04 March 2008

Opening Day!

Seeking Liberty officially opens today with a reception from 4-7 pm at the museum. Attendees will be treated to several opportunities to explore the exhibit and the various technology-based components attached to the exhibition.

The Seeking Liberty website will go live today, allowing people to explore the exhibit and its objects even if they can not make it to the museum. The website will also feature an "Artifact of the Week" segment which will highlight a different object in the exhibit every week. The current object of discussion is the Hand of Fatima found at the Governor Calvert House. This feature will also be posted to the blog to allow for your feedback and observations. To see the exhibit website, follow the link below.

http://www.bsos.umd.edu/anth/aia/seeking_liberty/

Please let us know what you think about this blog and what you would like to see posted on it throughout the year. We are always looking for guest authors to give us a post!
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2 comments:

Carol Benson said...

I attended the opening last night and was thoroughly impressed and intrigued by this fascinating exhibit. This morning I began listening to the cell phone audio tour stops, and these are excellent as well. I look forward to the additional stops you plan to add!

One of my favorite artifacts from the exhibit is the Death's Head Stamp; I'd love to learn more about it. I understand it is a piece of printer's type; who would have carved it? Did printers such as the Greens carve their own type?

Thank you to all concerned for creating such an intriguing and educational presentation.
Carol Benson, Executive Director, Four Rivers Heritage Area

March 5, 2008 at 10:29 AM
Amelia Chisholm said...

Carol, I did a little research...actually I asked Mark Leone, the guest curator, what he knows about the type. What he told me is this, most type (all the individual letters) was produced by manufacturers and it was standardized, both in style and chemical composition. Apparently, it was rather complex work.

Items like the Death's Head and the type used for playing cards (the heart, spade, and club that are on display) are what are called "printer's flowers" and were hand made by the printer themselves. So Jonas Green (or an apprentice, I suspect) would have carved those pieces

March 25, 2008 at 2:06 PM

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