Exhibition Docent Handbook - Museum on Main Street

More documents

Recommendations

Info

PRODUCTIONFarmers needed strong, durable, affordablefences. Recognizing their need,inventors filed more than 1,200 newfence patents between 1801 and 1881.In 1900, rapidly produced steel postsjoined wooden posts as the fencebuilder’s stock in trade. Mass-productionmachinery enabled barbed wire, wovenwire, and chain link to shape Americanlife and landscape. This mass productiontechnology accompanied the increasingindustrialization of farming.Coils of wire stacked atAmerican Steel & WireCompany, Worcester,Massachusetts, about 1934;Baker Library, HarvardBusiness School
THINK ABOUT ITAsk your visitors to look at the coils of fence wire atthe American Steel and Wire Company and to thinkabout how mass-production technology changed fencebuilding and the American landscape.Woven-wire fence machine; Baker Library, Harvard Business SchoolLET’S TALK• What impact do you think industrialization andmass production had on a farmer’s working style?Income? What about its effect on the landscape?What effects could it have had on farm employment?• The fence crisis inspired more than 1,200 new fencepatents in the 1800s. How many different kindsor styles of fences do you see today? Do youremember any fences styles that are obsolete today?• Around 1900, steel fence posts began to replacewooden ones. What do you think are someof the advantages of steel posts? Can you thinkof any disadvantages?
Page 1 and 2: docent handbookMuseum</stro
Page 3 and 4: Welcome to BETWEEN FENCES and thank
Page 5 and 6: THINK ABOUT ITHave your visitors en
Page 7 and 8: Chicken & Egg Public Projects, Inc.
Page 9 and 10: THINK ABOUT ITEncourage your visito
Page 11 and 12: • Match the sliding front-yard fe
Page 13 and 14: LET’S TALK• Does The Leedom Far
Page 15: Rail pile near Circleville, Ohio, 1
Page 19 and 20: THINK ABOUT ITEncourage your visito
Page 21 and 22: LET’S TALK• In 1860, only seven
Page 23 and 24: • Do you think livestock should h
Page 25 and 26: LET’S TALK• What do you think
Page 27 and 28: Spite fence, Lanesboro, Minnesota,
Page 29 and 30: THINK ABOUT ITAs they explore both
Page 31 and 32: Postcard of the border between Sono
Page 33 and 34: Photographs from Farm and Fence <st
Page 35: As representatives of the museum, d

Exhibition Docent Handbook - Museum on Main Street

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?