This document outlines a proposed "Curator for a Day" program for students to experience creating an exhibit. The program would include a tour of current exhibits and archives, a master class on artifact handling, and having students work in groups to create their own exhibit on a given topic with a descriptive placard. The program is designed to last two to two and a half hours for classes of around 25 students and could meet various middle and high school history and writing standards. Students would rotate through the tour, class, and exhibit creation activities in two groups while learning about exhibit curation. The goal is for students to gain knowledge around the curation process and have an archival literacy experience.

1. Curator for a Day
Objective: Students will “create” an exhibit using artifacts on site using a pre-determined topic
discussed with educators, but will be William Allen White for this example. This day would
include a tour of our current exhibit and archival facility, a master class on how to properly
handle artifacts, create their own display as a group with a descriptive placard, and a virtual tour
of an exhibit tbd. Program would work best with classes of 25 or, preferably smaller, and will
last approximately two to two and a half hours.
Common Core Standards: This program could be modified to meet the standards of both
middle and high school students. 11-12 grade high school standards will be used as an example
here.
- History and Social Studies: Connecting insights from specific details to an understanding
of the whole; Determining the central ideas of sources while providing an accurate
summary showing a clear relationship among key details and ideas; evaluating differing
points of view on the same historical event or issue by assessment; integrating and
evaluating multiple sources of information presented in different formats and media; and
integrating information from diverse sources into a coherent understanding of an idea or
event.
- Writing: Developing claims and counterclaims fairly and thoroughly with support from
sources; Establishing and maintaining a formal style and objective tone of the discipline
they are writing in; Writing informative/explanatory texts with the narration of historical
events; Conducting a short research project to answer a question synthesizing multiple
sources on the subject with understanding; Gathering relevant information from multiple
authoritative print and digital sources; and Drawing evidence from informational texts to
support analysis, reflection, and research.
Outline of the Day: Brief description of what the students will be doing throughout the day:
- Welcome all students to the archives and introduce staff and students that will be helping
with the program. Students will have already been divided into groups of 6-8 for their
group curator project, but will be separated into two larger groups for the day. The three

2. aspects of the day will be a tour, a master class, and the curator project. All three aspects
should last approximately half an hour each.
- Group A will start the day with an in-depth tour of the facility, including our offices and
the reading room, May Massee collection, the archives, and our current exhibit.
- Group B will start the day in the master class on artifacts, including where/how to find
them, how to properly handle them, and exhibit formation.
- Group A will then have the master class while Group B will be brought back to the
reading room to start the formation of their “exhibit” which will include a placard. The
pre-divided groups will be making exhibits based on 1 of 4 topics: William Allen White’s
journalistic life, his take on the community, his political affiliations, or his race for
governor. On the placard, the groups will: 1) explain why the items they picked go
together (make connections) 2) express their own ideas about the topic and 3) compare
and contrast the past and present.
- Lastly Group A will create their exhibit while Group B goes on the tour.
- The day will conclude by bringing the group back together for a walk through of all the
exhibits created, a farewell from the staff, and the answering any last minute questions.
Take Away: The students will return to their classrooms with knowledge of what all goes into
the creation of an exhibit. Being able to have an experience such as this will help improve the
students’ critical thinking, create a sense of archival literacy, and concise writing skills. Students
will also further appreciate the resources available to them, and have a better understanding of
being a curator, and all it entails. Assessment can be collected using a variety of mediums such
as Twitter, Facebook, a blog/vlog, or written survey, which could be decided upon by the student
or teacher.