Museum Curator Reflection

 

Behind every museum exhibit, there is a curator and behind every artifact in the exhibit, there is extensive analysis done by the curator. In the exhibit, The Industrial Revolution Brings Poverty and Pollution, the sources were analyzed and sorted based on topic. The sourcing information and ideas conveyed by the source were also discussed. The first source is a map of England from 1715-1815. It shows major milestones in the Industrial Revolution and the population of some large cities. There are also two pictures, both sketches of various parts of life. One picture shows the pollution caused by all of the smokestacks and the dirty river. The other one shows a typical street where factory workers live. It is cramped and filthy with very small houses. Another source is a chart that shows the average income and cost of living from 1770 to 1882. There is also a document with two opposing views on industrialization and a document describing the pollution in the Thames River. The exhibit is organized so the two sources pertaining to pollution, the picture of the river and the writing about pollution, are on the left and the two sources pertaining to the condition of living, the chart of incomes and the image of the street, are on the right. The map and opposing views are in the middle because they do not fit well in the two categories and instead provide more of an overview of the situation. The exhibit is titled, The Industrial Revolution Brings Poverty and Pollution, because poverty and pollution are the two main themes of the sources. From this exhibit, visitors will learn about the negative effects of the Industrial Revolution on the environment and on working-class peoples’ daily lives.

An Era Built on the Backs of Children has information about child labor. Children under the age of ten would work in dangerous factories and mines for low wages. Even though some laws were passed with the Factory Act of 1833, they did not change much and only imposed age limits and limits on hours worked per week. Cotton and Slave Boom in the Industrial Revolution is about slaves and cotton production. From 1770 to 1860 the amount of slaves in America increased from 500 thousand to four million. Entire towns were created to make cloth and from 1830 to 1860, 80 percent of America’s cotton went to Europe. The exhibit, Before and After the Industrial Revolution Textile Industry, is about how the textile industry of England was affected by the production of cloth in factories. Before the switch to factories for production, women made cloth at home and could supplement their husbands’ earnings. After factories started to produce cloth, women stopped making it by hand and families lost the extra money. The last exhibit is Transporting the Industrial Revolution which talks about advances in transportation during the Industrial Revolution. From 1804-1825, advances were mainly in water transportation with the invention of the steamship and many canals were dug. From 1826-1853, the train was the main mode of transportation focused on and many railroads were built during that time.