N.C. History Museum

I really enjoyed our field trip to the Museum; I hadn't been there in many years and this was a great opportunity to see what's happened there since my last visit.

The "Story of NC" exhibit was interesting and laid out very thoughtfully. There were some artifacts which give a good sketch of what life must have been like foe previous generations of North Carolinians. I personally would have liked to see more American Indian artifacts and information about the myriad of tribes who lived (and live) in the area. Looking at the website for the Museum, I see that there is small exhibit that is just about "North Carlina Indians Past and Present," which I guess I missed, unless it was that small display in a corridor that we walked past. I might have to go back and check it out soon.

The exhibits on Thomas Day and auto racing were interesting glimpses of aspects of NC culture which are not, frankly, a part of my life: they were reminders of the diverse interests of people who live here.

Of all the exhibits I saw, my favorite was definitely "The Photography of Lewis Hine: Exposing Child Labor in North Carolina, 1908–1918." These photos were taken for a specific political purpose, but have become something more: a document showing the lives of countless voiceless citizen of NC. The scenes were obviously dated, but also timeless in some ways: these were people (mostly children) doing the best they could given their situation. And they clearly had qualities that transcend time and culture: the desire to be social (many photo showed groups of boys who were clearly friends), the desire to better one's lot (the kids were working to make a better life for their families), and the timeless need to consider the exploited among us (these kids had seemed to almost accept their reality, but Hine's message still speaks to us today: it is our job to be aware of our world and they way we treat each other. This message still resonates with me today: how many of our cherished first-world gadgets are made by the hands of exploited people [and children] in Asia and elsewhere? Would we rather not know about them? Why?)

I think the exhibit might be simultaneously exciting, funny, and troubling to modern-day children. I think this is a perfectly reasonable response. It would be exciting to bring children to this exhibit! It might be able to spark a bit of the Social Action that Maxim writes about in Chapter 2. (I know that the children in Hine's photos are not members of a minority ethnic group, which is the context for Maxim's chapter, but they are certainly marginalized people--and "diversity" cannot simply mean "not white people," or the word becomes a synonym for "minorities.")

Apart from the exhibits themselves, I was happy to learn about all the services that the Museum provides for teachers. I was pretty much unaware of the breadth of the websites they maintain and how I might use them for lesson (for this class and as a "real" teacher).

Overall, a great visit, even if I didn't get to see everything there in one afternoon.