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US- World History II Industrial Era Museum Curation: Assignment

Assignment

Unit 2 Final Product: Industrial Era Museum Curation

45 points

Full assignment linked here

The Museum of World History is proud to announce their new exhibition, entitled “Romanticism and Realism in the Industrial Era,” will be opening soon. They have chosen you to curate one room of this new exhibit. They expect you to explain your chosen zeitgeist of the industrial era and choose two pieces for your exhibit room. Think about the types of things you have seen in museums that help visitors understand a topic and/or a time period.

Your job is to:

  1. Choose a zeitgeist of the era (approx. early 1800s to 1870s). The zeitgeist you choose must be a feeling someone living in the Industrial era might have had. There are several suggestions below for issues shaping the zeitgeist of the era you can explore and tie in. (yellow light-you may only use the Flint Research Assistant linked on the LibGuide.)
  1. Urban Living Conditions and Housing Issues / Women’s Rights and Issues / Child Labor and Education / Wages and Cost of Living / Working Conditions and Unionization / Sanitation and Public Health / Political Participation and Suffrage /Socialism and Political Protest / Pollution and Environmental Issues

 

  1. Choose two (2) pieces for your exhibit room from approx. early 1800s to 1870s, which means that you may not use any Impressionist pieces or any photography. One must be a piece of art (a painting, sculpture, music, etc) and the other piece can be of your choosing (art, or an artifact, written work, etc.) (yellow light-you may only use the Flint Research Assistant linked on the LibGuide.)

→ NOTE: ALL research notes and paragraph writing MUST be done in the Notes/Writing Google Doc provided by your teacher in Classroom. After you have finalized your paragraphs in the Google Doc, you may copy/paste them into your final Museum product.

 

  1. Write a Statement of Purpose to the museum director that includes an underlined thesis statement of WHAT the zeitgeist is, followed by supporting evidence of your thesis that is based on sources from class and research. You should include hints about the pieces in your exhibit room. This paragraph is an introduction and justification. (red light- no AI use is allowed for this part of the writing process)
    1. A good thesis is going to succinctly and directly address the prompt or in this case the directive you have been given. You are not writing a general paper on a painting or a poem or an artifact. That is too vague. You are defending your choices as they relate to the zeitgeist of the era.

 

  1. Write an information card that will be displayed with each of your chosen pieces to help visitors understand what they are looking at (historical context) and how each piece reflects the zeitgeist of the Industrial Era. (red light- no AI use is allowed for this part of the writing process)

 

  1. Submit a Chicago Style Bibliography of all your sources, indicating any AI usage; be sure your sources include:
    1. At least one written primary source