A weekend in Maine?

Last Thursday we left for 5 days in Maine to be with friends for a mini vacation. We flew to LaGuardia in NY where the airport was pandemonium, there was no air conditioning, and it was crowded and stifling. That way no one had to go to a sauna because they got one right in the airport. To make things even worse, as we were going to our gate, we saw the following--

So our flight to Maine was cancelled, and they could not rebook us for two days! Bummer. We decided to go into NY and make a short holiday of it, even if we had rather been in Maine.

We stayed on the Upper West Side--near the American Museum of Natural History--where I was a student back in the 70s. On the 4th of July we first went to the New York Historical Society. It is a really cool museum with some innovative exhibition strategies for engaging lifelong learners.  That particular day it was the opening of the Madeline artwork exhibit, so the place was mobbed with family learning groups, some of whom were learning, others just being hypervocal and generally having too much uncontrolled fun.

The NYHS has a cool exhibit called open storage, where their museum artifacts are in the public exhibit area where people can see them as displays. It makes an impact about the size and diversity of their collections. It wasn't science, but it was innovative. We have done this to a limited degree with our butterfly collection--so that the public can look into it.  Here are some Tiffany lamps from the permanent collections at the NYHS. More natural history museums should be doing this so the people can see the collections behind the scenes.

And finally, as we learned from Darcie's talk about effective museum exhibits, they should be evocative, i.e., result in an emotional impact. This happened to me, with the display below of a gouged door from a NYFD fire truck from 911, with photos of 911 in the background.

But we made the best of it anyway. I like to see how other museums, regardless of the content (science, history, art, etc.) do their exhibits and displays.

On the second evening I wanted to show Jeannette Columbia University where I did my Ph.D. So here I am in front of the iconic Low Memorial Library on the main quad.

So if things had gone according to plans, I'd still be in Maine.  But we made the best of it anyway!