Trying Out New Careers

My group's exhibit on Child Labor on display

Last week in history class, we switched out of our normal job of studious learning and became a museum curator...and visitor. My group of fellow museum curators, were given the task of "curating" child labor during the Industrial Revolution. Below I have written a few paragraphs about my new career experience. 

         My class was given the opportunity of curating one of the several topics of the Industrial Revolution, such as pollution, steam powered transportation, cotton looms, increase in slavery, and child labor. My group and I got to curate the matter of child labor during the revolution. Before I get to my personal experience and enrichment of this activity, let me define the term "curate". A curator, usually found in museum or historical exhibits, has the responsibility of thoroughly analyzing and researching the subject that they expert in, and displaying them for public viewing. They determine what visitors should learn from the exhibit, and they provide key dates, figures, events, etc. Their main goal is to give as much knowledge as possible while being concise and appealing. It's necessary for the curator to analyze their subject keenly because they need to share accurate information with their audience. The more inferences and connections they make the better; and any catchy titles, slogans, pictures, and color are always in favor for curators.
          Since my group and I didn't have much accurate knowledge on child labor during the Industrial Revolution, it was needed for us to research and learn more about it. We were provided several sources such as the 1833 Factory Act, a journal entry about the Bobbin Girls, and many pictures. We evaluated these sources and determined the key pieces of information that we wanted to share with our "visitors", who were pretty much our classmates. We highlighted the crucial points related to child labor, such as the Factory Act, some demographics, and the several hardships the young workers had to go through.  It didn't take us long to come up with a captivating title, just a few alluring vocabulary words arranged here and there, and we invented our fabulous title that set the somber mood of the topic- "Condemning the Innocent: Child Labor during the Industrial Revolution".
          After the hard work of our exhibits, we hung them up and got to view the presentations of the other groups. As we toured each group I was able to grasp the history of the revolution and, personally, I thought it was fun to explore each exhibit and connect them to the other ones. The first exhibit I "toured" was on the pollution during the Industrial Revolution. I learned that many big cities, like Manchester, were the hub for mills and factories. The boom in this industry caused large smoke emissions and many contaminants in rivers. The next presentation covered the topic of steam powered transportation. The multiple diagrams explained the mechanism of the steam engine. The poster also included a nice timeline displaying the progress of transportation in America; it was interesting to see how quickly transportation improved during the revolution. Afterward, I learned about looms and other machines used in the textile industry. I read about the Spinning Jenny and how it allowed textile workers to weave faster than before. These new inventions caused a huge increase in textile productions and allowed the population of cities like London to grow. The last exhibition I visited concerned the escalation in slavery.The poster consisted of a graph which caught my eye; it showed the relation between the increase in the manufacturing industry and the increase in slavery. As the Industrial Revolution became more and more popular and the number of factories tripled the amount of workers grew too. Sadly, this called for slavery and many African Americans were put to work in the factories.
I loved viewing all the exhibits, and I thought all of them were interesting and had museum-like qualities. Each exhibit had their unique features like colorful backgrounds, pictures, and catchy titles.
I thought this whole curating process was a nice way of sharing our understanding and at the same time learn about the Industrial Revolution. I personally like such hands-on and creative projects, and I can't wait to do more!