Exhibition Catalogue of the Museum of Literary Objects

Exhibition Catalogue of the Museum of Literary Objects

Grant:
Instructional Development Fund (IDF)
Academic Year:
2014 - 2015 (June 1, 2014 through May 31, 2015)
Funding Requested:
$500.00
Project Dates:
-
Applicant(s):
srsilver
Overview of the Project:
Over the course of the semester, students in English 351.001 compose and publish an exhibition catalogue of a museum of literary objects. Students in this lecture course select significant objects from readings in British literature of the eighteenth century, the so-called "consumer revolution." They become curators in a museum composed of these objects, writing accession sheets, object records, and extensive curator's notes. Towards the end of the semester, students revise these documents into a single collaborative document, an exhibition catalogue. This catalogue includes object descriptions, images, and extensive curator notes. Printed using the Espresso Book Machine in the Undergraduate Library, each student takes home a copy of their catalogue at the end of the class.
Final Report Fields
Project Objectives:
This grant is to fund an end-of-semester book, printed using the Undergraduate Library's Espresso Book Machine, containing student essays compiled over the course of the semester. Each student received a copy of this publication, which contained writing by themselves and their peers. The course is designed to introduce students to emerging ways of thinking about literature, develop some skills associated with libraries and museums, even while canvassing a wide range of eighteenth-century literature and the arts.
Project Achievements:
This project was a success. The class was geared towards the production of this end-of-semester document, a single "exhibit catalogue," containing student essays about literary objects compiled over the course of the class. During the semester, students worked as curators, identifying objects from eighteenth-century British literature. They researched these objects-- a canoe owned by Robinson Crusoe, a shilling circulating in London, a lock of hair clipped and lost in Twickenham, and so on-- and wrote up accession reports for the course museum. These they then rewrote into curator's comments, student essays focusing on one or more of the objects they collected during the semester.
Continuation:
no
Dissemination:
My home department has received a copy of the book.
Advice to your Colleagues:
I have now run this class in several formats, and can confidently report that it works best in small groups, where students are able to take charge of both their own objects, and the format of the publication. But the book itself is always a centerpiece of the class, and I regularly receive letters, notes, and comments from students that they appreciate their writing being taken seriously in this way.
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