{"id":299,"date":"2013-07-18T10:10:19","date_gmt":"2013-07-18T10:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sciencecomma\/?p=299"},"modified":"2013-07-18T10:10:19","modified_gmt":"2013-07-18T10:10:19","slug":"powell-cotton-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sciencecomma\/2013\/07\/18\/powell-cotton-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"Kent students create an international presence for local treasures"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Powell-Cotton<\/a>The Powell Cotton family were explorers, soldiers, women, anthropologists, naturalists, film-makers and more.\u00a0 Their astonishing archives and collection form the core of the Powell Cotton Museum <\/a>(PCM) in its country park, and include the world\u2019s largest elephant specimen and the first room-sized habitat-display diorama (a form of exhibit best known through the examples at the Chicago Field Museum and American Museum of Natural History).\u00a0 Its Victorian and Edwardian collections are still actively used by scientists today but are comparatively little known for their historic significance.<\/p>\n

Masters students on the programme Science, Communication and Society<\/a> at the nearby University of Kent visited the museum on the invitation of museum staff to explore possibilities of increasing museum internet presence and communicating its contents in both historical and contemporary modes.<\/p>\n

\"Powell-Cotton<\/a>An initial meeting quickly confirmed that there was no Wikipedia presence for the museum \u2013 only for Quex Park<\/a> as leisure venue. \u00a0A number of themes were identified to feature as subsections in the revamped \u2018spine<\/a>\u2019 page: Percy Powell Cotton<\/a> (1866-1940); Antoinette<\/a> (1913-1997) and Diane Cotton<\/a> (1908-1986); dioramas<\/a>; original species type specimens<\/a>; and filmic archives<\/a> (including an extensive collection of ethnographic films<\/a>).\u00a0 Each student took responsibility for one area.\u00a0 The next challenge was to find other pages related to these themes and edit and link them as appropriate.\u00a0 The existing diorama page<\/a>, for example, required considerable work as its discussion was restricted to theatrical examples; a brief history of the major American museums\u2019 examples had to be researched and inserted.<\/p>\n

One student experienced early difficulties when his first draft on the PCM\u2019s founder was flamed by Wiki editors for \u2018blatant promotion\u2019 of the Museum.\u00a0 \"Powell-Cotton<\/a>This highlighted an interesting circular challenge of how to establish the historical importance of previously little-known, yet genuinely significant figures.\u00a0 Using primary sources does not help, as the Wikipedia community actively prefers its references to be secondary.<\/p>\n

The students learned many things along the way, from technical HTML skills to archival research.\u00a0 Their work resulted in at least merit level marks all round, and gained the desired profile for the museum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Powell Cotton family were explorers, soldiers, women, anthropologists, naturalists, film-makers and more.\u00a0 Their astonishing archives and collection form the core of the Powell Cotton Museum (PCM) in its country park, and include the world\u2019s largest elephant specimen and the first room-sized habitat-display diorama (a form of exhibit best known through the examples at the … <\/p>\n

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