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Museum Discussion / Future Visitor Center and Museum Exhibits
« on: November 23, 2009, 09:29:29 AM »
Last Saturday, Cindy and I went to Remembrance Day at Gettysburg National Military Park. There were many events with thousands of re-enactors in Union and Confederate uniforms. Watching the parades with their brass bands and military maneuvers is a moving experience. Walking the battlefield and hearing Taps played by a lone bugler up on Little Round Top at sunset was just amazing.
Our first stop was the new (opened last year) visitor center and museum. Driving in from the Baltimore Pike you see what appears to be a large stone farm house with a tall red barn behind it. The structure is the new visitor center which was designed to blend in with 19th Century buildings. The Museum features some of the best Civil War artifacts in the US. One exhibit has items that are numbered with no further identification. Visitors examine the piece and guess it's use. There are numbered panels next to the display that correspond with the item. Lifting the panel reveals a description of the item and what it was used for. Of all the displays in the museum, this one had the most children around it.
The new facilities made me think of Sheepscot and how visitors view the museum when arriving - today and in the future. Our current buildings have the look of late 19th - early 20th Century structures. Someday, if we can build a Visitor Center at Sheepscot or Head Tide it should match the classic New England railroad style that makes Sheepscot a time machine. A potato warehouse would work. Of course construction depends on getting more land. We already have a nice museum and when we have more room, adding interpretive exhibits would be a plus. They don't have to be fancy, one could be a few numbered items on a table with a little book of descriptions. I think the kids and adults would both enjoy it. Another exhibit could show how a steam locomotive works by visitors moving a lever that starts the motion of valve gear on a model locomotive. Still, another one could show and explain the types of hand signals used by the train crew and how they are unique to the WW&F. Of course the parking lot and rest room facility has to be built first. Looking past those improvements ... when the parking lot is done, visitors will walk East to get to the railroad. As they pass the rest rooms the roundhouse and blacksmith shop will come into view. Another thing we can do is to add descriptive signs on each railroad building to help visitors understand what they are seeing once these structures are in place.
The WW&F is nothing close to the size and scope of Gettysburg but we can take a few of their ideas and use them to make Sheepscot an even better place to visit. Does anyone else have exhibit ideas or thoughts for a visitor center? Yes, it's a ways down the track but it's nice to dream...
Our first stop was the new (opened last year) visitor center and museum. Driving in from the Baltimore Pike you see what appears to be a large stone farm house with a tall red barn behind it. The structure is the new visitor center which was designed to blend in with 19th Century buildings. The Museum features some of the best Civil War artifacts in the US. One exhibit has items that are numbered with no further identification. Visitors examine the piece and guess it's use. There are numbered panels next to the display that correspond with the item. Lifting the panel reveals a description of the item and what it was used for. Of all the displays in the museum, this one had the most children around it.
The new facilities made me think of Sheepscot and how visitors view the museum when arriving - today and in the future. Our current buildings have the look of late 19th - early 20th Century structures. Someday, if we can build a Visitor Center at Sheepscot or Head Tide it should match the classic New England railroad style that makes Sheepscot a time machine. A potato warehouse would work. Of course construction depends on getting more land. We already have a nice museum and when we have more room, adding interpretive exhibits would be a plus. They don't have to be fancy, one could be a few numbered items on a table with a little book of descriptions. I think the kids and adults would both enjoy it. Another exhibit could show how a steam locomotive works by visitors moving a lever that starts the motion of valve gear on a model locomotive. Still, another one could show and explain the types of hand signals used by the train crew and how they are unique to the WW&F. Of course the parking lot and rest room facility has to be built first. Looking past those improvements ... when the parking lot is done, visitors will walk East to get to the railroad. As they pass the rest rooms the roundhouse and blacksmith shop will come into view. Another thing we can do is to add descriptive signs on each railroad building to help visitors understand what they are seeing once these structures are in place.
The WW&F is nothing close to the size and scope of Gettysburg but we can take a few of their ideas and use them to make Sheepscot an even better place to visit. Does anyone else have exhibit ideas or thoughts for a visitor center? Yes, it's a ways down the track but it's nice to dream...