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Notes from first meeting: started with a skill's audit

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Notes from first meeting: started with a skill's audit

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First group meeting.

We carried out a skill's audit and considered what connects us as a group.

We were focused on looking at the different cultures we come from and the languages spoken as a group.

There was a particular focus on our experiences within those cultures as women.

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Identity as women

Identity from UK, China and India

Interest in language and linguistics

Familiarity

Ordinary that is actually extraordinary

Hidden and secrets

Protection

Independence

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English

Mandarin

French

Hindi

Marathi

Braj

Bhojburi

Marwadi

Bengali

Indian sign language

Spanish

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Looking into the history of the Smithsonian Institute

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Looking into the history of the Smithsonian Institute

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The Smithsonian Institution is so large. We found it quite overwhelming at first. We decided that it would be best to approach the collection once we had some ideas or focus for our exhibition.

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Official website of the Smithsonian, the world's largest museum and research complex, with 19 museums, 9 research centers, and affiliates around the world.

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Objects that jumped out to us as a group based on the interests we discussed

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Objects that jumped out to us as a group based on the interests we discussed

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Going into the meeting we had three main words: Femininity. Hidden. Familiar. 

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Going into the meeting we had three main words: Femininity. Hidden. Familiar. 

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I came into the meeting after having brainstormed from the three key words. I had ideas of looking at the idea of a 'women's space'- looking at 20th century as a site American technical advancement and how that affected women's domestic lives.

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Sakshi brought this article in as it fitted with our three key words and this took us in the direction of technology. This paired well with what I had also been considering.

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Early 20th-Century Women Computers at the Smithsonian

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This post originally appeared on the Smithsonian Institution Archives’ blog. Nell MacCarty’s internship was part of the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives’ 50th Anniversary Internship program, with funding provided by the Secretary of the Smithsonian and the Smithsonian National Board.

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First draft of the big idea: To explore the relationship between woman and technology in 20th century America. 

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First draft of the big idea: To explore the relationship between woman and technology in 20th century America. 

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Technology definition: the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes.

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Technology definition: the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes.

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The 20th Century was a time of rapid technological advancement, which was driven by scientific progress and the second industrial revolution.

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The 20th Century was a time of rapid technological advancement, which was driven by scientific progress and the second industrial revolution.

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We wanted to make sure that as we went and researched we were thinking about who we are representing. Is it possible to represent all women. And what women were most affected by changing technology. Who did it not effect?

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Task for next week: To research our new area of interest in the museum collections

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Task for next week: To research our new area of interest in the museum collections

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Split up the museums to make it more manageable:

Sakshi: Air and space Udvar-Hazy centre

African American History and culture museum

Anacostia Community Museum

Xiyu: Air and Space Museum

American Art Museum

Arts and industries Building

Portrait Museum

Frankie: American History museum

Cooper Hewitt

Postal Museum

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We created this document with research from each of our specific areas. 

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We created this document with research from each of our specific areas. 

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I Looked at my two assigned museums and also the archive I found from the archive lots of articles focusing on scientific discoveries being revolutionary for more rural women in America.

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Refrigerators and women’s empowerment: The “peaceful revolution” of rural electrification

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The Rural Electrification Administration and its first “home electrification specialist,” Louisan Mamer, empowered rural women and gave them new opportunities to take on leadership roles.

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From the Air and space museum Xiyu found a lot of information and fashion items about women's changing role in aviation jobs. Specifically flight attendants.

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Women’s Fashion and the Airline Industry

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One area in which commercial airlines were able to make a splash and successfully market themselves during the 1960s and 1970s was through what their flight attendants wore. To appeal to the mostly male travelers, airlines introduced miniskirts and hot pants, to the dismay of many flight attendants.

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Sakshi looked into the archive and found several articles about female scientists connected to the Smithsonian itself. Particularly in climate science. We found many examples of groups of women scientists being given collective names such as 'computers'.

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www.smithsonianmag.com needs to review the security of your connection before proceeding.

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We then found we had three options we could focus on:

1. Hidden women climate scientists of the Smithsonian explored through photographs

2. Effect of technology on rural women's domestic lives in 20th century America

3. Women working in Aviation in 20th Century America

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1. We returned to our three key words:

Femininity, Hidden, Familiar to see which idea they resonated with the most

2. We seemed really excited as a group when looking at the flight attendant fashion

3. We started researching into Amelia Earhart and found her fascinating

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Women working in Aviation in 20th Century America

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Women working in Aviation in 20th Century America

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We decided that this will be our main focus

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Task for next week: To add to a potential item list document

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Task for next week: To add to a potential item list document

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Split up the key areas:

Xiyu- Flight attendants

Frankie- Scientists

Sakshi- Pilots/Amelia Earhart

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I found images of women enrolling in engineering positions as 'cadettes'.

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Women in Science, Math and Technology, College girls enroll for training as engineering “cadettes” at Curtiss-Wright Corporation | Smithsonian Institution

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There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian’s Terms of Use page.

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Sakshi found lots of items of Amelia's fashion brand and also of her career. We decided that these would be great to use.

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Today we celebrate Amelia Earhart's birthday as well as her accomplishments in flight and as a public figure. Most are familiar with Earhart's aviation career and her mysterious disappearance, but her other achievements can be easily overlooked.

Did you know Earhart created a clothing line called "Amelia Fashions" in 1933? Earhart had been interested in flying apparel for women for years. At the beginning of her career, Earhart had to wear aviation suits that were designed for men and poorly fitted for a woman. There was nothing else available.

Amelia's fashion line was made up of wrinkle-free dresses, skirts, pants, and outerwear. Some designs even used materials such as parachute silk and fabric used for airplane wings. The outfits were crafted for practicality and designed to suit the needs of "active women." They broke the mold for traditional women's dress during the 1930s.

While ultimately unsuccessful, "Amelia Fashions" set an example for women everywhere that there was nothing they could not do whether that meant flying a plane or becoming a designer.

Although Amelia herself was shy, she did not back down from the task of elevating the role of women in aviation and society. Serving as the first president for the Ninety-Nines, a society of female aviators, Earhart set out to prove that women didn't have to fit into the role that was expected of them at the time. Amelia encouraged her fellow female pilots to fly more often with her "Hat of the Month" program, which awarded the Ninety-Nine who flew into the most airports with a Stetson hat she had designed herself.

She also designed a practical two-piece flying suit with interlocking "9s" for the Ninety-Nines, although it was never formally adopted. The suit is on display in our Pioneers of Flight gallery.

In 1935, Phoebe Omlie said in an article for the National Aeronautics Magazine that Amelia was, "all woman and one that the other women of America can proudly put up as an example of their contribution to the progress of this great generation."

In a conversation with Louise Thaden, Amelia once said, "We can fly - you know that." But Amelia was not satisfied keeping this knowledge between herself and other female aviators. Even though proving to the world that women were smart, capable flyers was often like butting their heads "into a stone wall," Amelia and her peers in the Ninety-Nines decided to change society's perception of women through flight and, occasionally, through fashion.

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Amelia Earhart: Using Fashion to Inspire Flight

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Did you know Earhart created a clothing line called "Amelia Fashions" in 1933? Earhart had been interested in flying apparel for women for years. At the beginning of her career, Earhart had to wear aviation suits that were designed for men and poorly fitted for a woman. There was nothing else available.

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Xiyu, found lots of images from the Smithsonian Air and Space museum specifically about the fashion of flight attendants.

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Flight attendants are the friendly faces that assist us through our time on an airplane. But what are the origins of flight attendants?

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We decided to focus on women's fashion in aviation. We would look at Amelia Earhart and flight attendants.

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Using the changing fashion in the Aviation field to explore how women's role in the workplace changed in 20th Century America.

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Examining how the evolution of fashion in the aviation industry reflects the shifting role of women in the American workplace throughout the 20th Century.

Object- Women's Aviation fashion.

Action- 1. How Aviation fashion changed over time.

2. What this tells us about how women's role in the workplace is changing.

Consequence-

1. To inspire confidence in the idea that women can thrive in any workplace.

2. That fashion can serve as a powerful means of liberation.

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We went through the item list and colour coded it.

Green- Definitely need to use

Yellow- Useful but won't use

Red- Not related anymore

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We found that with such a big collection it was much easier now that we had a focus to return properly to the collection with.

We also found that we had too many items and it was important for us to be ruthless and to remove anything that wasn't useful anymore even if it was interesting to us.

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We went through all of our highlighted green items to put them into subsections:

Amelia Earhart:

Pilot

Fashion designer

Future generations (legacy)

Air Hostesses:

1930's

1950's

1960's

Hollywood

Male Gaze

1980's

1990's

We removed any items that were no longer needed to have a more concise item list.

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We colour coded it based on which sub section the item would go in.

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We had a big discussion this week based off this image about how flight attendants outfits became more sexualised. They were designed for the male gaze in order to please the male customers. This lead to us adjusting the consequences of our Big Idea to include this.

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A stewardess checks her appearance. Mirrors like this were hung in lounges and lavatories for image checks.

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That fashion can serve as a powerful means of liberation but also of oppression.

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We decided on what additional panels we would need:

Introduction panel- context of America specifically the role of women in the workforce

Amelia Earhart- introduction panel

Amelia Earhart as a fashion designer intro panel

Air hostesses - intro panel

Panel talking about the male gaze

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We had a brainstorm about our audience.

Leeds University students:

Design students

Feminists

Women

International students

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Through considering our audience and the focus on women we decided that we were going to use a feminist approach. This could seem obvious based on the topic but naming the approach really helped when writing labels as it provided a framing.

We decided that we should include true stories of women in the Aviation industry. This allows people to feel more connected to the topic. It also allows us to highlight lesser known stories.

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Based on our group having two international students as members we wanted to make sure that our work was especially accessible for people who had English as a second language.

This means we are going to use very simple and clear language.

The topic focus of America is also interesting to us as it is not a country any of us are from. We wanted it to be accessible to people who didn't know the context meaning we put a lot of time and focus on the introductory panel.

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Using the science museum's audience segmentation document. We discussed how our exhibition would best fit with Engaged Community Drivers.

'Engaged Community Drivers see themselves as being interested in almost everything. They are particularly interested in food and nutrition, photography, art & design, nature and the environment, and science.'

This fits because our exhibition is quite niche and we think it suits people with broad interests. It ties in interests of feminism and fashion and also the Aviation industry. We are not aiming it at Passionate Specialists as although it is specialised, the way we have created the interpretation is not as in depth as it would have been if aimed at passionate specialists.

The exhibition specifically relates to those with interests in art and design which is one of the areas of interest for Engaged Community Drivers.

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To start writing labels:

Frankie- intro label

-Jean Louis fashion line photo

Xi Yu- Air hostess intro panel

-Ellen church photo caption

Sakshi- Amelia intro panel

- Amelia modelling

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Flying high in style: Women’s fashion in aviation through the ages  

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Flying high in style: Women’s fashion in aviation through the ages  

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We decided upon this at the title for the exhibition.

We wanted to have a short and snappy phrase as part of the title but also thought it was important to explain the key points of the Big Idea. We felt that one of the interesting parts of the exhibition is it's specificity so we wanted that to be clear to potential visitors.

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Everyone had written 2 labels each and we edited these as a group to come up with a coherent style and plan.

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We decided on having fun titles for the sections. For example 'Sky’s the limit? Amelia Earhart proved it was just the beginning'

This is to grab people's attentions, whilst also introducing the sections and topics.

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We also spent a long time looking at the order of information appearing in a label. We wanted the first line of any label to inform the reader about what the item is and any key information. The rest of the label then contains information that adds to this knowledge. We were looking at this guide and particularly this quote and metaphor.

'This accounts for how visitors interact with displays. Ultimately, some engage more than others. You can think of visitors in a display space as paddlers, swimmers and divers. Paddlers will skim the surface, only reading very top line information. Swimmers will delve a little deeper. They will read some of the panels and labels but not every one in detail. Divers will be searching for as much information as possible. They will be invested in the narrative and prepared to read information on every level.'

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We had to remind ourselves of fashion being the object of the exhibition and having to re-centre this focus in our labels.

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We decided to directly spotlight very specific details on the outfits.

For example 'you might be able to spot the interlocking "9s" in her design that later became the iconic logo for the organization.'

This was part of our effort to refocus the fashion elements but also part of us wanting to make the exhibition engaging and interactive.

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Using the BANK approach of a FaxBak I did a critical reading of a press release from the British Museum. This was a useful exercise to do just before writing the labels. It reminded me of how to think critically about writing and to question every word and it's purpose.

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We divided up the remaining labels and will write drafts for next week for us to look at as a group. This will be easier now that we have a clearer exhibition style.

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We separately wrote Labels and then edited them together.

We found that when editing them it was very useful to read them out loud, to make sure that it was conversational. This also really helped us to make sure that the sentences weren't too long.

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We had a discussion about what word we should use for the flight attendants as there are many names. Do we use the word flight attendant, air hostess, steward or air stewardess?

The word used has changed throughout history and does reflect the specific time period. The terms are often gendered and reflect how the role has been gendered throughout history. We decided that it would be best to use one consistent term throughout and that as flight attendant is the main term used nowadays that it would be the best.

It is also nice to have a gender neutral term as we are discussing how the male gaze has affected the role and wanted to avoid adding to that ourselves through the name.

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We created this document which planned out the whole exhibition 

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We created this document which planned out the whole exhibition 

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Key points from meeting with Meghan our tutor

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Key points from meeting with Meghan our tutor

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To add image references

To add Alt-Text to the images

Avoid sweeping, over generalising statements

To add more of the Big Idea into the introductory panel, with what we are encouraging visitors to do

To try and refocus us as curators back into the exhibition as it was very important in our initial idea

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Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Archives photographs, drawings, film, audio recordings or other materials may not be reproduced, resold, or commercially used without specific written permission from the Smithsonian Institution.

I noticed this when we trying to add in the photo references.

We had failed to notice that none of the items we had planned in using were within creative commons usage.

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We had to now creatively pivot and work around this plan. We created a 3 point plan:

1. substitution

2. illustration

3. curator's response

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For the Amelia Earhart section we were able to find several items that we can use as substitutes that are within creative commons and from other museums within the Smithsonian Institution.

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This Photograph of Amelia will be very useful for early on in the exhibition.

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Amelia Earhart | Smithsonian Institution

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This media is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian’s Terms of Use page.

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This will be particularly useful for talking about her in relation to fashion.

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Amelia Earhart’s flight suit | Smithsonian Institution

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There are restrictions for re-using this 3D model. For more information and to review the disclaimer, visit the Smithsonian’s Terms of Use page.Restrictions: This scene consists of 3D scans of historical objects in the collections of the Smithsonian and may be used by you only for non-commercial, educational, and personal use.

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This fashionable photo of Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt will be very useful in the exhibition as it highlights her level of fame and influence.

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Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt | Smithsonian Institution

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This lead me to research and find out about Amelia and Eleanor being friends. Which led me to this fascinating article and quote which really links to our Big Idea.

It does mark an epoch, doesn't it, when a girl in an evening dress and slippers can pilot a plane at night," Eleanor Roosevelt remarked after the fact (per The Baltimore Sun).

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Why Amelia Earhart And Eleanor Roosevelt Once Snuck Out Of The White House - Grunge

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Many people have found themselves at a dinner or party and wished they were somewhere else. Maybe even did something about it, like Amelia and Eleanor did.

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We realised that as our focus is fashion that we could create our own illustrations of the unforms. Both Xi Yu and Sakshi are very talented artists. We wanted to base this artwork in the history of fashion illustration. We looked into the V&A archive for this. Particularly inspired by artworks such as this one that show the full body and bright splashes of colour.

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Victoria and Albert Museum: Explore the Collections

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Contribution to V&A’s 150th anniversary album | Ribeiro, Inacio | V&A Explore The Collections

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Page of V&A 150th anniversary album. Clements Ribeiro, 2007.

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Xi Yu created this illustration of the 99's flight jacket. You can clearly see the colours and it shows the fabric in a way that is really interesting.

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We decided that there were certain stories we wanted to keep but do not have access to the photographs for, cannot find any substitute photo's. We also wanted to reserve the sketches for outfits and not photographs of people. So instead we decided we would create icons/logo's out of their hats from the photographs with their names on. Creating a visual representation to go above their story. Here is one created by Xi Yu.

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We decided to respond to the male gaze item with a creative response that focuses on our experiences this would need to be created over the next few weeks.

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I created an events listing for the exhibition. We wanted to really focus on what we are inviting the audience to consider about fashion and women in the workplace.

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Here are the four sketches for the flight attendants uniforms section. We choose 4 uniforms that show a clear change through time.

These sketches were done by Sakshi with watercolour pencils and by Xiyu digitally.

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We wanted the main colours in the exhibition to come from the objects and sketches because they had such great colours and it would be a great way to tie it all together.

We mostly used the brown and blue colours throughout as they were more neutral and complimented the black and white photos well and created a cohesive tone.

For our final section which is a curatorial response and breaks away from the exhibition we wanted to use that brighter colour to indicate it as a section that was different. But it was still connected by having it being a colour from the previous display.

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We originally had a section planned that discussed how the male gaze interacted with the flight attendants outfits and for this we were going to use the picture above. But due to copyright we could not use this anymore. We got excited about the possibilities of responding to this checklist creatively. We discussed how we feel about the male gaze and fashion in our work places and lives. We decided to create our own checklists and recreate the photograph ourselves and to put that into the exhibition. This would be a good way of putting ourselves back into the exhibition and bringing in the big idea.

This activity is based off what could have been done as an engagement project with groups responding to the exhibition. So, it was very interesting to think about putting this response into the exhibition itself.

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Meet the Flight Attendants Who Fought For Equality During the Civil Rights Era

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Flight attendants were some of the people at the forefront of the fight for equality in the 20th century. Meet some of these remarkable people in this article.