Small Museum, Big Project

For my first blog post I am starting with an article I wrote for a friend of mine, Kate Baldwin Van Cleef, for an online public history magazine she is creating. I am the curaor of the Mississippi 4-H Learning Center and Pete Frierson 4-H Museum (I just call it the 4-H Museum) and wanted to share my experiences in this process.

Mississipp 4-H Museum

First of all the 4-H Museum is located inside the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum/National Agricultural Aviation Museum. I know it is a mouthful of a name.

Mississippi Ag and Forestry Museum Main Building

The museum is set up with multiple buildings including the main museum building, several meeting halls and “Small Town Mississippi” where the 4-H museum is located. Small Town Mississippi is an outdoor walking museum of building replicas designed to look like a Mississippi town in the early 20th century.

We have had many challenges when it comes to revamping the 4-H museum. There have been many ideas but no museum knowledge or direction to guide the project until I was hired as the Curator and Exhibit Coordinator for the museum. However, I was hired on a short term contract that only lasts till the end of September. Yikes! I have a lot of work to get done in a short amount of time. I am working in conjunction with the Mississippi State Library, Mississippi State 4-H Office and the 4-H Museum. My main goals are to give the museum a new look that will draw in and engage the youth and adults as well as prepare the staff to take over and maintain the museum and the collections.

To accomplish these goals we have taken many steps:

With guidance from my friend Dr. Joe Heimlich at Ohio State University, I have redesigned the museum exhibits. I took into consideration the artifacts and the level of engagement to the youth. First Dr. Susan Holder and Dr. Rae Wilkinson (4-H Staff), created a mission statement for the museum. My job was to then attempt to center the exhibits around this mission. The history of 4-H in Mississippi is being addressed as well as the present and future of MS 4-H projects.

Early sketches of Exhibits at 4-H Museum

I am not an interior designer so this was a monstrous feet for me. My crude drawings may not be aesthetically pleasing or to scale but they are serving their purpose to get ideas across. Morris Houston, who is based at the museum already, started the first phase of the physical installation of the exhibits by having the electricians come in and add electrical outlets and Ethernet hookups for the new setup and in anticipation for any future alterations or additions to the museum displays.

Electricians hard at work

We also have the mounting boards in place for 2 of the 6 flat screens that will be in place for our “Introduction of 4-H” and “Mississippi 4-H Timeline” exhibits. Dale Jordan (computer applications at MSU) and I are in the process of making suggestions for purchases to Dr. Susan Holder (State 4-H Program Leader) for the displays. We are expecting our first order in shortly of dress/suit forms for our display of 4-H uniforms through time.

One of many 4-H jackets in the MS 4-H Collection

My next step was to get a physical sense of how big the exhibits would be and where they should be places. So I measured and taped out everything on the museum floors and walls. It has really helped to confirm some ideas I had and has made me question others. Right now if a visitor were to enter the museum they would see few displays and green painter’s tape in the shapes of what is soon to come.

Display cabinets taped off with painters tape

The one exhibit that is still standing is Cloverbelle the cow you can milk! She is a large fiberglass cow with a milking mechanism. She is a big hit with the youth and she will continue to teach them about the dairy projects in 4-H. She will be getting a stall soon though to give her an official place at the museum.

Cloverbelle

Throughout this whole process I have been archiving all of the items we have had donated to the museum. My office is a sea of boxes still but it is getting more organized by the day. I am creating an accession sheet for each collection, if one does not already exist, and I am taking pictures of many of the items like the 4-H uniforms. All of our archives will eventually make their way to the MSU library where they will be cataloged and stored for the museum. You can check out some items already catalogued and scanned for the CHARM online catalogue.

Tiffany Holder (me) photographing 4-H uniform in collection

As if all of this was not enough work for one girl in one summer, I am also in charge of creating and implementing a social media marketing plan for the 4-H Museum and Mississippi 4-H. To accomplish this goal I have created working Facebook (Mississippi 4-H & Mississippi 4-H Museum) and Twitter ( @Mississippi4H & @4HMuseum) pages for both. I have also created Google accounts for both organizations. This job will most likely be taken over by student workers once it is set up.

So just because it is a small museum do not think this is a small job. I am passionate about this museum and that keeps me motivated to succeed in making it something the Mississippi and 4-H communities can be proud of.

I will post more as the days go by.