Exhibit Research

This morning I began doing research for the two cases I will be working on for the new exhibit about early park administration in Yellowstone. The two cases I will be responsible for are on the Army years (one of three cases on this topic) and on the creation of the National Park Service. I started by reading a chapter in "Managing the 'Matchless Wonders': A History of Administrative Development in Yellowstone National Park, 1872-1965." From that resource, I learned about the Army years, and the main issues the Army dealt with when they ran the park.

After reading a while, I took a break to rehouse a sign from the previous exhibit, which the other interns deinstalled on Thursday (I had the day off because my brother was visiting). The previous exhibit was about the fires of 1988, which burned one third of Yellowstone National Park. The sign I rehoused was a trail sign that was burned in the fire, but is still readable. I made a box to fit the sign and lined it with ethafoam. I secured the sign in the box with twine tape.

The rehoused sign from the '88 fires

After rehousing the sign, the three museum interns working on Army cases (me, Erica, Jake) had a meeting to determine the topics for the three cases. Since I had just read about that era, I suggested that one of the cases be about poaching and vandalism and another be about army management of tourists and animals. Jake and Erica liked the idea, and we decided that the third case should be about Fort Yellowstone, the army base in Mammoth that remains to this day.

Specifically, I will be working on the Army case about poaching and vandalism in the park. I started looking for objects from the collection that would be appropriate for that case, and came up with a list of objects and photos that might work by searching in ANCS+. I am going to wait to look at the objects until Maeve, the library intern who I will be working on the case with, will be available to look at them with me (she has the day off today).

I spent the remainder of the day reading and continuing my research for my exhibit cases. The exhibit is our priority for the rest of the summer.