The Period Rooms and Pottery Display
The first exhibit that you come to in the Greensboro Historical Museum is the period rooms and the pottery display on the second floor of the building. When you come up the stairs this first exhibit is located though a set of double glass doors to the right. The first thing that caught my eye when I entered the first exhibit was the bright lighting on the pottery display cases. In the center of the exhibit is a blue banner hanging from the ceiling that says “The Art of Turning Clay The Bluethenthal Pottery Collection.” Then below that is an information panel with writing by Charles G. Zug III talking about pottery collections. Surrounding these things are large glass display cases filled with different kinds of potter such as bowls, plates, pots, vases, etc. Along the wall in the largest of the display cases, which is located to the left, is a timeline about the story of Jugtown pottery starting in the year 1915 and ending in 1983. As I circulated around the display in the center of the space I saw all the different pottery in all different shapes, sizes, and colors and there are information panels above them about how they were made and the stories behind each different kind of pottery. Then there is an outer part of this circle that is where the period rooms are. They are less noticeable than the pottery displays because they are not nearly as brightly lit as the pottery exhibit. There are four rooms around this half circle hallway. There is The Belle Meade Parlor, The Belle Meade Dining Room, The Belle Meade Bedroom and then The Mendenhall-Simpson Room. The three Belle Meade rooms are recreated from the Belle Meade which is a Greensboro home built in 1867. I think that the pottery display works a lot better than how the period rooms are shown, because the pottery cases are very nicely lit and they stand out when you enter the space and your eye knows where to go to follow the information provided. Whereas with the period rooms they are very dimly lit and they do not stand out from the dim hallway they are located on.
"Voices of a City"
After exciting the first exhibit you come to a space that leads to two of the other exhibits. Up the stairs to the right is the “Gate City” exhibit and then to the left is the “Voices of a City” exhibit. However in the middle of this space there is a tall desk in the shape of a butterfly plan but there is nothing being displayed on the desk and it makes me wonder if it was there before the building became the museum and they just decided to leave it be or if it is occasionally used for some purpose and if so what is it used for. I decided to go through the “Voices of a City” exhibit first before going to the “Gate City” exhibit. In the front entrance of the “Voices of a City” exhibit the name of the exhibit is on the front wall of the exhibit in silver metal letters and you have to walk around that wall to get into the exhibit. Along the other wall on the hallway leading to the exhibit there is quotes in a tan yellow color that is a good contrast from the dark walls. Once you come around the corner you see all these pictures of different sizes placed in a timeline form along the wall. The timeline starts in 1756 and ends in 2008. The events and images on this timeline are related to the history of the city of Greensboro and represent some important events in the city’s past. The pictures show a hierarchy with their varying sizes and the largest ones have a lit up frame to show that they are the six boxes with audio clips to them. In the next room over there are display cases filled with the tools of the first people to live in the area that we now know as Greensboro. Then as you walked though the room it went though the people living in the city. I thought it was interesting how there was a wagon against one wall and I wonder if the ones that they used were all that big, because I never realized how large they were, it makes even our large SUVs today seem small. The images of the green forest landscape in the on the walls forming the back drop for the materials in this room helps to remind you that once this area looked much different from how it does now, back before all the concrete, glass, and steel. As you continue though the exhibit you come to the time in history when the area first became known as Greensborough rather than Greensboro. This part shows you how the city evolved as they started farming in the rich soil, crafts and trade, the idea of mass production and the creation of factories and mines, and making toys and other things for fun leisurely activities. The next two rooms of this exhibit go into further detail about some of these ideas such as textiles and the different processes that came about to make them. Then in the next too rooms it talks about two of the major issues taking place at the time, which was the polio epidemic and segregation, which hit home in Greensboro with the Greensboro sit-ins. The final three rooms of the exhibit are much more brightly lit than any of the other rooms in the exhibit and represent Greensboro’s recent history with its formation into a college town and the formation of downtown Greensboro.
"Gate City"
The “Gate City” exhibit is located on the third floor of the museum. I found this exhibit to be the most interesting of the exhibits, because of how it is laid out like a small town. It has a tree in the center of the space surrounded by park benches and then along the walls are shop fronts built into the wall and murals of different buildings. There are even street lights evenly places around the space to give it that little town feel. To add even more to the space there is soft music extra noises such as church bells chiming, children playing and laughing, and car horns. I think this exhibit would be the most interesting to people of all ages, which the museum is trying to attract and draw into the history of Greensboro. In this miniature town there is the Crystal Theatre, Richardson & Fariss Drug Store, Miss Lina Porter’s Schoolhouse, The Hotel Clegg, and the Steam Fire Engine Company No. 1. Within each of these little buildings is a room representing what the buildings looked like at the time. Inside Miss Lina Porter’s schoolhouse there is a desk with a glass top to show you what kinds of things could commonly be found in a child’s desk at the time such as marbles, books, paper, pens, the pieces for a game of Jacks and some loose change. In order to exit the exhibit you have to walk through the Hotel Clegg and out onto the third floor of the lobby to get to the next exhibit. In this way it forces you to at least interact with one of the spaces within the exhibit.
"Down Home"
The final exhibit I visited was the “Down Home” exhibit, which tells stories about Jewish life in North Carolina and their history in North Carolina. One of the first things that I noticed when I entered the exhibit was the music that was playing. It was music traditionally played in a Jewish Synagogue. There is also a video that plays in a loop showing the Synagogues around North Carolina. The part of this exhibit that I though was the most interesting was the model of the Synagogue that showed how the inside of a traditional Jewish Synagogue is set up, which I though was really fascinating to see since I have never been inside of a Synagogue and had no idea what the inside of one looked like. There were also glass display cases of objects important to the Jewish religion and the practices of its people such as the Menorah and the Kippah. This exhibit is filled with stories of how some Jewish families made it despite all of the adversity they faced in their lives. I feel like the exhibit could have been made more exciting with the addition of more colors to the exhibit because there is not very much contrast or color with in the space or the materials in the exhibit. I think that if the walls had been painted another color other than white it would have made the exhibit stand out more or if there was more color within the materials on display. There are only some little areas of color with the information panels, which one is blue, one is red, and one is purple. However, I also think that this exhibit had a lot more going for it in terms of lighting, because almost all parts of the other exhibits were not lit very well.
Gift Shop
I do not think that the gift shop in the Greensboro Historical Museum is not very conveniently placed, because I think that it makes more sense to have a gift shop placed where it can be viewed either as you are entering or exiting the building. However, with the GHM the gift shop is placed between two exhibits and because of that it has to be visited while viewing the exhibits or you have to go back through part of the museum again to come back to the gift shop. The gift shop sells mostly things centered around North Carolina, which I think makes sense based on the fact that the museum has the history of Greensboro and some history of North Carolina. The gift shop also has a lot of hand made things that are made by local people, which I think is really interesting to have. There is also other things like books, games, stuffed animals, dolls, pottery, educational materials, and jewelry. I think that this space would help you understand the museum better either before or after viewing the museum. I think that the gift shop would be more successful at what it is trying to achieve if it was placed within the lobby space in front of the auditorium where there is a small exhibit placed now.
Conclusion
One thing that they did in the museum that I thought was successful was how there were not only signs to differentiate between the different exhibits but also the floor treatments would change from one exhibit to the next, which helped with the transition. I feel like the museum could really use more natural lighting within the exhibits, which makes me wonder if it was just because of how the building was that there is no natural lighting or if it was done to protect the materials in the exhibits. Plus, the artificial lighting in the space could also use some work, because that is really the only kind of lighting in the exhibits and it makes the spaces very dark and dreary. I think that if the lighting and the colors were more vibrant then I think that the energy of the museum would be greatly improved. I feel that it the period rooms would work better if they were separate from the pottery display, because with where they are now the pottery display just over powers them and I think each of these two exhibits needs to be able to stand it its own spotlight.
