Museum Exhibit

Our exhibit was a flip book describing the various negatives of the Industrial Revolution. It had four pages, one for the title and the remaining three for the six sources. It was named “The Dark Side of the Industrial Revolution”, as the theme was the downsides that were a result of the rapid industrialization. My group thought that this title would allure the audience into flipping the pages. Included in this flip book were three images and three text sources. One of the images showed a timeline of the Industrial Revolution, where the rest of the sources originated. Another image depicted Victorian slums, where a crowd of poor folk, namely children, gathered and talked. The last image showed the Thames, polluted and grimy, with factories lining the sides. These images were cleverly spaced with the three text sources, to keep the audience interested in the exhibit. The first text source was a table of values, depicting the cost of living versus the income during and after the Industrial Revolution. Another text source had two different accounts of the Revolution, one positive and one negative. The negative highlighted pollution and poor conditions, while the positive highlighted freedom and efficiency. The last source was a recollection of the Industrial Revolution’s effect on the Thames. These six sources encompassed the problems that the Industrialization had.

In addition to creating our own exhibit, other groups created exhibits too. The first one I visited was Group A’s, a presentation about weaving. This presentation briefly described how the creation of better spinning techniques sparked more inventions, which led to the Industrial Revolution. In addition to this, this presentation depicted how rapid growth quickly accelerated during this time period. Group A used flip cards to display the information, which intrigued the audience. The next exhibit I viewed was Group B’s. Group B had the topic of the steam engine and its impact in the Industrial Revolution. This group focused on the chain reaction this particular invention created in England. They go on to explain how important the steam engine was to mechanization and industrialization. A design highlight I found in this exhibit was a QR scan near the center, linking to a survey. Moving throughout the museum, I came across Group D’s presentation next, a work about child labor. This exhibit showcased the horrible working conditions that children had to work in. It explained how cramped and dangerous working with this machinery could be, and how they were needed because of their small size. Two key features that grabbed my attention were the age distribution chart and the clever title. The final presentation I visited on the tour of the museum was Group E’s. The topic was slavery and cotton, and it was depicted very well. Some of the key information conveyed in the presentation was the exponential growth of the slave population. As more slaves were put into the workforce, more products could be made, and more products means more income, and greed leads to even more slaves. This presentation was full of captivating graphics and charts.