Aside from reading loads and loads of old newspapers and documents in our files, various newsletters from history organizations around the state, and websites related to our work, museum staff have three favorite magazines that are must-reads for us. The first two will likely come as no surprise …
History News offers a great column by Carol Kammen called “On Doing Local History.” It also contains a Technical Leaflet that delves into the nitty-gritty of some aspect of museum life. And Tim Grove writes a column called “History Bytes” that tackles the intersection of museums and digital media.
Museum provides glimpses of new exhibits around the United States, a column called “Display Case” that discusses a sticky issue in the museum world, and includes some interesting feature articles. The visuals in this magazine are usually quite stunning.
The third must-read magazine at the Weyerhaeuser Museum is …
Drum roll, please …
Are you shocked and amazed? Fuddy-duddy historians read Wired Magazine? Umm, yeah! Most of us on staff are techies at heart and while we can’t always adopt the latest in digital tech, we want to know what’s going on and get ideas that might be useful to us later. Plus, there tends to be a lot of history in the magazine. This cross-over reading (a.k.a. reading outside the field) keeps our brains limber and making connections between disparate fields, which is the root of creativity.