This week my history class
participated in a project which involved analyzing several documents related to
a component of the industrial revolution.
We split into groups that focused on each topic and became curators of
an imaginary museum, turning the documents into an exhibit. The groups learned
how to examine documents, beginning with looking at them together as a group.
There
was no splitting up of documents, as every group member had to be familiar with
every document. We interpreted the sources and their citations to find the
title, creator, date, location, reason for creation, and significance. We then put all of this information into a
master sheet (though everyone had one of their one) for reference while
creating the exhibit. We then put all the documents onto a piece of poster
board and created placards to describe each one. It is important to take the
curating process seriously, as you have to convey the information to people who
aren’t familiar with it at all.
My
group’s project was one that had a lot of our hearts and souls poured into it.
The topic was slavery and cotton during the industrial revolution, which was
why I thought of the title “Products of a Dark Time”. Our documents included an
article on Richard Arkwright (creator of the water frame), an engraving of a
Lowell mill, a chart and a graph on the increase of slavery, a map showing the
slave/cotton trade routes, and a cartoon showing how slavery fed the industrial
revolution. I hope that viewers can gather this information in their minds and
understand that this innovative time in history was fed by a darker force than just
the human mind.
I,
personally, learned a lot from viewing the other groups’ projects. From “The Devastation
of Child Labor”, I learned that a problem just as painful as slavery during the
revolution was child labor. The exhibit taught me that 50% of factory workers
were under the age of 10, doing jobs that nowadays would be performed by adult
males. Now there’s a painful statistic. “’Not-So-Great Britain’: Why
Industrialization Wasn’t Always a Good Thing” explained the economic and
ecological ramifications of the industrial revolution. More people should know that the steamboat was
horrible to the environment, as it polluted water at a frightening rate. Speaking
of transportation, “From Countrysides to the Big City” spoke on this very
topic. It explained that transportation was constantly evolving throughout the
industrial revolution, although some people were against this rapid expansion.
The last poster I viewed was “Weaving a New World”, which, although it was
similar to my group’s project in that it talked about clothing production,
focused more on innovations in weaving. It explained that cotton factory jobs
created another source of income for families, as it gave the women a salary of
their own.
After
looking at all the posters in our makeshift “museum”, I can say with honesty
the following: when one looks at a time in history as important as the
industrial revolution, it takes some good museum curators, like us, to effectively
convey this information to the public. Different minds, working together to
share their intelligence, is one of the most powerful ways to communicate with
a larger audience.
