HistoryMiami Museum Internship Week 2

Adaptive Painting Tools

Looped Scissors 

Finger Crayons

A second week within the HistoryMiami Museum has brought new insight into not only the inner working of not only this but other museums as well. This week, I took part in the department meetings where different departments share out upcoming museum events, programs, and deadlines. This meeting helps museum departments stay current with the many fluctuating events. By seeing how the interactions between the departments play out I understood something critical in the lifeforce of a museum, and that is, every department has their own needs and feels they do their fair amount of things, but at the end of the day they all know and share a common purpose and goal.

In terms of concepts, I learned this week about universal design. Universal Design is a design that is applied to an environment or concept so that it can be used by a very broad field of people with all sorts of needs; for example, ramps are used by people in wheelchairs, or by someone with limited mobility, but can also be used by someone with a bike or a stroller. Some examples of Universal Design items I have seen here in the museum are things such as the loop scissors, finger crayons, and adaptive tools for painting. Most memorably, the loop scissors, as seen above, are extremely versatile in its user. Typically, scissors are for right-handed people and you need to place your fingers through the holes, now a toddler will not think of sticking their fingers through the holes and if they do then it will be rare to see them use them; however, with the loop scissor, the only need is to hold in either hand and press. By having this type of mentality and applying it to the rest of an organization or system, one can maximize the type of possible users and minimize the lack of accommodation.

On a separate note, I continued my research into the history of crime in Miami. It is extremely interesting to learn the history of this city through the of learning of its crime. As opposed to last week, this week I spent my research time actually looking for primary sources given the foundation of knowledge I acquired last week on the topic. The most important resource for information that I been introduced to has been the archives. It feels like a 1930s detective movie researching old records of homicides or photographs of Al Capone. I learned how to navigate my way through the archives as well as become more specific towards the research topic.

Overall, this week has been an introduction to new topics and conversation such as universal design, archive research and etiquette, and primary source research. I can only expect to keep learning just as much in the following two weeks. It is hard to believe two weeks have gone by already, it feels as if just yesterday we were all in the conference room at D.C. ready to eat.