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To Blog or Not to Blog: That Was The Question
In the age of new technologies, no longer are museums limited to exhibits as the main method of sharing information. At this museum, with its website revamped in the fall of 2011, we thought it the perfect opportunity to begin sharing information through blogging! To some of the “older” staff, this was quite a foreign concept, but we have embraced it and are moving forward.
The planetarium blog offers tantalizing tidbits of information about astronomical events and space exploration trivia, as well as comments on the climate and weather. Of course, there we also promote the exciting programs shown in the Digistar 4 planetarium.
For history blogs, we are using letters and diaries from the Museum’s collection. In conjunction with our recent exhibit, Remember Me: Civil War Portraits, we posted the letters of Private Harrison DeWaters of Oshtemo. The letters he wrote home to his family trace his service from late 1861 through the spring of 1865. We added introductory commentary that placed his experiences in historical context.
This summer and fall, we are blogging the letters of Charles F. Cock of Charleston Township. Next year, we will begin posting the letters of Spencer McOmber of Kalamazoo. Throughout the observance of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, we will continue using the stories of men from our region as told in their own words.
For those more interested in daily life, we have added a blog using the diaries of Claire Wight, a talented and ambitious young woman. Claire played mandolin and was a star tennis player at Kalamazoo College in the early 1900s. Her diary entries offer a teenager’s view of Kalamazoo a century ago. (An article about Claire is featured in our Summer 2010 issue of Museography, Vol. 9, Issue 3.)
Start with the earliest letter or diary entry in the blogs so you can follow each story from beginning to end. To access the blogs on kalamazoomuseum.org, go to Quick Links at the bottom of the page, then click Museum Blogs. You’ll arrive at the Planetarium Blog with entry points along the top of the page for Diaries of Claire Wight and Civil War Letters and Diaries
Happy reading!
The planetarium blog offers tantalizing tidbits of information about astronomical events and space exploration trivia, as well as comments on the climate and weather. Of course, there we also promote the exciting programs shown in the Digistar 4 planetarium.
For history blogs, we are using letters and diaries from the Museum’s collection. In conjunction with our recent exhibit, Remember Me: Civil War Portraits, we posted the letters of Private Harrison DeWaters of Oshtemo. The letters he wrote home to his family trace his service from late 1861 through the spring of 1865. We added introductory commentary that placed his experiences in historical context.
This summer and fall, we are blogging the letters of Charles F. Cock of Charleston Township. Next year, we will begin posting the letters of Spencer McOmber of Kalamazoo. Throughout the observance of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, we will continue using the stories of men from our region as told in their own words.
For those more interested in daily life, we have added a blog using the diaries of Claire Wight, a talented and ambitious young woman. Claire played mandolin and was a star tennis player at Kalamazoo College in the early 1900s. Her diary entries offer a teenager’s view of Kalamazoo a century ago. (An article about Claire is featured in our Summer 2010 issue of Museography, Vol. 9, Issue 3.)
Start with the earliest letter or diary entry in the blogs so you can follow each story from beginning to end. To access the blogs on kalamazoomuseum.org, go to Quick Links at the bottom of the page, then click Museum Blogs. You’ll arrive at the Planetarium Blog with entry points along the top of the page for Diaries of Claire Wight and Civil War Letters and Diaries
Happy reading!