Two of our Public History graduate students, Adam Becker and Jordan Countryman, recently completed creating and installing a large exhibit about the history of the Engineers Club of Dayton as part of the Club’s centennial celebration this year.
Adam (left) and Jordan with the Orville Wright portion of their exhibit
When the Engineers Club approached us about a centennial exhibit, Dawne Dewey, Head of Special Collections & Archives and also Director of the Public History Graduate Program, saw a great learning opportunity for Public History students. Adam and Jordan stepped up to the task, and they have spent many hours working on the project over the past few months.
The exhibit was installed at the Engineers Club of Dayton on Saturday, April 26, for the Club’s centennial celebration. It included reproduced photographs and documents, as well as some original materials, pertaining to the Engineers Club of Dayton, as well as three of its founding members, Orville Wright, Charles F. Kettering, and Edward A. Deeds. Some of the original materials on exhibit for Saturday’s event included Wright Brothers photos, Orville Wright’s school report cards, correspondence, and Orville Wright’s and Charles F. Kettering’s French Legion of Honor medals. Life-size, foam-core-mounted cut-outs of Wright, Kettering, and Deeds were also created specifically for this exhibit.
The exhibit (with the exception of the original materials) has been on display at the Engineers Club of Dayton since the event. Early next week, it will be removed from the Engineers Club, and a condensed version will be installed in the Alumni Case on the first floor of the Dunbar Library.
Enjoy these additional photographs showing various stages of exhibit progress! (Click on an image to enlarge it.)
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- Jordan and Adam with Deeds, Kettering, and Wright, April 23, 2014.
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- Exhibit prep in the Archives, April 25, 2014
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- Arranging the items for the Orville Wright portion of the exhibit
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- Arranging original materials in a tabletop exhibit case
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- Edward Deeds portion of the exhibit, including original materials
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- Fellow Public History students Karis (left) and Sarah helping out
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- Adam (left) and Jordan with the Charles F. Kettering portion of their exhibit
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- Jordan (left) and Adam with Orville Wright, April 26, 2014
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- Attendees at the centennial celebration enjoying the exhibit, April 26, 2014
The materials included in this exhibit came primarily from the following collections (click links to view collection finding aids): Engineers Club of Dayton Records (MS-420), Wright Brothers Collection (MS-1), Kettering Family Papers (MS-363), and the Dayton Daily News Archive (MS-458).