University of Delaware Museum Studies Program

 Delphi, Decoys, and Day Baskets...Oh, My!

My internship for the summer started with two weeks of classes as part of the University of Delaware’s DelPHI program. During the two weeks the DelPHI participants are taught how to make their research projects more accessible to the public. We went through classes that taught us how to compose press releases, how to give TV interviews, and how to utilize social media to spread information about our projects and ourselves. 

            After the DelPHI institute I began my internship work at the Upper Bay Museum in North East, MD. I am filming oral histories with the current decoy carvers who volunteer at the museum, and hope to make the interviews into a short documentary that can be shown at the museum. Conducting the interviews has been a good experience, and it has been wonderful to learn about the craft and lives of the men at the museum. Editing the footage has proven a bit more of a challenge since I really have no experience with the IMovie editing program and also have a lot of footage to whittle down.

 I am also in the process of putting together a new exhibit in the museum that will showcase hand made baskets from the Day Basket Company that is located in North East. The board members at Upper Bay were trying to find a different type of object to display other than decoys and hunting gear, and asked if I would be willing to help plan the basket exhibit. It has been wonderful so far, I had the opportunity to go out to the shop and meet with Karen Jackson who now owns the factory with her husband. She was able to provide a good amount of information about the history of the Day Basket Factory, as well as, photographs from the 1940’s and 1950’s of people working in the shop. She also loaned the museum some of the raw basket making materials that will hopefully be worked into the exhibit. 

Along with the new exhibit an opportunity has also been given to the museum and I to utilize the atrium space at the museum studies building at 77 E. Main St. in Newark, DE. The exhibit is still being discussed, with the possibility of bringing in old hunting boat as part of the display if logistics can be figured out. If the exhibit comes to fruition I hope to have completed by the fall.