When I started the internship and learned what I would be working on for at least this semester, I was not sure I would enjoy my work. Sam informed me I would be doing a lot of data analysis, which I was less familiar with compared to other digital tools I have used. I could even tell during the class meeting that when I said that I was going to do that, I was not excited about it. What worried me was that I would get a few weeks in and find out that this is something that I do not like and it would turn me off from ever wanting to work in a museum setting. I was also worried that my mentor and the other employees of the National Collection Program would think I was not good at the job given. However, working on it these past few weeks has changed my view of where I stand.

While I feared that I would fail and eventually hate working in a museum environment, that was not my experience the past few weeks. I discovered that I really like data analysis, maybe even more than the other digital tools I have learned in my classes. The one aspect that sold it to me was that it is a lot like researching in history. I was fascinated trying to find little tidbits that are important to what I am working on. This realization has really turned everything around for me. Before, I thought that I was going to hate this experience. Now, I am having the time of my life. However, this is different from what I am most enjoying out of this experience.

Yesterday, I participated in the Smithsonian Annual Picnic, helped out NCP, and saw and met other employees and their respective museums. NCP invited me and got me a visitor badge for the day. To be honest, I was nervous. While I have talked to them via email and on Teams, this would be my first time talking to them face-to-face. I wanted to make a good impression. However, I found out there was nothing for me to be worried about. I felt more comfortable talking to them in person than I did online. I found myself really enjoying my day and getting to know my mentor and the other employees better. I am happy that I enjoyed being there in person, and I cannot wait to get my official badge in a couple of weeks to continue to come in person. I feel that having this ability would create a more positive internship experience than it would if it was just virtual.

I was confused when I first found out where I would be working at the Smithsonian. This was the first I had heard of the National Collections Program; I only knew of the different museums within the institution. However, while I was confused, it piqued my interest. I immediately found the website and looked around. One of the first pages I looked at was the mission statement. I wanted to know precisely what the department does for the Smithsonian and get an idea of what my role during the internship would be. As stated on its website, the National Collections Program does “improve the overall stewardship and management of Smithsonian collections by providing central leadership, policy oversight, strategic planning, and support to Institution-wide collections initiatives.”¹ The department creates policies for how the Smithsonian handles and protects its collections. This made me think I would help the department develop different policies. When I met with Mrs. Snell, my mentor, to discuss the internship and my role within the department, I learned more about what I was going to be helping them with. She, along with Ms. Miller, told me that I was going to be assisting the Collections Emergency Management initiative. The initiative’s mission is “to strengthen and support unit-level and pan-Institutional collections emergency policy, procedures, training, and logistics” and “to advise and provide subject-matter expertise, consultation and assistance to NCP, Smithsonian units and senior management and, when activated, provide collections support, response, and recovery as requested by NCP as part of the Smithsonian’s Office of Emergency Management.”² Essentially, the Preparedness and Response in Collections Emergencies creates policies and training for Smithsonian staff that tackles different types of emergencies across the institution. These emergencies include pipe leaks, HVAC failures, and damage caused by natural disasters. They also describe the exact job I would be working on. I will look at the different emergencies that occurred over the years and find common issues, oddballs, and other issues in the collections. I will compile this information and see if there are lessons to be learned and if certain areas need to be addressed. For example, if leaks seem to be a common issue that continues to come up in the files, what needs to be addressed, and what can the institution learn and do about them? I would then use the digital skills I learned in the past three classes to compile that information and dig out trends. These include using analysis tools like Voyant and Excel, and design tools such as Canva and PowerPoint. The job description excited me. One of the goals I wanted to get out of the internship was to learn about the inner workings and be able to work with different members of the institution. In my role, I will learn how the institution handles different emergencies and how each department handles them. I will also be able to talk to different members of the Smithsonian. When I complete this certificate and my degree, I hope to use my education to work in a museum. I am excited that this internship will help me learn more about the inner workings of a museum and network with other members of the Smithsonian.

1. “Vision and Mission,” National Collections Program, accessed September 11, 2024, https://ncp.si.edu/vision-and-mission. ↩︎
2. “Collections Emergency Management,” National Collections Program, accessed September 11, 2024, https://ncp.si.edu/PRICE. ↩︎

What challenges do we face as history educators presenting the past in the digital world?

One of the major issues surrounding teaching history in today’s digital world is the controversies surrounding how history is presented in this medium. One of these controversies is the use of Wikipedia. Wikipedia is famously, or perhaps infamously, known to be of the teacher’s ire. Many teachers would encourage students to use more reliable sources since anyone can edit Wikipedia, possibly making the information inaccurate. However, many who are teaching history are trying to change that by having students create information on the site that is accurate and reliable. However, there are some issues when trying to improve the site. One of the issues of presenting history on Wikipedia is how the site promotes historical information. According to Sadie Bergen, “Wikipedia’s policies and website architecture support a version of the past that Rosemont College associate professor Michelle Moravac . . . compares to ‘a bad high school history class.’ Wikipedia propagates a ‘great man’ and ‘great woman’ version of the past . . . .” Many of the articles on Wikipedia show the best of the best of history and fall victim to bias, making it hard to find reputable and neutral information in the articles. However, this neutrality is also challenging to achieve as every person has bias and is what Jeremy Brown and Benedicte Melanie Olsen say trained to create “an original argument.” With Wikipedia’s policies and history students’ training, presenting history in the digital medium is possible but difficult.

At this current moment, I have narrowed down my trivia game to include ten questions about different examples of propaganda during World War II. I have also laid out the framework of my website with three main sections: the trivia game, an overview of propaganda and its use during the war, and different examples with descriptions and analysis. My main goal is for users to be able to learn about the ways that the United States government used propaganda to influence support for the war. Within propaganda, there are five different distinct but complementary appeals: Guilt, Satanism, the Illusion of Victory, Apocalyptic, and Territorial. The focus of the project will cover these five appeals briefly and give examples that contain those appeals equally. For instance, I would have an example that shows both Guilt and the Illusion of Victory, but I will also have examples that cover the other appeals. I have two audiences for the project. The primary audience would be museum visitors who use the site after visiting the accompanying exhibit. My secondary audience would be teachers and students who find the site from the educational resources on the museum site. While most users would be museum visitors who see the advertisement at the end of the exhibit or on a brochure, the game and site would be helpful for teachers to teach the topic and historical thinking skills.

My next step is to add the information to the site and put the game together. Most, if not all, of the research and sources have been collected, so the only step I would have is to put that information on the website. I also need to develop questions at the end of each section so that users can use their historical thinking skills with the information they have just learned. There is one challenge that I have hit this past week, and that is time management. I had some health issues along with work that left just some time to work on the project. However, that is something I will work on this week. I plan on working on the website and game daily this coming week. If I do that, I will not find myself stressed and rushed.

I have made a great deal of progress on my project this week. I have not figured out the entirety of the concept. Essentially, it will be a trivia game on World War II propaganda in popular culture on a WordPress site. It will also include historical information that teachers could use in their classrooms or that other users can use to learn more about the subject before or after the game. As of right now, I have found an online tool that I will use to create the game: OpinionStage. This platform lets users create polls and trivia games that they can put on their website. A plugin on WordPress connects the user’s accounts to make it a seamless process. One of the reasons I chose this tool was that it allowed users to add images and videos to the slides. I wanted to show different pictures and clips of movies and radio programs during this era so that users could answer questions, making this aspect especially useful.  This past weekend, I decided to make a test quiz and add it to a private post on my WordPress site for the class to see if it would be a workable program, which I very happily discovered that it was, and the pictures and videos worked perfectly.

 My next step is to find and narrow down the sources I want to include in the quiz. Hearing Jess Pritchard-Ritter say, “Dream big, plan small,” made me think about the many sources I have to choose from this period and subject. I would love to create this huge website detailing everything about this subject and including all the examples in the quiz. However, as Jess said, I don’t have much time to include everything in one semester, especially during the shortened summer semester. That is why one of my next steps is to narrow down what I want and what needs to be included. The Hope Diamond Curse Project also made me think about what I want to include in the historical background. I liked how Jaimie included questions at the end of each section for people to think about and for teachers to use in their classrooms. I did not realize that just adding historical information is enough for people to grasp information. It is especially useful for teachers to test students’ comprehension and historical thinking skills. While I was only going to include historical background, I am going to take that idea of adding questions and add it to my overall plan.

One of the exhibits that I hope to create when I work in a museum is an exhibit on World War II in popular culture. The exhibit would mainly include films depicting the war, whether on the battlefield or on the home front. However, movies created after the event only scratch the surface of understanding the war. I would also include movies produced shortly before or during the war. While it is important to depict how people remember the war, I think it is equally essential to illustrate people’s thinking and feelings during the war. One can truly understand an event by knowing people’s thoughts and actions. One example of this is in the movie Casablanca (1942). There is a scene where some Nazi soldiers sing their national anthem loudly. The primarily French patrons of the club look on, terrified. However, Humphrey Bogart’s character allows the band to play the French national anthem. As they do this, the French patrons, including others, sing it proudly, eventually drowning out the soldiers.¹ This scene shows the mentality of the Allies in the war. They saw their numbers were more significant than the Axis, convincing them they could win. Including these films of the time would give visitors a greater understanding of the event rather than just learning from later films. I would also include digital storytelling in the exhibit. I would include a way for people to tell their stories about these objects and movies of popular culture depicting or from World War II on a website page for the exhibit. They can tell their stories or stories told to them by another family member or friend that center around a popular cultural object. People would have to create videos or audio to tell their stories. This could also be used in a classroom setting where a teacher could make it an assignment for students to create stories using the platform. Like Kelly Schrum says in “A Tale of Two Goldfish Bowls,” “DST challenged students to think in new ways, to ask questions, and to interrogate the sources and ideas they were reading, researching and developing.”² The teacher could have the students pick an object, research and analyze it, and then present their project using digital storytelling, further developing their historical thinking skills.

1. Casablanca, directed by Michael Curtiz, Warner Bros., 1943, 1 hr., 42 min, Video. ↩︎
2. Kelly Schrum, “A Tale of Two Goldfish Bowls . . . Or What’s Right with Digital Storytelling,” in Hacking the Academy: A Book Crowdsourced in One Week, ed. D. Cohen and T. Scheinfeldt (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2012), 89-97. ↩︎

I decided to watch The Monuments Men (2014) for the film review. It is one of my favorite films about the Second World War, but I have not watched it in a while. I chose this movie for the review because I wanted to watch it with a historical lens and think about how it could be used in a learning setting. The film was produced by Columbia Pictures with George Clooney (who stars in the movie) and Grant Heslou. Looking for information about the film, I found that it was based on The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History (2009), written by Robert M. Edsel and Bret Witter. I watched the film using Amazon.

The film follows seven men who work in the arts and are tasked by the United States government with tracking down the art that the Nazis stole. They face difficulties and triumphs as they traverse the European continent, looking for these important cultural objects. This task presents one of the film’s central themes: preserving history, art, and culture. The film shows how these objects are essential to human history and how if they lose them, it destroys that history and culture. This theme plays along with another theme in the movie: the fight between good and evil (also a prevalent theme throughout many films). The film presents these men as heroes who are tracking down the objects that the Nazis steal. There are different moments during the film that present this theme. One particular scene shows Nazi soldiers burning the artwork after the war ends in Europe. The movie shows how what the Nazis are doing is wrong and, therefore, evil because it is crucial to preserve these cultural objects. This brings up the issue of historical accuracy. While based on a true story, of course, the rules of Hollywood influenced different moments in the movie. Some moments in films based on a true story are often played up to make it more enjoyable while removing some of the accuracy. George Clooney himself even brings this up. However, he does say they tried to make the movie as accurate as possible. In an interview for Entertainment Weekly, he states, “Listen, the good news is, 80 percent of the story is still completely true and accurate, and almost all of the scenes happened . . . We follow all the rules, we just made the characters more interesting, I think.”¹ While the main story is true with the elements about them searching for the art and the goals of the Nazis, they made changes to the characters to make them more interesting for audiences.

There are a couple of critical moments that play along with the major themes of the film. The first moment, which happened at 17:38, shows Claire, a French curator, coming home to find Nazi General Stahl waiting for her. He tells her that he found out that she is a part of the resistance along with her brother. As a threat, he informs her that they have taken her brother prisoner and that if she does not comply, the same will happen to her. He leaves, and Claire looks worried. This moment shows that struggle in the fight of good versus evil. While Claire is working to bring an end to the war and the atrocities the Nazis are committing, she and the audience is reminded that it is not easy and can be filled with heartache and fear. Another critical moment, at 1:13:38, is when the Monuments Men find where the art is hidden in different caves in Germany. This moment plays with both significant film themes, with a triumph in the fight against evil and the success in preserving these objects.

When considering how the film could be used in a teaching and learning environment, it would be essential to show it in conjunction with the book it is based on. This film shows a moment in World War II history that is rarely discussed. However, students would benefit from reading the book before watching the movie. I would want students to watch this film with a critical and historical lens and understand the advantages and disadvantages of historical films in terms of accuracy. Reading this book and other articles and texts about the event would give students the tools to do that. I would also ask them questions about accuracy and debate about the usefulness of historical films. With this, I want students to ask questions about the elements of the film and the choices in what the filmmakers chose to include and omit from the book.

1. “George Clooney talks ‘The Monuments Men’,” Entertainment Weekly, accessed June 24, 2024, https://ew.com/article/2013/08/12/george-clooney-monuments-men-2/. ↩︎

I am mostly done with the research for my project. Most of my research on propaganda in World War II era popular culture was completed during other projects. However, I still have some research to do. While I have researched the movies and comic books of that era, I still have to learn more about the radio programs, posters, and other forms of media during that time.  I also had to collect and decide on the different forms of images I wanted to include in the game. This is one major challenge I am encountering since I can make various choices. I want to choose the best possible images, which will require a little time and careful decisions. However, there is one image that I know I want to include in the game. The first issue of Captain America came out during the war, and the cover is an excellent example of how propaganda was used in these comic books. On the cover, the titular hero is shown punching Adolf Hitler in the face. I wanted to include this image for a couple of reasons. For one, it’s a very in-your-face image that can be an easy beginning question for the game. The image also has other propagandistic aspects that the game can point to and ask questions about. I hope that the historical information I included in the exhibit and on the website will help users answer whether it is the easiest or hardest question.

After reading this week’s selections, I returned to my initial project pitch and considered what I wanted museum visitors and students to get out of the game. One of the positives of using digital tools to promote historical thinking is giving students new ways to think through sources and challenge their thinking about history. In History in the Making, Ward discusses how most history teaching using textbooks was done to help promote patriotism in students. I feel that traditional exhibits work in the same way. These exhibits usually show a more stagnant, boring, and, most of the time, patriotic history. Using digital tools instead of these textbooks and traditional exhibits helps challenge how students and visitors think about history, especially challenging the idea of patriotism, which I hope my game will do. With this, I feel I must expand on my initial idea. My main focus for the project is to create a game focused on the propaganda in popular culture during World War II. In my pitch, I said I could include historical background information for people who want to learn more before playing the game. I did not prioritize that aspect because I expected my primary audience would be people visiting the physical exhibit that the game is connected to. However, after reading the selections, especially Narratives and Counternarratives, I realized that they, too, may need the background information to help them think historically about the propaganda in the pictures to complete the game. They might not remember everything they learned in the exhibit or need a refresher. The background information also challenges users’ preconceived notions about U.S. history they learned in school. It would also help teachers use it for their students to teach a more well-rounded history rather than the “stagnant” history from textbooks and allow them to broaden their historical thinking. While I thought about including the historical background information in my initial pitch, I now feel that it has to be included with the game and perhaps even expanded to give users the ability to think critically and use what they learned to play the game.