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Tonight — Snapshots Opening Reception!

Tonight — Snapshots Opening Reception!

Don’t forget that tonight is the opening reception for the Museum Studies curated exhibition Snapshots: 15 Takes on an Exhibition.  You’ve been reading their blog entries about their progress, now see for yourself what they’ve put together. Join them tonight from 5:30-8 at the Tufts University 

The Importance of Collections Access on the Web

The Importance of Collections Access on the Web

by guest columnist Elyse Werling Students in this year’s Exhibition Planning class were given a challenge: choose an image that inspires you from the photographs in Historic New England’s exhibition, “The Camera’s Coast,” and use it as a jumping-off point for a full-blown exhibition plan. Snapshots: 

Snapshots: 15 Takes on an Exhibition: “Bull” Halsey

Snapshots: 15 Takes on an Exhibition: “Bull” Halsey

by guest columnist Brian Miskell

Students in this year’s Exhibition Planning class were given a challenge: choose an image that inspires you from the photographs in Historic New England’s exhibition, “The Camera’s Coast,” and use it as a jumping-off point for a full-blown exhibition plan. Snapshots: 15 Takes on an Exhibition is to take place at the Tufts University Koppleman Gallery May 6-18, 2014. Opening reception Tuesday, May 6, 2014, 5:30-8pm. See the Facebook page here.

My exhibition plan focuses on the career of Fleet Admiral William F. “Bull” Halsey, US Navy (Retired). My photograph is of the first ship he served on fresh out of the Naval Academy, USS Missouri (BB-11).

I was recently reading Halsey’s autobiography, Admiral Halsey’s Story, which he wrote after World War II. From October 18, 1942 until July 15, 1944, Halsey served as Commander, South Pacific Area. While reading this section of his book, I saw a passage describing how Eleanor Roosevelt was to visit his area. Reading this, I recalled seeing a photograph that included someone I believed at the time could have been Eleanor Roosevelt among a large group photos that my grandfather had kept from his time serving in the 13th Army Air Force in the Pacific during World War II. After reading about the visit, I retrieved the collection of photos, went through them, and found two photos that included both Halsey and Mrs. Roosevelt. The activity taking place in one of the photos is actually described in Halsey’s book, “At one hospital, I arranged for her to pin the Navy Cross and two Purple Hearts on my ‘one-man army,’ Lieutenant Miller of the Strong.”

While I am not sure where my grandfather obtained the prints, I’m assuming they were stock photos he acquired as he wasn’t in the area at the time.
While I am not sure where my grandfather obtained the prints, I’m assuming they were stock photos he acquired as he wasn’t in the area at the time.

Continue reading Snapshots: 15 Takes on an Exhibition: “Bull” Halsey

My Journey on the Piscataqua

My Journey on the Piscataqua

by guest columnist Amanda Breen Students in this year’s Exhibition Planning class were given a challenge: choose an image that inspires you from the photographs in Historic New England’s exhibition, “The Camera’s Coast,” and use it as a jumping-off point for a full-blown exhibition plan. 

Snapshots: 15 Takes on an Exhibition

Snapshots: 15 Takes on an Exhibition

by guest columnist Barbara Palmer Students in this year’s Exhibition Planning class were given a challenge: choose an image that inspires you from the photographs in Historic New England’s exhibition, “The Camera’s Coast,” and use it as a jumping-off point for a full-blown exhibition plan. 

Snapshots: 15 Takes on an Exhibition

Snapshots: 15 Takes on an Exhibition

by guest columnist Sarah McDonough

Students in this year’s Exhibition Planning class were given a challenge: choose an image that inspires you from the photographs in Historic New England’s exhibition, “The Camera’s Coast,” and use it as a jumping-off point for a full-blown exhibition plan. Snapshots: 15 Takes on an Exhibition is to take place at the Tufts University Koppleman Gallery May 6-18, 2014. Opening reception Tuesday, May 6, 2014, 5:30-8pm. See the Facebook page here.

The research process for this class has really shown just how much untapped history there is out there that most people aren’t aware of. While reading for my exhibit, A Little House on Deck: The Curious Journeys of Whaling Wives and Children at Sea, I discovered dozens of surviving diaries of women and girls who sailed as passengers on whaling ships. Reading through accounts of their adventures, it’s frustrating that so many of these people would not be remembered except for their writing, or the snippets of stories remembered about them. Here’s a particularly interesting one:

In 1846 the whaling ship Powhattan set out of Martha’s Vineyard for a hunt off the coast of New Zealand, on what appeared to be a cursed voyage. Continue reading Snapshots: 15 Takes on an Exhibition