It Still Works!

“They just don’t make ‘em like they used to.” I’m sure you’ve heard that phrase plenty of times. Things break all the time, and it never seems like whatever just broke worked for long enough before needing to be replaced. Nowadays, that phrase tends to be accompanied by a derision of Chinese-made products since factories in that country make so many of the goods that American consumers purchase.

At the museum, we have loads of mechanical artifacts – machines, if you will. We rarely make any attempt at operating them since knowing they work rarely improves their ability to be conserved or displayed and trying to force an item might break it.

While going through a portion of Pan Am section of our aviation collection, I came across a machine that let me know it still worked without me having to do anything. The solar calculator pictured above came to life and soon as I flipped open the cover to see what was inside. Sure enough, it still works perfectly, adding and dividing whatever numbers I asked of it, despite having been in the collection for fifteen years.

On the back the calculator proudly states that it was made in Hong Kong.

-- Robert Harkins, Assistant Curator

Video Games in a Museum?

At lunch the other day, the chief curator and I were kicking around the idea of a video game exhibition. As an avid gamer and a curator, this was a topic I had spent some time daydreaming about. To have her bring up the topic … well, let’s just say I was geeking out a little.

We both had a moment where we were lamenting that there weren’t more connections to video games in South Florida, so we were discussing Ms. Pacman arcade cabinets and Nintendo Wiis. Then, as we dug deeper in our discussion, we realized there are connections. IBM built their first PCs in Boca Raton. She informed me that she used to work for the studio that created Cabela’s Big Game Hunter, which was based in Greater Miami. Legendary arcade gamer Billy Mitchell calls Hollywood home. There are plenty of games that are set in Miami, from Miami Vice tie-ins to DRIV3R to the barely-fictionalized Vice City of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

Writing this has gotten me excited about all of the possibilities. What do you think of this idea? Is there a South Florida connection to video games that I missed?

-- Robert Harkins, Assistant Curator

America's Most Wanted

As with many exhibits, the materials in Crime in Miami came from a variety of sources. Most of the artifacts and photographs are from HistoryMiami’s collection, but there are also a variety that come from law enforcement agencies and private individuals.

One portion of the exhibition that did not come from our collection is a video that features Samantha Steinberg, a forensic artist who works for the Miami-Dade Police Department, showing how she creates an age progression. The age progression, which is featured in the “Forensic Art” section of the exhibition, is of Gustavo Falcon, an alleged drug kingpin from the 1980s who was never apprehended.

The video came to be a part of the exhibition because of the television show America’s Most Wanted. AMW featured Gustavo back in 2008. The goal of the show, of course, is to encourage private citizens to help law enforcement locate fugitive criminals. Since the most recent photograph of Gustavo was from 1990, Samantha was enlisted to give viewers a better idea of what he would look like almost twenty years later.

After locating the video on the website of America’s Most Wanted, I contacted them to see if they would provide us with a copy. As with any organization that is unfamiliar, it took me some time to locate the people who were able and willing to help. There were many phone calls and a number of e-mails, but I found people with a passion for what they do in the form of the Miami-based producer and the folks at the D.C. headquarters, including a lawyer who authorized the use of the footage, technicians who located the master file and burned it to a disc, and the administrative assistant who coordinated it all.

When all was said and done, I had the finished product in my hands about a week and a half before the exhibition opened. It was a bit tight, but into Crime in Miami it went. Getting the disc to play the way we wanted in the space we already had was a task, but that’s a story for another time.

If you want to see the footage, check out the Gustavo Falcon fugitive brief on the America’s Most Wanted website: http://www.amw.com/fugitives/brief.cfm?id=61019 (click on the “Media” tab). Maybe you’ll see something that will help to bring in the last of the Cocaine Cowboys.

-- Robert Harkins

Out with the Old, in with the New!

The Education Department at HistoryMiami has had the pleasure of working in the community for decades. We service a wide array of students, from ages 4 through the collegiate level. Our programs engage students in as many subject areas as we can, while sticking to our mission to educate people about South Florida history. This summer, we will officially scrap most of the programs we have and roll out a new, sophisticated, inter-disciplinary and highly interactive series of programs.

The menu for our programs once looked like an “all you can eat buffet,” and has slowly been whittled down to an a la carte list of options. The curriculum team has lately been looking at our galleries through new lenses. This reassessment, coupled with input from teachers we surveyed for the last two years, enabled the team to come up with seven new programs. We are thrilled to introduce just a few to you.

Our new Architecture: We Built this City program takes students through different techniques and tools used for the last 10,000 years in South Florida. The tour also hits the streets of downtown Miami for a first-hand look at the Art Deco and Mediterranean Revival styles for which our city is world renowned.

Technological progress presents new possibilities and problems. Did the Tequesta people have technology 10,000 years ago? Of course they did! The Technology through Time program encourages students to look creatively at tools from the Miami Circle tools from the Miami Circle archaeological site, and hypothesize how the dredges, famously put to work in the Everglades, drained our wetlands and make space for people.

Lastly, we have all come to Make Miami Home, and our new program with the same name looks at the different people who have done this over time. Were you born in South Florida? How about your grandparents? Chances are your family came here from somewhere else for one reason or another. People migrate for a variety of different reasons, and we will connect students to their family stories.

The curriculum team will spend the summer perfecting titles for the programs, inventing and crafting different hands-on projects and writing scripts for our Educators to use. Teachers may begin booking these new programs in September 2010.

-- Jenna Vaisman, School Programs Manager

Go Team Audio Tour

A three-person team, including myself, has been working for more than six months of putting together an audio tour of Tropical Dreams, the permanent exhibition at the Museum of HistoryMiami (formerly the Historical Museum of Southern Florida). The exhibition chronicles the history of South Florida, beginning with Miami’s prehistoric inhabitants and ending with the region’s growth into a modern metropolis.

We just completed our second draft of the script, which has about fifteen stops, some of which are serious, while others are a bit more light-hearted. We’ll be testing the script out over the next few weeks, so if you visit the museum, you may hear us reading portions of it in the gallery. We might even ask you to listen and give us your thoughts!

-- Robert Harkins, Assisstant Curator

Purse Snatching … It’s a Crime!

In 1996 local quilters collaborated with the museum to create the Miami Centennial Quilt, now part of our collection. Quilters submitted too many blocks to fit in the quilt, so some gems had to be left out.

This block made it into the museum’s collection, but not the quilt. This block is decorated with tiny doll’s purses surrounding a tiny toy revolver. The purses contain little messages.

What’s this about? The maker had recently had her purse taken at gunpoint. Liz Chifari describes the incident and the block she had made in this paragraph:

“I needed to make ‘Paradise Stolen’ for therapeutic reasons, as I was mugged downtown several years ago. … The block shows that one criminal with a gun has his choice of easy targets who are powerless to stop him. It also points out the incongruity of the ugliness of crime and the beauty of the tropical backdrop against which it is played out. … “

Lift the flap at the bottom of the block, and there’s a larger message.

“Under the flap at the bottom of the block is a clear message that we must begin saying no to those who would take our paradise away. Inside some of the little purses are further messages of protest against crime …”

The Crime in Miami exhibition presented curatorial staff with a variety of challenges, one being having too many artifacts to fit into the gallery. Once again, this bittersweet quilt block was left out. Nevertheless, it conveys a victim’s perspective on a crime in Miami.

-- Rebecca A. Smith, Head, Special Collections 

Artist Mieko Kubota Wins Award

It’s my pleasure to report that local artist Mieko Kubota has won the 2010 Florida Folk Heritage Award, an annual award given to traditional artists and folklife advocates who have made significant contributions to the state’s cultural life. Florida’s Secretary of State has given out the award since 1985. Click here to learn more about the award and past awardees, many of whom live in South Florida.

Ms. Kubota is an expert practitioner of ikebana, the Japanese art of arranging flowers. She was born in Japan in 1937, and began studying ikebana as a teenager. Over the course of more than five decades, she has practiced this art and become a respected master. In addition to ikebana, she practices a variety of other Japanese traditions, including bonsai, calligraphy, origami and the tea ceremony.

For many years, she has shared Japanese traditional arts with the South Florida public. She has taught classes, offered demonstrations and exhibited her work, including as part of HistoryMiami’s exhibition Florida Folklife: Traditional Arts in Contemporary Communities. The online version of this exhibition features additional information about Ms. Kubota.

Altogether, her exceptional artistry, knowledge of Japanese folk culture and dedication to sharing her heritage with the public make her a deserving Florida Folk Heritage Award winner. We here at HistoryMiami congratulate her.

If you live in South Florida and would like to learn more about ikebana, please contact the Miami chapter of Ikebana International, a non-profit organization dedicated to the art form. You can email Susan Garcia at susangarcia54[at]aol.com. And if you would like to take ikebana lessons, please call Mieko Kubota at (305) 310-2511. She can also be reached at miekokubota[at]bellsouth.net.

-- Michael Knoll, Folklorist

Parting Fingerprints on Crime in Miami

Crime in Miami. It’s been quite a ride already and it’s not even done yet. The latest temporary exhibition at the Historical Museum of Southern Florida went up on February 19th. I have to admit, I think we here at the museum misjudged its popularity while we were planning. I don’t have any attendance figures, but there’s no question that our temporary gallery is much busier than it usually is, even after the incredibly successful run of Black Crossroads. I’m well aware of the fact that this is a good problem to have. If you have come to see the exhibition, I thank you.

The picture above shows one problem that “high attendance” has wrought. At the end of the exhibition, guests are invited to leave their fingerprint. Unfortunately, the wall designated for this purpose is basically full, so we’re trying to figure out how to add space for new visitors to leave their print, while also preserving the prints that have already been left. If you have any suggestions, or other comments about Crime in Miami, please leave them below.

-- Robert Harkins, Assistant Curator

Education’s Busiest Spring

What does it mean to educate? There are many answers to this question, and new ones are thought of every day. To the education staff at the museum, it is always on our minds as we brace for our busy season, and look into revaluating our programs.

One thing is for sure; we are not at a loss for our student population! The Historical Museum might have its busiest spring ever. In addition to our normal school bookings, we are now a part of the Cultural Passports Program that will bring thousands of 4th graders to visit us. The 4th grade curriculum requires the local history must be taught, so what better place than the Historical Museum!

We are also still booking our Historic Visits Program, a unique opportunity offered to public school students. This program allows for students to explore certain historic sites like the Barnacle, Matheson Hammock, Virginia Key Beach and various other sites. They learn about the importance of Historic Preservation, and how South Florida fits in the bigger picture with our historic sites. They document the sites with cameras that we provide, and together with pictures, video, sketches and information that they took from our educators, the students create a book about their experiences.

As always, we are aspire to gain more docents who are looking for a unique volunteer opportunity. Our summer camp, Family Fun days and internships bring in many volunteers of all ages and backgrounds. I am proud to say that we are slowly but steadily growing out volunteer base and are looking forward to continue expanding our docent program.

As we push toward the end of the school year, we are looking forward to providing top notch programming to our public, private and home school visitors, and being involved with as many programs like Cultural Passports as we can. Our students are our largest population of visitors, and we strive to make sure that they leave our museum with a wonderful experience!

-- Gina Neureuther, Education and Docent Programs Coordinator

Why would anyone care about teenagers?

“Maybe I’m something special, and maybe I’m not. Maybe I’m here for a reason and I might be going somewhere after this, but then again I might not. I wonder where I fit in?”

--Thomas Hine, The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager

These words inspired Thomas Hine’s personal reflection on his teenage years and those of his generation. Like most baby-boomers, they spent most of their adolescence trying to define themselves and their generation, and to understand the commonality shared by this lack of identity encompassed in the quote above. When do teens feel they belong? Why do they feel they don’t belong? How are these ideas different today than they were 40 years ago? How has time and location affected this idea?

These are some of the questions that will be explored during our newest teen internship project, Teen Miami. Although Hine’s wrote the quote above for his high school assignment in the 1960s, these words still ring true today. This chasm was evident during my teenage experience growing up in Miami during the 1990s and is still echoed today with some of the teenagers I speak to about Teen Miami.

Once such example happened a couple of weeks ago when I was invited to speak to a group of teenagers about our project. I always prepare what I am going to say in order to deliver my message as effectively as possible … or so I thought. On this particular day, I was thrown back with a question by a young lady in the audience, after I planned my delivery, passed out materials, encouraged an open and constructive dialogue where others participated, she raised her hand and asked, “Not to be rude or go against your mission or anything, but why would anyone care about teenagers? Why are we so important?”

At this point, as you may imagine, I started thinking I didn’t plan my message as effectively as I thought, if she hasn’t gotten the point. Despite having felt this way in my own teenage years, 15 years later I was startled at her question, and it immediately made me realize the complexity and weight of her reasoning. So I started reevaluating my approach and realized maybe this is a common feeling among other teens in the room, school, neighborhood, city, state and world, independent of whatever I would’ve said in that library on that day.

So I took her question and gave it to the group to answer. Why would we, the Historical Museum of Southern Florida (HMSF), create a teen program where teenagers would come to the museum and document and research teen life across generations in South Florida? Some teens retributively answered her; others didn’t know what to say even though they were nodding their heads throughout my presentation; others supported her question. Why? Why? Why?

After seeing the response from her fellow classmates, I tried answering her with some fodder about the teenage years being your “glory” years and that they shape your life in so many ways and stressed a common sentiment among all teens from different generations … yada yada yada. Ultimately, she looked at me with the same confused look and I said, “I would encourage you to try to answer this question in your creative piece. Ask yourself this question, ask others this question both your own age and adults, see where your search takes you and then present what you find.”

I can only imagine the look on her face could only compare to the look of relief on Columbus’ face when his sailors saw land for the first time on his maiden voyage. It was that incredible look of relief that said, I know where to go from here, which gets to the heart of the program. Although, her question was a pretty loaded one, with so many possible answers, it was understood she should take the journey to seek and find these answers out for herself.

 Overall, this is what Teen Miami seeks to do; to provide the tools and develop the skills to guide the teens through this process of self-discovery. This project bridges that disconnect from a sense of alienation, common to all teens, to a feeling of empowerment in an otherwise confusing period. Although, the program will encompass museology, study researching and archiving procedures, exhibition building/design, mediation and team building at its core is the idea of finding where you belong and where you are going by building content and researching teen history of South Florida.

If anything, I would hope my answer would engage the young lady that asked me that question, and encouraged her to become part of history by documenting others, and, by doing so, finding the importance of her identity as a teen, Miamian and South Floridian.

-- Mariela Rossel, Teen Miami Coordinator

Illustrating Justice

I had the privilege of working with Shirley Henderson in curating Illustrating Justice, an exhibition of courtroom drawings that spans her thirty years of work in this field. You may recognize her work from nightly network news broadcasts and newspapers; that is because media outlets commission her to go into federal courtrooms and sketch scenes that cameras, by law, are not allowed to capture.

Henderson was incredibly interesting to work with because she knows so many of the individuals who make justice work in Miami, as well as a number of those who have passed through the justice system. While we were working to choose the 93 pieces that are on display in Illustrating Justice, she told me some of her stories about folks like Alcee Hastings, Ted Bundy, Yahweh Ben Yahweh, Raul Martinez, and Alex Daoud.

Illustrating Justice: The Courtroom Art of Shirley Henderson will be on display at the Historical Museum of Southern Florida until June 20, 2010. There you can see her work and learn more about the process of creating them. If you’d like to hear some of those stories straight from Ms. Henderson herself, you can do so on June 17. She will be talking about her experiences as part of HMSF’s Explore History & Culture Series from 6:30 to 8:30.

-- Robert Harkins, Assistant Curator, Object Collections

The Educational Empire of Historia

In the fall of 2008, my dear friend M worked at the Miami Art Museum. The education team across the plaza at MAM is smaller than ours is, and during an afternoon of comic conversation at MAM, they formed an empire.

Well, M suggested that we form an empire as well, and that we have "cultural exchanges," such as private tours of new exhibitions for each other and the sharing of programming details for our family events.

Our education department quickly rose to this comic challenge and came up with, not only an empire, but titles for ourselves, a coat of arms and a flag! I designed the flag and coat of arms at home one night, and “my subjects” approved them.

The Educational Empire of Historia is made up of:

• Empress of Historia – who is in charge of the department;
• Grand Duchess of George – who is in charge of Dr. George’s tours;
• Duke of Craftonia - who is in charge of all family programs and creative projects;
• Baroness of Academia - who is in charge of booking school programs;
• Duchessa de Curricula - who is in charge of all curriculum;
• Grand Duke of Eds - who is in charge of the museum educators;
• Lady Retailia – who is in charge of the gift shop.

At MAM they have flag and motto. They also have royal titles, but I am not free to release those.

I love museum folk and our culture!!

-- Cecilia Dubon Slesnick, VP Education a.k.a. Empress of Historia

The 1907 Jamaica Earthquake

During 1906 and 1907 three catastrophic earthquakes and subsequent fires nearly destroyed three cities:

• 1906 April 18 -- San Francisco, California -- 7.8 magnitude
• 1906 August 16 -- Valparaiso, Chile -- 8.6 magnitude
• 1907 January 14 -- Kingston, Jamaica -- 6.5 magnitude

Just as the press of today compare the Haiti and Chile earthquakes, writers in 1907 compared Kingston with San Francisco and Valparaiso. Here are some examples. This illustration is from Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, January 31, 1907. The following eyewitness account is from Collier's Magazine, February 2, 1907:

"In the middle of the afternoon ... the city began to fall to pieces. ...

"The shock was not severe as compared to that at San Francisco or at Valparaiso. ... But the flimsy nature of Kingston's architecture led to a ruin from the quake more complete than on the Pacific Coast last April. Practically all the houses in the business district were shaken down. This district extended along the harbor front for more than twenty blocks, and back from the quays for two or three blocks. Kingston's two big tourist hotels, the Myrtle Bank and the Constant Springs, were wrecked; the Supreme Court, the Merchant's Exchange, the Customs House, and many churches went to ruin before the fire broke out. After the first quake a number of shocks less severe were felt. ...

"Refugees from the destroyed city described the terror of the inhabitants on the day of the earthquake as extreme. Women with children clasped in their arms prayed in the streets while the choking dust of the fallilng walls rose up and darkened the sky. Parties fleeing through the streets were pitched headlong by the quaking earth, and were separated in the darkness. When the ruins could be inspected, it was found that many persons had been buried under debris; at least one man was taken out practically unharmed after the fire had burnt over him and the ashes had cooled. Hospital camps were established on the docks and in the outskirts of the ruined city. Many of the injured were sent off to Spanish Town and Port Royal. ...

"After the shock of January 14, fire broke out and completed the destruction of the city. The camping scenes at San Francisco were reenacted; relief work was, in the beginning, prompt and effective; and ... the spirit of mutual help ... prevailed."

-- Rebecca A. Smith, Curator of Research Materials

Haitian and Jamaican Earthquakes

Port-au-Prince has the misfortune of being near a fault zone that seldom causes earthquakes, but when thy occur, they are monsters. Most people along this fault zone live out their lives, never knowing that danger lies beneath their feet. The last major earthquake near Port-au-Prince occurred in 1770.

The fault zone that caused this disaster runs east-and-west, through Hispaniola and Jamaica (map). In 1692, an earthquake along this fault zone nearly destroyed Port Royal, Jamaica. Read more.

Most of the survivors moved across the bay, to Kingston. In 1906, the Kingston residents heard of an earthquake and fire in San Francisco that nearly destroyed that city, never suspecting that they were about to endure the same catastrophe. Then on January 14, 1907, the earth moved, and Kingston was nearly destroyed.

This postcard shows the damage at the corner of King and Harbour Streets, Kingston, Jamaica. It was printed in Great Britain shortly after the earthquake.

Port Royal, San Francisco and Kingston recovered and rebuilt after their disasters. Now it is Port-au-Prince's turn, an endeavor made all the more difficult by its population density and poverty.

One aspect of this catastrophe is that Haiti's heritage is threatened, not only by the damage and/or destruction of its historic buildings, but also by the damage to its libraries and archives. To learn more about their destruction and recovery, visit the Digital Library of the Caribbean's web site.

The people of Chile and Haiti have reason to fear earthquakes. Let us hope they do not have to endure catastrophes again for a long, long time.

-- Rebecca A. Smith, Curator of Research Materials

Ten Super Bowls in Miami

No event captivates the nation's attention like the Super Bowl. This year's big game is to be played at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens on February 7th, and will pit the Indianapolis Colts against the New Orleans Saints.

The Super Bowl and South Florida have a long history together. Super Bowl XLIV will be the tenth Super Bowl played in South Florida; it is the fifth at the Miami Dolphins' current home, and five were played at the Orange Bowl in Miami. After February 7th, more Super Bowls will have been played in South Florida than anywhere else, though New Orleans is slated to catch up in 2013. The Orange Bowl hosted the championship game three of the first five years it was played, and is the only venue to have hosted it for two consecutive years, 1968-1969.

Miami is also no stranger to the Pro Bowl. The NFL's all-star game began to be played in Honolulu in 1980. Before that, it moved venues just as the Super Bowl does. The Orange Bowl was the Pro Bowl's home once, in 1975.

South Florida attracts the Super Bowl for much the same reason that it attracts many tourists. Come January or February, when the temperatures don't get above freezing in the northern part of the country, the sun and surf are welcome for a weekend. Or a week. Or two. The added incentive must be very motivating for the Colts. The franchise has been to four Super Bowls over the course of its existence, including 2010. All four of them have been played in South Florida.

-- Robert Harkins, Assistant Curator

This photo: Super Bowl in the Orange Bowl, 1968. City of Miami Collection, Historical Museum of Southern Florida, CM-11384

To Bequeth

The dictionary meaning of "bequeath": 1) to leave (property, etc.) to another by one's will; 2) to hand down, to pass on.

Bequeath--now there's a word I definitely don't think about often. I can't imagine that I have even said it twice in my whole life. I had to look it up to be sure I had it in the right context.

What made me look it up? Let me tell you.

Recently, this unusual word came to light due to two generous bequests that came to the Historical Museum from unexpected sources.

Often in the world of cultural organizations, museums and not-for-profit organizations, emphasis is placed on reaching out for support to the usual suspects: the big players, the heavy hitters, the proverbial movers and shakers in the "right" socioeconomic limelight.

Well, I learned that this limelight is not always the right place to look.

Two of our long-time individual members, Martha Lou Bradley and Mary G. Beazel, remembered the Historical Museum in their wills.

These ladies were members for decades. They renewed their $35 Individual memberships each year and quietly loved the museum. I was not fully aware of the extent of their dedication, except for the fact that they supported us as members, year after year. They were faithful friends to the end.

I had no idea that before their passing, Mary and Martha Lou took the time to provide for us, planning for the day when they would be gone; when the museum could no longer count on their yearly renewals. Their diligence and thoughtfulness in giving could not have come at a better time.

The Historical Museum and I wish to thank these two ladies who have clearly defined giving to me and for bringing into sharp focus where organizations like us need to look for our real support base, to those who love us, to our members.

-- Hilda Masip, Membership Officer