Being a curator takes a lot of time and effort. To be a successful curator one must know detailed and accurate information about the topic. In order to teach people about a certain topic, there must be information provided that is reliable. The exhibit I created was on the Industrial Revolution. The exhibit talked about transportation; the steam engine and railway systems.One of the sources is a picture of a steam engine. The picture shows how the steam engine works and that is by the use of coal to power it. The next source is a timeline of railroads and canals between 1804-1853. It shows how they progressed to become more popular and complicated over the years. The next document is a debate between William Wordsworth and Samuel Smiles on railroads. Wordsworth was against railroads being built because he thought that it ruined the land. Smiles found the railways beneficial because he felt they made England more connected. The next source was Robert Fulton’s Letters on his first steamship voyage. He says that steam engines are beneficial because they are a quick and easy way of transporting people and goods. Another source is a map showing the production area of coal, woolen cloth, and metal. This helps show that railways and canals are beneficial to transport these goods that are very spread out. The last source is a picture of land being blown out of rocks to make more space for the railroads which were getting more and more popular and complicated. The exhibit is titled “From Countrysides to the Big Cities.” This title has to do with the our topic of railroads because railroads became more prominent in the world and took people and goods all over the place, from locations such as the countrysides to the more condensed cities. I hope that visitors will learn that transportation advances were a crucial part of the Industrial Revolution because they helped transport people and goods faster and quicker. I also hope that people will learn about the opinions of different people on these technological advances, and how they are beneficial and harmful.
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| Here is a picture of our exhibit. It is titled "From Countrysides to the Big City." |
There are four other exhibits that had to do with the Industrial Revolution. One of the groups was titled “Weaving a New World.” This exhibit is about how before more advanced technology was created, they had to spin by hand but there was not enough supply for the demand. Then, the spinning Jenny was created which was capable of doing 8 peoples work, so this was a more effective to spin than to use the spinning wheel.
The next exhibit is called, “Not-So-Great Britain.” This exhibit is about how the factories and living conditions were dirty and dangerous. I learned that though industrialization was helping the economy, it was not helping the peoples health.
Another exhibit is called “The Devastation of Child Labor.” This exhibit is about how because of children’s small sizes they could in coal mines, but this was very dangerous because the mines were so small and dirty. I learned that people were more focused on materialistic things (money) than their own children’s health.
The next exhibit is called “Products of a Dark Time.” This exhibit is about how people needed cotton, but the only people to do that job were slaves. This exhibit taught me that since cotton was the biggest product being traded around the world, they needed a lot of people to make it. This shows how the Industrial Revolution was bad because slaves were used as a labor source.
