive experiences. 
 
The Museum is presenting stories about the artifacts and ephemera on display and provides kiosks with additional layers of information.

The Museum is making collections more visible by rotating artifacts on display, as space permits, and as time permits, downloading significant collections onto the Museum's web site.  
 
The Museum ensures that the building is accessible for people of all abilities and ages.
 

It's impossible to predict how technology will change, but it is critical that the Museum stay on the leading edge of technology.

Listening to our public is one more way to "keep moving forward."  So if you have an idea to share please feel free to contact me at: amh@augustamuseum.org. 

Nancy J. Glaser, Executive Director

The Veterans Curation Program (VCP) recently installed a temporary exhibit on the second floor. The VCP organization works with military veterans to clean, document, and preserve archaeological artifacts while providing veterans with practical job training. One case of the exhibit features the military experiences of those veterans in the program. The other case features a comparison of Native American weapons with those of a modern era. 

The Future of Museum Education!

What do you think of when you think of museum education?  In the past it conjured up images of bored children groaning and reluctantly following a docent through miles of uninteresting exhibits.  Making engaging and enlightening field trips are a large component of museum education, but not the total sum.   Stories told about a person or a place illustrated in an exhibit at the Augusta Museum of History is education and part of the visitor experience.

Museums are finding new and innovative ways to reach the schools and teachers due to the lack of available funding for transportation.  The Augusta Museum of History is creating trunks that can be used in a classroom to supplement a unit of study.  The first trunk focuses on the Colonial era.  Textbooks center on the well-known historic events of that period but our trunk will help students understand how one lived in this area during that time, while also addressing the Common Core and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) initiatives.

Many people, especially the younger generation, turn to the internet for information.  Got a history question?  Google it!  At the museum, one can be immersed in history through sight, sound, and touch.   The Museum is researching ways to reach students and teachers through our web site through special activities which can be downloaded to complement curriculum standards.  In the galleries we also offer many opportunities to interact with an exhibit which gives visitors more details about an event, the ability to hear first-hand accounts, or to watch performances by The Godfather of Soul!

What is "it" that makes a museum a special informal learning environment?  Museums provide the "real things," artifacts that explain an event, a place, or a person and its impact on history.  Although there is an abundance of information on line, we believe that there is no substitute for seeing the real thing first hand.  "It" is an excited group of children sitting in the 1920's trolley car learning about that early form of transportation.  "It" is a senior citizen dancing, once again, to beloved James Brown tunes.  "It" is an eager 5th grade boy bringing his family back to the museum after his visit with his class.

So how does AMH keep up with trends in museum education?  We have to look at our demographic and think outside the traditional museum box while staying true to our mission.  We invite school groups, but also offer outreach programs to schools and civic groups with personnel and artifacts.  We develop and publicize our programs, like Night at the Museum, Created Equal, Polar Express, Voices of the Past, Brown Bag History Lectures, and others.   We continue to strive to make our history a vitally important and essential part of the present!

Julie Gazda, Education Manager

Like the Master's Tournament for men, the Titleholder's Championship allowed the best female golfers in the country to compete for a national title. Held at The Augusta Country Club from 1937-1966, the Titleholder's Championship did not offer prize money until 1948.  In 1950, the championship was held on March 16-19 and won by Babe Zaharias.  In this photo, Zaharias (left) and Dot Kirby shared a silly moment on the course that was captured by Wilkinson. 

One of the most popular recording artists and movie stars of the 1930s-1950s, Gene Autry performed in Augusta on January 21, 1948, with his horse, Champion. Born in Texas in 1907, Autry was the most successful of all singing cowboys starring in "The Phantom Empire" and "In Old Santa Fe" along with other films.  His hit songs included "Yellow Rose of Texas" (1933), "The Last Roundup" (1934), "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" (1935), and "You Are My Sunshine" (1941), as well as "Here Comes Santa Claus" (1947), "Peter Cottontail" (1949), and "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" (1948).  When Wilkinson photographed him, Gene Autry was at the peak of his career, and a household name.  When he retired in 1956, Autry ran a business empire of hotels, real estate, oil and media holdings, and was the majority owner of the California Angels baseball team. 

Wilkinson photographed many historic events in the CSRA, including the Savannah River flood of November 29, 1948. This photo shows the overflow in the lowlands in North Augusta beneath the Carolina section of the 13th Street Bridge. The water rose to thirty six feet and two inches before it began to recede on December 1, 1948.  Most of the flood  damage was concentrated in North Augusta and Hamburg, South Carolina, leaving the Augusta side of the Savannah River largely untouched

Some of the best portions of the Wilkinson collection are his photos of CSRA citizens in their everyday lives.  In 1975, Wilkinson photographed Clay Adamson, a local business man, for the Exchange Club.  Adamson later commissioned Wilkinson to document his daughter Heather's sixteenth birthday party in 1983 where he surprised her with a new car!  Heather is shown here introducing the family dog to her new ride.  A year later Wilkinson would also photograph Heather's prom night, giving us an excellent glimpse into adolescence in the 1980s.  

 As I keep working through the collection, I find more stories captured by Wilkinson.  His images can teach us so much about the history of the CSRA.  I can't wait to see what I find next!

Sarah Carlson, Museum Intern