Curate to Create

          Recently, in class we acted as museum curators and created our own museum exhibits. In order to make these exhibits, we had to go through an interesting process. The first step to making our exhibit was to gather and read all of our sources. We needed to find the main argument of each and pick out the mot important information to display. Next we had to decide how to  arranger our title, sources, and any brief placards we wanted to add. We wanted everyone who visited our exhibit to understand the main point, which was child labor. We needed to find the most accurate way to arrange our sources while making it understandable. We chose to display or exhibit as a timeline show the progression of child labor through out the industrial revolution. It is important to choose a clear and concise way to arrange your sources so the information is helpful and not confusing to visitors. 

          The next day, we toured each others exhibits. Each exhibit said something new about the industrial revolution. The first exhibit I toured was called "From Spinning Wheels to Power Looms." This exhibit explains how the innovations of the spinning machines in mills impacted people. It says, when spinning machines were invented in mills, people who previously worked in their homes had to move to cities and the populations grew rapidly. The second exhibit was called "Thomas Takes Great Britain." This exhibit describes the conflict that was presented when steam engines were invented. Many people argued against railroads and they didn't want to build them. It was surprising to me that people didn't want railroads because they could expose them to states and cities they know nothing about. The next exhibit was called "Living in Filth." This exhibit was very interesting. It shows the amount of pollution and how it affected living conditions. Coal factories polluted the air and water which made people unhealthy and made for dangerous living conditions. The last exhibit was called "More Cotton, Less Freedom." This exhibit shows that when there was a higher demand for cotton there was an increase in the US slave population. After the Textile Industry took off in 1820, the population of slaves grew even higher.