The job of a museum curator is to
become an expert on a specific topic, and display it so that your visitors
learn as much information from it as possible. In my museum curator group, our
topic that we analyzed and researched was the negative effects or consequences
of the Industrial Revolution. To make our exhibit, we had to go through an
analytical process with the documents and information provided to become an
expert on our sources. At first, our group was given 6 documents (primary
sources), and we had to figure out what our topic was about based on the
documents. We had many written documents and pictures describing the problems
that the Industrial Revolution caused even though it made so much progress; two
of the main problems being poverty and pollution. I liked having to find out
what our topic was ourselves because it forced us to try to connect each source
with one another so that we could compare the similarities and differences. Then,
we filled in a chart for each source analyzing what motivated the author to
create the source and what we want people to learn about this source from our
exhibit. I thought that this step in the analytical process was a key
transitional step because this chart helped to pin-point exactly what we wanted
to talk about in your exhibit so that our visitors learned the most important
information. From here, each person in our group wrote a placard for a
document. The placards explained the sources and told the visitor the key
information about them. I thought that it was an easy transition from the chart
to the placards because we had already pin-pointed what we wanted to say in our
placards in the chart. Lastly, we put all of the sources and placards together
into one exhibit. Because one of the main problems in our sources was pollution
from factories, we had the idea to organize our exhibit so that it was a
factory with the sources as the windows, and the title in the black smoke cloud
coming out of the chimney. I think this analytical process is important because
it allows you to become very familiar with the sources and it forces you to
teach others what you have learned. People always say that you really
understand information if you can teach it to other people, so this project
allowed us to show our understanding through teaching.
In our exhibit, our sources showed
the pollution and poverty that came out of industrialization. Our first source
was a map of industry in 19th century England. The significance of this
document was to show all of the major technological progress that man-kind made
during the Industrial Revolution including advancements with coal and iron. However,
with this progress there is a price to pay, and our next source is a picture of
19th-century Manchester, England which depicts the pollution in England. This
source goes with the letter by Michael Faraday on his “Observations on the
Filth of the Thames”. In this letter, Faraday describes how despicable and
grotesque the Thames River is because of the factories. He says “The whole of
the river was an opaque pale brown fluid” which is a very vivid description.
The picture of Manchester shows this filth that Faraday discusses and shows the
factories right next to the river. It is a very clear depiction of the
pollution. The next source is a table of data on the Standard of Living debate
in England. This table shows the average earnings of a person during
industrialization, and the average price of living during that time. The table
clearly shows that the price of living is always significantly higher than how
much people earned. This means that no matter how hard a person worked during
their life, they were permanently stuck in poverty. This information is shown
in the next source which is a picture of a Victorian Slum. This picture shows
many families and children living on the street in filth and poverty. They were
not making enough to keep up with the price of living, and they didn’t have
enough money to live in better conditions. Our last source was a two-column
chart on the "Differing Views of Industrialization" which showed the pros and
cons of the Industrial Revolution. Andrew Ure believes that industrialization is an
amazing technological advancement for man-kind and the progress made is wonderful.
However, Alexis de Tocqueville believes that it has produced horrible pollution and
poverty, and now because of the factories, “a sort of black smoke covers the
city”. This chart allows you to see both perspectives. Mrs. Gallagher helped us
to title our exhibit, and I think that “Progress with a Price” is a perfect
title to describe our documents. From our exhibit, I want visitors to learn
that although there was lots of great progress made during the Industrial
Revolution, there were some harsh consequences, specifically pollution and poverty,
which is what our title implies. I want visitors to learn that the air and
water became terribly polluted because of the smoke from the factories and
machinery. Many people were angered by how disgusting the pollution made the
environment, and from our sources we can see why they would be. Also, the cost
of living was a lot higher than how much people made during the 19th
century, so people were stuck in poverty because they could never make enough money to
get out of it. They lived in poor, dirty slums as shown in the picture, and
this poverty was depressing. However, many still believed that the amount of
progress being made for man-kind during the Industrial Revolution was astounding.
Other groups’ exhibits:
Child Labor:
I learned how children started working at disturbingly young
ages; most by the age of 10, and they were treated brutally. I think this
group's presentation was very impressive, and it truly captured the depressing,
dirty mood of child labor.
From this exhibit, I learned that if it wasn't for hard
labor of slaves, there would be no mass production and huge profit from cotton
during the Industrial Revolution. I thought this picture was an important part
of their poster because it shows how the main source of all the "profit
and glory" during industrialization came from the misery and harsh labor
of the slaves.
I learned that the steam engine was used by heating water
which turned into steam, and then the steam turned the wheel which created
power. I also liked this passage and specifically the quote about how transportation
"brought the country nearer to the town and the town nearer to the
country" because it shows how influential it was in bringing people and
products together.
I learned that before the Industrial Revolution, sewing was
a family process and anyone in the family could help as shown in the picture below.
However, once faster and more efficient machines were invented, many families
had to move to where they were located, and only the father worked in the
factories so they had to rely on only one income.
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