Hiding in Plain Sight

     One of the challenges of putting museum displays in an older building is working around the features of the building.  Sometimes these features can be adapted into the exhibits, but other times they need to be camouflaged.  We had some of these challenges in our building at the NMCWM.  Our biggest adaptation is probably the ramps which lead from the front half of the building (which is higher) to the back half.  When the building was renovated, the stairs between these spaces were replaced with ramps.  The ramps were then integrated into the exhibits.  You can read a post about our ramps here.  

     We also had to deal with some areas which needed to be camouflaged. 

Several support poles run from the third floor all the way down to the basement of the building.  Here in the collection room they don’t need to be disguised.  They would be a distraction in the galleries though, so we had to get creative!

The Camp Life gallery is directly below the collection room.  Can you spot the pole here?  You probably guessed that it’s inside the tree, but if you were just walking through the museum you wouldn’t know that the tree was hiding something! 

On the first floor, the same pole is hidden inside the wall to the Pavilion Hospital gallery.

     Another area which needed disguising was the building’s old elevator. 

Here you can see the door to the old elevator on the third floor.  Visitors don’t see this floor, so we only need a warning sign to remind the staff not to use this non-functioning elevator!

There’s no sign of an elevator on the second floor in the Field Evacuation gallery.

The barn door which is part of the scenery in the gallery actually disguises the elevator door.  It also creates a little storage nook, as well as a convenient place to hide a sticky trap!

On the first floor, in the Field Hospital gallery, a different door hides the elevator and a storage closet.

     I’ll bet the next time you visit a museum, while you’re looking at the artifacts you’ll also be looking for the “hidden” items!


Photos courtesy of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine.

Things I Find in the Galleries!

     Every morning before the museum opens I walk through all the galleries to check on the displayed artifacts.  This is also my opportunity to inspect the galleries for possible leaks, heating or cooling issues, broken props, burned out light bulbs, signs of insects, or any other issues which need attention.  On most days everything is fine, though I may have to change a light bulb or two.  However, I do get some surprises from time to time!  Let’s take a look at what I found in the galleries last week.

Yes, on this walk-through I had to change a bulb.  At least now that the tracks are clearly labeled, I can change it without playing the circuit breaker guessing game!

This carte-de-visite (CDV) image of a Civil War surgeon was giving me trouble last week.  I kept finding it on the floor instead of on its stand.  That seemed odd, as it’s been there for a while and hasn’t fallen off in the past.  Since the CDV is inside a sleeve of Mylar, I was able to use a small piece of double-sided tape to solve that problem.

     Downstairs in the Field Hospital gallery, I discovered something a bit more unusual.

Can you see what’s wrong here?

The mannequin’s arm had fallen off, and taken some other props along with it.  It was a pretty strange sight!

I checked the mannequin’s arm to make sure nothing was broken.  It appeared that the arm had simply succumbed to gravity.  

After I replaced the mannequin’s arm, I put the props back in their places as well.  Here I’m putting the chloroform cone back over the face of the “patient.”

 

While I was back there, I made some minor adjustments to the other mannequins.

     Finding two fallen items in the galleries made me wonder if our building was being subjected to some sort of vibrations.  Though unusual occurrences in the museum building are usually jokingly attributed to ghosts, I wanted to check out the other possibilities.  My first thought was that it could have been caused by a larger than usual tour group.  When I checked, I found that we hadn’t had any large groups through in the past week though.  Next I looked at possible seismic activity, but I didn’t see anything unusual for our area.  I did find that there was some local road construction recently though, so that could be the culprit.  I’ll have to continue to keep an eye on things to be sure.  

Things appear to be back to normal now, at least as normal as is possible for an amputation scene!

Photos courtesy of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine.