Special thanks to Monica Reardon, Smithsonian Affiliations summer intern, for authoring the 2013 Smithsonian #MuseumDayLive! blog series.
Housed in an historic bank building on Wall Street in New York City, the Museum of American Finance is dedicated to preserving, exhibiting and teaching about American finance and financial history. The founder, John Herzog, began with two exhibits in a U.S. Custom House in 1988. Since then, this independent, non-profit museum has gradually expanded in exhibits and programs to what it is today, including becoming a Smithsonian Affiliate in 2001.
Monopoly Game Pieces
The museum currently has on display a unique piece on long-term loan from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Visitors during Smithsonian Museum Day Live!can get up close to a golden, bejeweled Monopoly set worth $2 million, created by jeweler Sidney Mobell. The board and pieces are solid 18-karat gold and encrusted with 165 precious gemstones including diamonds, rubies and emeralds. Bling Bling!! Even the dice are blinged-out with 42 full-cut diamonds marking the number dots on the die.
“We have quite a few finance-related board games in our collection, and games are a great way to introduce basic financial concepts to visitors. It made sense to borrow the Monopoly set for display,” noted Becky Laughner, Director of Exhibits & Archives.
The “eye-catching” Monopoly set attracts a variety of visitors from grade-school students to bank executives. “We display many paper documents, and the Monopoly set could not be more different, while still assisting us in teaching financial history and promoting financial literacy.”
Laughner hopes that the game helps visitors “to understand that learning about finance can be fun and interesting.” She adds,
“We hope visitors leave [the Museum] with a better understanding of money, finance and US history, and we realize that these topics are common threads that run through almost every aspect of our lives.”
Is the Smithsonian in your neighborhood? Find out which other Affiliates are participating in #MuseumDayLive on September 28, 2013, here.
Monopoly Board Game
https://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Monopoly-012-300x225.jpg225300Elizabeth Bugbeehttps://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/si_Affiliations_rgb_single-line_color-280w-1.jpgElizabeth Bugbee2013-09-06 16:15:272022-09-20 11:05:54every time i visit your museum, bling bling
Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM)–April 2014–is just around the corner. Affiliates have the opportunity to participate in FREE Media Training/Networking webinars organized by The Jazz Journalists Association (JJA). The JJA program will help Affiliate organizations use JAM as an opportunity to broaden their outreach to local communities and media outlets and to network with local jazz influencers.
Poster art designed by Fritz Klaetke, art director for JAZZ: The Smithsonian Anthology.
Three online webinars will discuss the use of social media and on working with local online and traditional media to
Increase local awareness of JAM and the institution’s JAM-related events.
Build the institution’s ongoing social media presence.
Reach under-served local communities.
Connect with other local institutions and individuals involved in jazz and related cultural production.
The exact content of the interactive webinars will be determined by survey results. Click here to take the survey!
Special thanks to Monica Reardon, Smithsonian Affiliations summer intern, for authoring the 2013 #MuseumDayLive! Affiliate blog series.
Patent model, Smith & Wesson Magazine Lever Action Pistol. AF*251055. Image provided by Buffalo Bill Center of the West.
The Buffalo Bill Center of the West had its start as a log building in Cody, Wyoming, resembling Buffalo Bill’s TE Ranch house. Mary Jester Allen intended the museum to be a national shrine and memorial to her uncle, William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, and to the early pioneers of the American West. The collections grew and so did the Museum, with the intent of preserving and conveying the “Spirit of the American West.”
The Center has participated in Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day Live! since becoming a Smithsonian Affiliate in 2008. On view at the Cody Firearms Museum in time for Museum Day Live! this year are 64 unique firearms from the National Firearms Collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. The exhibit is divided between patent firearms (the prototype design submitted by firearms inventors), firearms with interesting provenance, and international firearms with gorgeous embellishments. The collection includes a Smith and Wesson Lever Action Patent Model and a Colt Patent.
The Smith and Wesson Lever Action Patent Model was the first lever action prototype firearm designed by Smith and Wesson. Smith and Wesson’s original company, The Volcanic Repeating Arms Co. was actually named after the nickname for the pistol, the Volcanic pistol. However, this patent did not bring them financial success and they sold the rights to a shirt manufacturer named Oliver Winchester. Winchester would go on to use this patent; his lever action rifles becoming synonymous with the American West.
Revolver, patent model. Colt Paterson Revolver. AF*251084. Image provided by Buffalo Bill Center of the West.
The Colt Patent is connected to Samuel Colt, another name famous in the American West, particularly for revolvers. Colt’s revolver is the first successful percussion firearm ever patented. The design from this model would go on to be the production type Colt Paterson. As noted by Ashley Hlebinsky,Firearms Curatorial Resident, “You pretty much cannot see a Western film without seeing a variation of a Colt Revolver and a Winchester Lever Action.”
Hlebinsky would like visitors “to not only see some amazing firearms and representations of engineering ingenuity, but to understand the people who made the firearms and who owned and used them.” She hopes that the “artifacts are able to convey a story about the people involved in the process – from the trial and error methods of the patent process (some patent models were never produced, while others became infamous) to the experiences of those who owned the guns.”
Is the Smithsonian in your neighborhood? Find out which other Affiliates are participating in #MuseumDayLive on September 28, 2013, here.
https://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Smith-and-Wesson-300x225.jpg225300Elizabeth Bugbeehttps://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/si_Affiliations_rgb_single-line_color-280w-1.jpgElizabeth Bugbee2013-08-22 10:30:052022-09-20 11:05:59engineering ingenuity at the buffalo bill center of the west
Congrats to these Affiliates making news! Each month we highlight Affiliate-Smithsonian and Affiliate-Affiliate collaborations making headlines. If you have a clipping highlighting a collaboration with the Smithsonian or with a fellow Affiliate you’d like to have considered for the Affiliate blog, please contact Elizabeth Bugbee.
CALIFORNIA Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, California)
Carlos Bulosan poem inspires US exhibit The exhibit, titled “I Want the Wide American Earth,” will end its run at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History on Aug. 25. It will open next at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles on Sept. 14 and run until Dec. 1.
COLORADO Telluride Historical Museum (Telluride, Colorado) Celebrating history: Museum marks affiliation with party Tuesday “(The designation) shows that people in Telluride really believe in what they are doing,” Fraser said. “It’s just a tremendous honor. ”
GEORGIA Booth Western Art Museum (Cartersville, Georgia)
Booth Western Art Museum celebrates 10 years “As far as the museum community goes, becoming a Smithsonian affiliate and also joining the Museums West consortium, those were two certainly highlights in the museum achieving some recognition within the field and being recognized by our peers,” Hopkins said.
Tellus Science Museum (Cartersville, Georgia)
Video- Dinosaurs, spaceships and model-T car under one Cartersville roof We are a world class Smithsonian affiliated museum,” said Joe Schumann. It’s Smithsonian quality with Georgia history down to the dinosaurs.
IDAHO Idaho Museum of Natural History (Pocatello, Idaho)
Stories of American Indian code talkers revealed in Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition at Idaho State University running July 20-Sept. 29 “. These unsung American heroes share their stories of strength and courage in a Smithsonian traveling exhibition, which opens July 20 and runs through Sept. 29”
Researchers creating database of bones from every known arctic bird, mammal, fish “. Known as the Virtual Zooarchaeology of the Arctic Project, or VZAP, the database pulls together data from universities and museums around the world. The Burke Museum, Smithsonian Institution and Canadian Museum of Civilization have partnered with Maschner to offer their considerable collections. The database can be seen online through Idaho State University, where Maschner teaches and acts as the director for the Idaho Museum of Natural History.”
MISSOURI American Jazz Museum (Kansas City, Missouri)
Ford Motor Company : Kansas City Council Commemorates Ford Fund for Bringing American Sabor Exhibit to American Jazz Museum “The Kansas City Council issued a proclamation today offering special recognition to Ford Motor Company Fund, the American Jazz Museum and Smithsonian Institution for bringing the “American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music”traveling Smithsonian exhibit to the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City from Aug. 1 through Oct. 27.”
KC Jazz Museum gets Latino flair
VIDEO- WDAF-KC (FOX)
The olinguito was announced Aug. 15, 2013, as the world’s newest species. The team of scientists that discovered the small carnivore included Roland Kays, a professor at North Carolina State University.
NORTH CAROLINA North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (Raleigh, North Carolina) NC scientist part of team that discovers new species “N.C. State professor Roland Kays, who also serves as director of the Biodiversity Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, helped uncover the existence of the olinguito. ”
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma History Center (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)
Oklahoma History Center receives oral history grant from the Smithsonian “We are honored to be one of ten Smithsonian Affiliates to receive this grant which will engage students with history and help us fulfill our mission to collect, preserve, and share the history and culture of Oklahoma and its people,” said Leah Craig, curator of Education at the Oklahoma History Center.”
SOUTH DAKOTA South Dakota State Historical Society (Pierre, S.D.) State Historical Society Announces New Teacher’s Workshop in Collaboration with Smithsonian “Working with Smithsonian EdLab through this workshop is a great first step in building our capacity to provide new learning opportunities for students in South Dakota,“ commented Jay Smith, museum director. “We will build on this experience in developing future programming opportunities with some of the museums in the Smithsonian system to further capitalize on our new affiliation.”
Smithsonian educator hosting teacher workshop in Pierre Kim Skerritt, program educator at Smithsonian EdLab, will lead the workshop. She has three years of experience developing, implementing and evaluating innovative technology programs for teachers and students.
(left to right) Deb Smith, an English teacher at Lyman High School in Presho, and Alyssa Anderson, a 7th grade language arts and 8th grade journalism teacher in Chamberlain, work on their mission plans for the upcoming school year. Allison Jarrell/Capital Journal
Viewing museums, technology as educational resources “Recently, the Cultural Heritage Center became a Smithsonian affiliate. As such, the museum had the opportunity this summer to host a week-long Smithsonian workshop aimed at teaching educators mission-based learning techniques and how to better utilize museum and technology resources.”
Historical society hosting Smithsonian webcast on labor issues related to bracero program Museum director Jay Smith says it’s a great opportunity to enjoy a historical discussion of issues important to South Dakota from the perspective of scholars and authors outside the state.
WYOMING Buffalo Bill Center of the West (Cody, Wyo.) Smithsonian Firearms in Cody (VIDEO) “. It’s a chance to see firearms that are typically only on display at the Smithsonian Institution in the Nation’s Capital. The Buffalo Bill Center of the West will be home to those 64 artifacts for three years.”
VIDEO- Buffalo Bill Center of the West Smithsonian gun exhibit now on display “. the Cody museum has grabbed a collection on loan from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. displaying history and ingenuity with pieces which are truly, one of a kind.” KULR-8 Television, Billings, MT
https://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/olinguito-300x225.jpg225300Elizabeth Bugbeehttps://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/si_Affiliations_rgb_single-line_color-280w-1.jpgElizabeth Bugbee2013-08-21 11:09:562022-07-21 11:01:01Affiliates in the news!
Special thanks to Summer Olsen, 2013 Smithsonian Affiliations Intern Partner for writing this guest post. Summer spent 10 weeks at the Smithsonian this summer. She returns to California this fall to complete the second half of her intern partnership. Thank you, Summer!
During my summer 2013 internship through the Smithsonian Affiliations Intern Partnership Program I assisted the Office of the Registrar at the Cultural Resources Center (CRC) of the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) from June 3rd to August 9th. Inventory Specialist Heather Farley and Assistant Registrar for Acquisitions Margaret Cintron supervised me. During my internship in Registration I learned about the daily processing, tracking, and inventory of objects in collections, researched Plains beadwork with NMAI curator Emil Her Many Horses, and experienced the organization of other Smithsonian branches via intern tours and events. The skills and knowledge I developed during my internship will be applied to a comprehensive project involving an inventory and assessment of the Plains beadwork collections at the Riverside Metropolitan Museum (a Smithsonian Affiliate) and the museum at Sherman Indian High School in Riverside, California.
My time at the CRC has flown by and I have developed skills and gained knowledge by completing a variety of tasks: documenting the un-accessioned collections, processing new acquisitions, processing outgoing loans and objects returned from being loaned, working in collections, assisting in the de-installation of an exhibit, and office tasks like scanning and filing catalog cards and accession lot folders.
My main project this summer was to work with two other registration interns documenting the un-accessioned collections. To prepare for our work in registration work we received object-handling training from conservation staff members and training from registration staff to operate work assistance vehicles (WAV) and pallet jacks. We photographed, recorded measurements, and re-housed disassociated fragments from their parent object and un-accessioned material. After photographing the objects we edited the photo files and embedded them with metadata. Then we made custom storage mounts, and shelved the objects in their appropriate locations in collections. I was also taught how to enter some cataloging information and object dimensions into EMU.
We learned to use the barcode system in collections. When working on the documentation project we assigned a barcode to each item. New acquisitions were also assigned barcodes. In addition we re-associated a group of fragments using the barcode system to locate their parent objects and conducted an inventory by scanning the barcodes of un-accessioned works on paper.
I learned the procedure for processing new acquisitions into the collection. We unpacked crates, took reference photos, and made/wrote condition reports and lot forms. For cloth objects we made tags with NMAI catalog numbers and sewed them down. The procedure was much the same for the outgoing objects for the Anishinabe exhibit at the George Gustav Heye Center in New York City. We checked the condition of each object and compared it to previous condition and conservation reports. When objects came back from a loan I helped Museum Registration Specialist for Loans, Rajshree Solanki, unpack objects and updated their condition paperwork. We also wrote condition paperwork for peace medals that were de-installed at the NMAI Mall Museum in Washington, D.C.
During the second part of my internship I met with NMAI curator Emil Her Many Horses who guided me through NMAI’s beadwork collections. I learned about the progression of beading (from quillwork to early beading to the present day), different cultural styles of beadwork, and beading techniques. The information he imparted will be key to completing my project this fall at the Riverside Metropolitan Museum and Sherman Indian High School.
This internship also gave me access to knowledge via tours of other Smithsonian Museums and events sponsored by the Office of Fellowships and Internships. I was able to see collections storage practices at National Museum of Natural History, the Hirshhorn, and National Air and Space Museum and toured the Folklife festival with curators from the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. The “From Here to Career”, an event hosted by OFI, gave me the opportunity to talk to Smithsonian museum professionals.
My internship at NMAI has been an incredible experience. I will be able to apply all the skills I learned while working at NMAI to my project at the Riverside Metropolitan Museum and Sherman Indian High School. I have been able to see objects I have only ever read about, interact with fantastic people, been given advice that will impact the rest of my academic career, and formed professional relationships. Highlights of my experience have been: Moving a totem pole, documenting strange animal specimens, getting to see collections while re-associating fragments, and learning about beadwork with Emil Her Many Horses.
Thank you Smithsonian Affiliations for this amazing opportunity. I have enjoyed every minute of it and am gearing up to complete the next part of the internship in Riverside.
Summer receiving a Certificate of Award at the Congressional Reception during the 2013 Affiliations National Conference. Left to right: Smithsonian Secretary, G. Wayne Clough; Summer Olsen, Smithsonian Regent, France A. Córdova; Smithsonian Assistant Secretary for Education and Access, Claudine Brown; Riverside Metropolitan Museum Curator of Collections & Exhibitions, Brenda Focht; Riverside Metropolitan Museum Curator of Collections & Historic Structures, Lynn Voorheis; and Smithsonian Affiliations Director, Harold Closter.
https://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/summerolsen.jpg10241024Elizabeth Bugbeehttps://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/si_Affiliations_rgb_single-line_color-280w-1.jpgElizabeth Bugbee2013-08-09 16:56:332020-01-02 17:48:25“Hey Mom, guess what I did today? I moved a totem pole!”
Special thanks to Monica Reardon, Smithsonian Affiliations summer intern, for authoring the Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day Live! blog series.
Located at the crossroads of 18th & Vine, the Jazz District of Kansas City, Missouri, the American Jazz Museum showcases the sights and sounds of jazz through interactive exhibits, films, programs, and performances. Since 1997, the museum has focused on the preservation, exhibition and advancement of the story and spirit of jazz. The museum became a Smithsonian Affiliate in 2000.
Coinciding with Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day Live!, the museum is displaying American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music, organized for travel by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. American Sabor presents the musical contributions of U.S. Latinos from the 1940s to the present with a focus on the social history and individual creativity that produced stars like Tito Puente, Ritchie Valens, Celia Cruz, Carlos Santana and Selena. Various programs and activities will be featured with the exhibition, such as conversations, performances, and workshops. The exhibition will be at the Museum from August 1, 2013 to October 27, 2013. Read a special guest post on the American Sabor Blog.
Is the Smithsonian in your neighborhood? Find out which other Affiliates are participating in #MuseumDayLive on September 28, 2013, here.
Recent press from American Sabor at the American Jazz Museum:
Ford Motor Company : Kansas City Council Commemorates Ford Fund for Bringing American Sabor Exhibit to American Jazz Museum
https://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/si_Affiliations_rgb_single-line_color-280w-1.jpg00Elizabeth Bugbeehttps://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/si_Affiliations_rgb_single-line_color-280w-1.jpgElizabeth Bugbee2013-08-08 10:00:212022-09-20 11:05:57“American Sabor” at the American Jazz Museum
