Student Projects
Bowdoin students are involved in virtually every aspect of the work we do here, from working at the reception desk, greeting visitors and operating the gift shop, to leading tour groups through the galleries. They help out at events too, especially the ever-popular family day. Every year a few also work as collections assistants during the academic year and over the summer, some doing focused projects and some involved in all aspects of museum work, and some participate in northern fieldwork. In each of these capacities Bowdoin students make a tremendous contribution to our success.
Over the years, often with the support of a Gibbons Summer Fellowship students and interns have produced important exhibit and outreach materials.
Ekblaw Collection Research
Alex Brown '13 (2012 Gibbons fellow) and Meg Bunke '14 worked together to document Elmer Ekblaw's many journals, notebooks and diaries from the 1913-1917 Crocker Land expedition. In addition to creating valuable research documents (including photographs of each page and detailed summaries of the contents), they used their new knowledge of Arctic expeditions to develop proposals for interactive games to complement the upcoming exhibit on the expedition.
Animal Allies Interactives
Molly Taft '11 (2011 Gibbons Intern and subsequently Museum Intern ) developed interactive components for four iPads installed in the exhibit Animal Allies: Inuit views of the Natural World.
Imagination Takes Shape iPad Tour for Children
Nick Riker ’12 (2010 Gibbons Intern) developed content for an iPad tour for children for use in the exhibit Imagination Takes Shape: Canadian Inuit art from the Robert and Judith Toll Collection.
Imagination Takes Shape Inuit Artist Database and Interactive
Joanna Caldwell '10 (2009 Gibbons fellow) created an extensive set of biographies for artists for an interactive touch-screen installation in the exhibit Imagination Takes Shape: Canadian Inuit art from the Robert and Judith Toll Collection. The biographies have become a permanent part of our database, for reference and for use in future exhibits.
North Pole Blog
Hillary Hooke '09 (2008 Gibbons fellow and subsequently Curatorial Intern) created a ground-breaking historic blog to mark the centennial of Robert E. Peary's 1908-09 North Pole expedition. Working with the journals of a number of members of the expedition, she selected entries to be posted 100 years to the day after they had been written. She added photographs from the museum's collection of historic photographs.
Northward Over the Great Ice Film Installations
Rebecca Genauer '08 worked with our historic film collection to prepare digital content for the exhibit Northward Over the Great Ice: Robert E. Peary and the Quest for the North Pole. She created three sets of clips keyed to different parts of the exhibit.
Northward Over the Great Ice, Polar Pathways Interactive
Zoe Eddy '10 (2007 Gibbons fellow) created Polar Pathways a comprehensive guide to all of Peary's expeditions between 1886 and 1906 to supplement the exhibit Northward Over the Great Ice, which documented his last expedition in 1908-09.
Northward Over the Great Ice Audio Tour
Jennifer Crane '05 created the iPod-based audio tour for Northward over the Great Ice: Robert E Peary and the Quest for the North Pole, while working as a curatorial intern. The tour, with images, is available on iTunes U. Jennifer also curated an exhibit Weaving a New Tradition: Baleen Baskets of North Alaska, highlighting the recently donated Powers collection of baleen baskets.
This Extraordinary Paradise Audio Tour
Emma Bonanomi '05 (2005 Gibbons fellow and subsequently Curatorial Intern) created one of the first iPod audio tours in the country for the exhibit This Extraordinary Paradise: Life in Northwest Greenland. Although the exhibit is closed, the enhanced podcast version of the tour, with photographs of some elements of the exhibit, is available on iTunes. Two short podcasts describing the making of the iPod audio tour and introducing the museum are also available.
This Extraordinary Paradise Film Installations
Audrey Amidon '03 worked with our historic film collection to prepare digital film content for the exhibit This Extraordinary Paradise: Living in Northwest Greenland. Amidon subsequently worked at Curatorial Intern, and reconstructed one of MacMillan's film lectures, matching newly digitized film with a digitized recording of The Far North, a lecture he delivered in 1959. The film is now available on DVD. More recently, Amidon was instrumental in helping identify some of the earliest extant film from Greenland among the Donald MacMillan film collection at the Library of Congress. More on iTunes U.
Arctic Personalities Biographies
Lydia Herring '01 and Aaron Rosen '01 prepared biographical sketches of key personalities represented in the museum collections.
Freezing the Moment Exhibit
Aime Douglas, 05 curated an exhibit, Freezing the Moment: Photographing the Arctic, which was on view from October 7, 2003 to February 10, 2004.
Arctic Brochures
Since 2002, with the support of the Friends of Bowdoin College, student have been producing printed brochures about a variety of Arctic subjects including important individuals, vessels, and animals. Student authors have included Diann Wood, '03, Kevin Doyle, '04, Aime Douglas, '05, Emma Bonanomi, '05, Ramona Pina, '05, Tucker Harrison, '06, Francesca McGowan, '06, Eli Bossin, '09, and Hillary Hooke, '09.
