Road Reports

On-Set with Mount Airy

Our own Tiffany Ruhl and Robbie Davis have recently returned from their trip to Mt. Airy, North Carolina. Ruhl and Davis are working in conjunction with Heron Media to create an orientation video for the New Harmonies exhibit, to be revealed to states at the onset of each tour. The team has been interviewing curators and humanities council representatives for the film, in addition to going on-site at various venues to capture the exhibit's strength on camera. Below, you will find Tiffany's summary of the team's experience in Mt. Airy in journal-entry format. Read on to uncover her first-hand account:

"Mount Airy, NC is known as the home of Andy Griffith and the inspiration for the town of Mayberry in The Andy Griffith Show, but it’s also home to music lovers! Besides Andy Griffith, it’s the home of country singer Donna Fargo.

 

On the fun side, we ate at a famous local haunt, The Snappy Lunch (founded in 1923) to try their ‘Famous Pork Chop’ sandwich. Then, it was off to the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History to start filming. The staff of the museum was wonderful. They are incredibly enthusiastic about the exhibition. Mount Airy has a great lineup of events, so New Harmonies’ stay in Mount Airy is bound to be great success.

 

On Wednesday, we filmed local blues and jazz singer Melva Houston. Melva has traveled the world teaching and spreading an appreciation of jazz and blues, but makes her home in Mount Airy. She spoke movingly of the impact music has had on her life and gave an impromptu performance at the “Lunch and Learn” session. They had a great turn out of about 50 people.

 

We then followed Melva and guests back to tour “New Harmonies” in the museum. We filmed guests there interacting with the exhibition for the video. In addition to filming the exhibition, we interviewed Darrell Stover from the North Carolina Humanities Council. Darrell is a cultural historian and Statewide Coordinator for MoMS in North Carolina. He’s also a natural on camera!

 

Darrell gave a great rundown of why North Carolina chose New Harmonies as the first MoMS exhibition to tour their state. As he put it, in terms of roots music in NC, ‘It’s all here.’”  - Tiffany Ruhl

 

Our thanks go out to Heron Media and all other persons and entities that have aided in the production of our New Harmonies orientation film!

-- Roxanne Berschler -- SITES/Museum on Main Street, Washington D.C.

Pass the Veggies!

Grab your favorite vegetable --- the newest addition to our Georgia Foodways podcasts has arrived! Take a listen as Georgians describe their experiences and fond memories of vegetables. Get ready to jot down some advice on cooking collard greens, experimenting in the kitchen, and making friends with all types of leafy greens.

Pass the Veggies! Podcast (6:12)

The Georgia Foodways podcast series features oral history interviews conducted by students from the University of West Georgia in cooperation with the Georgia Humanities Council's tour of Key Ingredients: America by Food.

-- Roxanne Berschler, MoMS/SITES, Washington DC

FENCES on FLICKR

Take a look at Wood County Historical Society’s technological approach to exhibit involvement! This Ohio community is adding a digital media aspect to their forthcoming Between Fences exhibit by creating the digital photography gallery, “FENCES ON FLICKR.” Read their exciting announcement below:

"The Wood County Historical Society is proud to present the Smithsonian traveling exhibit BETWEEN FENCES at the Wood County Historical Center & Museum April 9 - May 7, 2010.From September 1, 2009 - April 1, 2010, the general public is welcome to submit digital photographs of local fences for public display on the Museum's "FENCES ON FLICKR" public website at http://www.flickr.com/photos/infirmary. 

Although submitted images will be available for public viewing during that time, the gallery will be highlighted April - May, 2010 with marketing, web attention, and possibly a "showing" alongside the physical exhibit." 

  

Photo submission instructions from Wood County Historical Society are as follows:

E-mail submissions to: museum@woodcountyhistory.org.

• In the Subject line, write: FENCES on FLICKR.

• In the body of the e-mail, include the following information: Identify location of fence (address, street, city, park, etc.) Identify name of photographer, as you would like to be publicly recognized. Provide phone # and/or email (will not be made public). Give your photograph a title or some identifier (i.e. "Brandeberry Wall at the Wood County Historical Center" or "Wooden fence on West Evers, Bowling Green). Include up to 50-word narrative of your interpretation of the photograph and how it represents fences in our community.

• All approved submissions will be uploaded to the Wood County Historical Museum's "FENCES ON FLICKR" public website at http://www.flickr.com/photos/infirmary. Information including the photographer, location, and narrative will also be included. Any photographer may ask to remain anonymous. County Historical Center & Museum will review all submissions for appropriate content and retains the right to dismiss any entry that is offensive or does not meet the requirements.

Many thanks go out to Kelli Kling, Marketing, PR, and Special Events Director of Wood County Historical Center and Museum for this update.

MoMS encourages individuals from the Wood County community to submit photos to "FENCES on FLICKR!"

-- Roxanne Berschler, SITES, Washington DC

Cornbread, Biscuits, Gravy ... Oh My!

Give a listen to the latest in our series of Georgia Foodways interviews from West Georgia University’s Katie Hicks. Today’s presentation offers a montage of interview segments that focus on cornbread, biscuits, gravy, syrup on biscuits, and finally, how certain ingredients impact health. Check out this clip to learn more about personal recipes, anecdotes and family traditions. Many thanks to West Georgia University and the Georgia Humanities Council for providing these interviews.

Download Georgia Foodways Compilation

-- Roxanne Berschler, MoMS/SITES, Washington, DC

MoMS Intern Reports on Summer Projects

I had an absolutely wonderful time interning with Museum on Main Street this summer. The work was great and the people were even better. I was very excited to research and create two online exhibits to be featured on the Journey Stories website: “Gateway of Possibilities: Ellis Island” and “On the Road to Gold Mountain: Chinese Workers and the Transcontinental Railroad.” In addition, I conducted research for a section of The Way We Worked, a MoMS exhibit in its early stages of development. I learned so much during the course of my internship and my experiences at SITES have truly been invaluable. My co-workers were such a joy to work with and we shared a lot of great moments together. I am sad that I have to leave MoMS in order to finish my last year of graduate school. I can only hope that someday I will be lucky enough to work at a place as great as SITES.

-- Heather Maclean, George Washington University, Washington, DC

 

Heather with her farewell cake.

 

Four great interns (from left): Heather Maclean, Tara O'Connor, Roxanne Berschler, and Krista Schmidt. Thanks for all of your work!

Try Out the New Journey Stories Website

Drop by the new Journey Stories exhibition website at http://journeystories.org. Using a great program called Omeka developed by the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, we've organized a website that allows each of the host states and communities for the exhibition to create online exhibitions based on their own local collections. We've also created a "Share Your Story" link that enables all visitors to the website to tell us their own personal journey stories, or those of their families.

We look forward to giving all of our web visitors and each of our host communities a chance to share their journey stories with the world.

-- Robbie Davis, MoMS/SITES, Washington, DC

Journey Stories Video from Lindsborg, KS!

Many thanks to Dan Carey-Whalen of the Kansas Humanities Council for documenting Lindsborg's experience with the Journey Stories exhibit! The video below highlights Lindsborg's first encounters with the exhibit, allowing viewers a glimpse of the installation process. MoMS had a fantastic time in Lindsborg - we can't wait to hear more about the Journey Stories happenings in Kansas!

-- Roxanne Berschler, MoMS/SITES, Washington, DC

Follow MoMS on Twitter

Museum on Main Street has joined the millions contributing to the conversation on Twitter. Look for MoMS at http://twitter.com/museumonmainst. Our Twitter id is "museumonmainst".

-- Robbie Davis, MoMS/SITES, Washington, DC