Excerpt taken from the University of Cincinnati Community Collaborations, feat. Tippecanoe 2006 Grad, Mackenzie English
Project
The curation and digitizing of library, archival resources and artifacts for Cincinnati Museum Center. The goal is to create a web-based education module about Ohio River Valley history, focusing on the transformation of the central riverfront corridor that includes Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. The “web exhibit” will be a research resource available to the community about the natural history, science and cultural aspects of the region.
Downey Funding
$150,000
Collaboration
The Downey Fund grant has supported the work of several University of Cincinnati students, who are helping to curate historical and geological material. Three UC history students have worked with Scott Gampfer, director of history collections & preservation for Cincinnati Museum Center. Two researched the Museum Center’s existing collection and identified resources relating to the Ohio
River Valley corridor, recommending items to be scanned. Another student then started working on the digitizing — scanning photos and providing metadata. Two more UC students, who are studying geology, have been working with Brenda Hanke, curator of invertebrate paleontology at the Museum Center. They, too, have been working to get images ready for the online education module. “Any partnership that strengthens UC and the Museum Center’s relationship is fantastic,” Hanke says. “The students get experience in curation and photography, which is good for their resumes. We benefit because they’re helping us identify and photograph useful specimens and optics.” Which isn’t as easy as it sounds.
“I know it sounds really simple to take pictures of things, but I’ve been learning the best ways to photograph fossils; you want to make sure certain characteristics are visible on the photos,” says UC student Julia Wise, who is working on a second bachelor’s degree, in geology. “I’m taking invertebrate paleontology (at UC), talking about the fossils in the classroom and then being able to come in and see them.” Not only has the project been mutually beneficial for the students and the Museum Center, but it’s really a community- based initiative that will eventually benefit the public with its research and education online program.
About Cincinnati Museum Center
Housed in the iconic Union Terminal, Cincinnati Museum Center includes the Omnimax Theater, Cincinnati History Museum, the Cincinnati Historical Society Library, the Duke Energy Children’s Museum and the Museum of Natural History and Science.
