{"id":8093,"date":"2026-04-30T14:40:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T14:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/?p=8093"},"modified":"2026-05-06T16:20:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T16:20:33","slug":"ui-museum-studies-students-gain-hands-on-experience-through-unpacking-travel-exhibit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/2026\/04\/30\/ui-museum-studies-students-gain-hands-on-experience-through-unpacking-travel-exhibit\/","title":{"rendered":"UI Museum Studies students gain hands-on experience through Unpacking Travel exhibit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

The following is written by Lead Public Services Librarian Lindsay Moen<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The University of Iowa is home to the country\u2019s oldest Museum Studies Program, with related courses dating as far back to the 1889\u20131890 academic year, according to early university course catalogs. This rich history of museum education continues today with Iowa\u2019s Museum Studies Certificate Program that combines history, theory, and experiential learning to create a robust curriculum preparing students for work in a wide range of museums and cultural institutions.<\/p>\n

Special Collections and Archives at the UI Libraries is a proud collaborator with the certificate program, regularly hosting student interns within the department in order to provide hands-on experiences with collection materials and digital collection maintenance. During the spring 2026 semester, Special Collections had the opportunity to take experiential learning to new heights by working with Anthony Carfello\u2019s MUSM:3004 Exhibition Planning course, where the students curated a group exhibit\u2014Unpacking Travel<\/em>\u2014for the Special Collections Reading Room.<\/p>\n

\u201cMuch of our course has focused on exhibitions as a method of communication, and at the core of exhibition-making is the notion of saying something with things, be they artifacts, artworks, records, etc.,\u201d shared Carfello. \u201cWorking with the library was a crucial part of the semester, where everyone was able to take on the challenge of asking, \u2018What can I convey using these materials?\u2019 And it was even better that the special collections are vast and students had to narrow it down greatly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The class visited Special Collections and Archives eight times throughout the semester and worked with Lead Public Services Librarian Lindsay Moen; Curator of Rare Books & Maps Laura Michelson; Olson Graduate Research Assistant Calvin Covington; and Special Collections Graduate Student Lead Hailee McCormick, who helped guide the students in tandem with Carfello. The students learned more about exhibit curation within a special collections and archival setting, the way to search for resources within library-specific databases, what the roles of conservation and exhibit coordination staff are, all while thinking of how to present these physical materials to an audience. For each student, it was their first time curating an exhibit of any kind.<\/p>\n

To better prepare the class for a fast-tracked exhibition experience, the theme of travel was selected. As Carfello noted, \u201cbecause students come to the Museum Studies program from different interests\u2014art, biology, classics, history, paleontology, and more\u2014we arrived at geography as a common ground and sought out the collections focused on maps and travel books. The resulting exhibition presents these dozen students’ widely varied perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n

As stated in the class\u2019s curatorial statement, \u201cthe students of MUSM:3004 Exhibition Planning began with the general subject of travel, each charting their own path through the books, records, and maps of the Special Collections over the course of several weeks. Some approached travel as a pursuit; others saw it as means to an end. The resulting exhibition, Unpacking Travel<\/em>, collects their perspectives, with particular emphasis on journeys of the past and the ways navigation determines understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Student<\/a>
Museum Studies student adjusts exhibit label<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Close<\/a>
Student places a stereo card in the exhibit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"student<\/a>
Museum Studies student places copies of photos in exhibit case<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As luck would have it, there were 12 students and 12 front case sections, so each student was assigned a section. After the four-week residence, the students came together with Carfello to create Unpacking Travel<\/em>. Conservator Technician from the Libraries\u2019 Conservation Lab Bill Voss prepared the selected materials for safe display, and the students were able to work with Voss to see how materials are prepared for library exhibitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Student Lauren Abbott described the experience as \u201can incredibly valuable experience in exploring and rehearsing the exhibition design process from start to finish. I gained a great understanding of the planning and creation of exhibits that I can carry into a career in museums or teaching centered on experiential learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grant Wiebke, another Museum Studies student in the class, added, \u201cI\u2019ve always enjoyed any chance I\u2019ve had to work with collections, and getting to design and put together every part of an exhibition of my own for this class has been a great experience, and a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unpacking Travel<\/em> is on display in the Special Collections Reading Room on the third floor of the Main Library and will be on display until May 7.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/a>
Bill Voss (far right) preps a mount for a book as Lindsay Moen and Calvin Covington assist students with exhibit install. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following is written by Lead Public Services Librarian Lindsay Moen The University of Iowa is home to the country\u2019s oldest Museum Studies Program, with related courses dating as far back to the 1889\u20131890 academic year, according to early university course catalogs. This rich history of museum education continues today with Iowa\u2019s Museum Studies CertificateContinue reading “UI Museum Studies students gain hands-on experience through Unpacking Travel exhibit”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":8096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,4],"tags":[37,674],"syndication":[435],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8093"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8093"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8106,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8093\/revisions\/8106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8093"},{"taxonomy":"syndication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/syndication?post=8093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}