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My experience with creating an exhibit in Omeka has been surprisingly easy. I started with the simple page in which I will describe what the exhibit entails with a few images of the frost fairs. I then created my first page which will be Climate and within this I will describe how these frost fairs were able to happen with the Thames river freezing over. My next page is Mercantalism, this page will consist of the problems that occured when the Thames froze over which inevitably led to the frost fairs. My third section is about Festivities that occured during the frost fairs such as food, drink, games, and entertainment. My fourth section, Cultural significance, will explain why these frost fairs were important to both the nobility and the normal citizens alike. I have yet to input all of the information but I am excited that everything is starting to come together.

https://benbowen177.com/FrostFair/exhibits/show/frostfair/festivities

Project Outline           

Introduction:

• Hook
• “I am studying London’s Frost Fairs, because I want to find out why they were so culturally significant, in order to understand how they turned into multi day celebrations.” 
• Cultural Significance, Climate, Festivities, Mercantalism. (in no particular order)

Body section 1: Climate and causes for the freeze.

• “During the Little Ice Age, which occurred between the mid-fourteenth and nineteenth centuries, the climate of England and Europe was significantly colder. There was a long succession of severe winters with heavy snow and thick ice often lasting several months which enabled a series of frost fairs to be held on the Thames in London.Footnote² They were, of course, weather dependent and essentially climatic events.” Bowen, James P. “A Provincial Frost Fair: Urban Space, Sociability and Spectacle in Shrewsbury During the Great Frost of 1739.” Midland History 43, no. 1 (2018): 43–61. doi:10.1080/0047729X.2018.1461748.
• “Jones has pointed out that the wider arches of the new London Bridge completed in 1831 allowed the river to flow more freely, thereby reducing the likelihood of ice building up.” Bowen, James P. “A Provincial Frost Fair: Urban Space, Sociability and Spectacle in Shrewsbury During the Great Frost of 1739.” Midland History 43, no. 1 (2018): 43–61. doi:10.1080/0047729X.2018.1461748.
• “This was Old London Bridge, built on nineteen arches supported by small piers with projecting “starlings”, which broke up the flow of the river. In winter, when these arches were blocked with ice and debris, London Bridge almost acted like a dam, slowing the Thames and helping it to freeze. “All the Fun of the Frost Fair: Why Did the Thames Freeze?” n.d. Museum of London. Accessed February 19, 2024. https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/discover/frost-fairs.

Body Section 2: Mercantalism

• “The frozen Thames brought consequences that varied from episode to episode. As Chamberlain suggested, ice could prevent ships from passing under the London Bridge to the tackle houses of the City for unloading. Given London’s reliance on waterborne supplies, such a freeze would cause considerable economic dislocation.” Ward, Joseph P. 2008. “The Taming of the Thames: Reading the River in the Seventeenth Century.” Huntington Library Quarterly 71 (1): 55–75. https://doi.org/10.1525/hlq.2008.71.1.55.
• “With the Thames at a standstill, hundreds of bargemen and sailors were frozen out of work. Frost fairs offered a chance for them to earn money by guiding sight-seers out onto the ice. Others fitted their small boats with runners, turning them into sledges, and offered rides along the frozen river.” “All the Fun of the Frost Fair: Why Did the Thames Freeze?” n.d. Museum of London. Accessed February 19, 2024. https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/discover/frost-fairs.

Body Section 3: Festivities

• The first recorded frost fair was during the winter of 1607 / 08. During December the ice had been firm enough to allow people to walk between Southwark to the City, but it was not until January when the ice became so thick that people started setting up camp on it. There were football pitches, bowling matches, fruit-sellers, shoemakers, barbers… even a pub or two. To keep the shopkeepers warm, there were even fires within their tents! “The Thames Frost Fairs in London.” n.d. Historic UK. Accessed February 19, 2024. https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/The-Thames-Frost-Fairs/.
• The famous English writer and diariest John Evelyn described it in extensive detail, writing:

Coaches plied from Westminster to the Temple, and from several other staires to and fro, as in the streetes, sliding with skeetes, a bull-baiting, horse and coach races, puppet plays and interludes, cookes, tipling and other lewd places, so that it seemed a bacchanalian triumph or carnival on the water, whilst it was a severe judgement on the land, the trees not onely splitting as if lightning-struck, but men and cattle perishing in divers[e] places, and the very seas so lock’d up with ice, that no vessels could stir out or come in. “Even kings and queens would join in the festivities, with King Charles reportedly enjoying a spitroasted ox at this very fair.” “The Thames Frost Fairs in London.” n.d. Historic UK. Accessed February 19, 2024. https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/The-Thames-Frost-Fairs/.

Body Section 4: Cultural Significance

• “h. Hutton clearly knew about Cadman’s fate during the great frost as he wrote, ‘Though he succeeded at Derby, yet, in exhibiting soon after at Shrewsbury, he fell, and lost his life’.106 This is evidence of how news of Cadman’s heroic death was circulated throughout the Midlands and nationally and how his exploits during the frost fair were embedded into the oral tradition and popular memory not just within Shrewsbury but the wider region.” Bowen, James P. 2018. “A Provincial Frost Fair : Urban Space, Sociability and Spectacle in Shrewsbury During the Great Frost of 1739.” Midland History 43 (1): 43–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/0047729X.2018.1461748.
• I will discuss how the fairs created their own culture during times of hardship in the winter.

Conclusion: will figure this out when I have written most of the paper.

The primary goals of my website are to teach people about the London Frost fairs that were held between 1607 and 1814 on the Thames River. The primary audience of my project are people who want to learn more about festivities that occurred in history and anyone who is interest in British history. It could also be used by educators to help explain the cultural significance of these frost fairs and why they were started. the sections that will be included on my website are, Cultural Significance, reasons for starting, maps, Food drinks and games, political affiliations, deaths and crime, and reasons for ending. I think that this will be enough for people to understand all the different facets of the Frost Fairs.

For my museum assignment I went to the Udvar Hazy Air and space museum and checked out the World War II Aviation exhibit. I unfortunately haven’t been able to find out who the curator of the exhibit is online or at the museum, but it is a permanent exhibit that was finished on December 15^th, 2003. (Im very confused as to why the curator is not listed either online or on the signs at the museum) The exhibit was about military planes and the gear that the pilots wore in World war II.

The objects, artifacts, and items that are within the exhibit are military planes from World War II and military aviation gear from that era. One of the items that I found interesting was a fighter jacket that stated, “Belle of the Brawl” and had bombs on the back for each mission completed.

The aviation gear was held within glass cases and the Airplanes were spread about in the middle of the exhbit. The exhibit was layed out in a big square that started and ended at the aviation gear so it did not matter which way you went. The presentation of the items was well thought out and each item had an identification label.

As far as the use of digital technology goes there wasn’t much of it within this exhibit but they did have a couple videos about specific airplanes that one could watch as they are examining a plane. The device had a touchpad where you could start the video but that was as far as it went when it comes to digital tech in this exhibit.

The argument of this exhibit seemed to be how war created a need for technological advancement in aviation and how these advancements allowed the US to defeat their enemies in World War II. I think the curator hoped to show their audience how things such as War although terrible, can cause great advancements in technology. I don’t think that this is a new interpretation of the odjects or materials displayed, it is just a well layed out exhibit that allows people to easily learn the information provided.

I believe that the target audince is military and aviation enthusiasts along with people who enjoy history and would like to know more about it. The reason I think this is because it gives the basics of World War II aviation without using Jargon that only Military or aviation historians would use.

The challenges that I think the curator and or institution faced are the cost of the exhibit, the size of the objects, and the layout. I think that the cost of this exhibit would have been very high due to the fullsize planes that are in the exhibit. Each one of the planes with restoration would cost hundred of thousands of dollars a piece and that doesn’t include shipping and setting the planes up inside the building. The layout of the exhibit would also have been a challenge due to the size of the objects.

I think that the exhibit achieves its objectives about teaching the basics of World War II military aviation because I was able to quickly comprehend what the curator was trying to impart while also enjoying the beautiful planes that they had aquired for the exhibit. I found the layout to be great as you did not have to follow one specific path to understand the information. Some of the questions that it left me with are, what were the pilots favored planes? and Were there planes that faired better in the pacific vs europe?

From this week’s assignments I gathered that the past belongs to all people, but it is the job of the historian to study and interpret the past so that it is easily accessible to the public. In Hearing Change in the Chocolate City: Computational methods for Listening to Gentrification by Alison Martin we see that the soundscape of DC has its own past that is culturally significant to the people that lived and grew up there. Without Alison making this information available I would not have known that go-go music was so popular in DC.

The level of copyright that I have selected for my website is CC BY- NC 4.0 which means that credit must be given to me if someone else wants to use it and it can only be used for noncommercial use.

 Bowen, James P. 2018. “A Provincial Frost Fair : Urban Space, Sociability and Spectacle in Shrewsbury During the Great Frost of 1739.” Midland History 43 (1): 43–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/0047729X.2018.1461748.: CC by

“All the Fun of the Frost Fair: Why Did the Thames Freeze?” n.d. Museum of London. Accessed February 19, 2024. https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/discover/frost-fairs. : Non-commercial research or private study, Instruction for illustration, Quotation

For my JSTOR sources I can use them as long as I cite properly and I use it as an educational tool.

Sims, Liam. 2013. “Printed ‘Frost Fair’ Ephemera in the University Library – Cambridge University Library Special Collections.” April 9, 2013. https://specialcollections-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=4660.: I do not see a Copyright on this website. But I would assume it follows the same Copyright law as Museum of London since they are both in the UK.

Kelly, Morgan, and Cormac Ó Gráda. 2014. “The Waning of the Little Ice Age: Climate Change in Early Modern Europe.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 44 (3): 301–25. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/6/article/526410. : License Restrictions. Unless otherwise stated in these Terms of Use, you may not modify, translate, create derivative works of, copy, distribute, market, display, remove or alter any proprietary notices or labels from, lease, sell, sublicense, transfer, decompile, reverse engineer, or incorporate into any information retrieval system, this website, any website content, or any portion thereof. Further, you may not (i) use this website for any unauthorized or illegal purpose or activity.

For my final project I plan on selecting CC by-NC 4.0 because it will allow other people to use my information if they cite me and its Noncommercial use because I don’t want other people making money off of my work. I don’t think I will have any limitations because I don’t plan on making money off of this project, so I don’t need to worry about licenses as long as I properly cite my sources.

Ben’s Blog by Benjamin Bowen is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0

1. Your research question developed from this prompt: “I am studying London’s Frost Fairs, because I want to find out why they were so culturally significant, in order to understand how they turned into multi day celebrations.” 
2. Your thesis statement 
   • In this paper I will discuss why the Frost fairs were so culturally significant and why these events turned into multi day celebrations with lots of food and alcohol.

1. At least 5-7 credible sources (primary and secondary) must be cited to show that background research has been done to frame the project. 
   • I have already added you to my Frost Fair Zotero Library. Im not sure how to link it here without just posting the bibliography.
2. Include a 2/3 paragraphs that document your research process and findings on locating sources (including the databases they came from). Consider your search strategies, your methods of evaluation, and your ultimate finding.

                 For my research process I looked up Frost Fairs through History and Primary Source research on the GMU library website. I then found some articles in JSTOR, Historical abstracts and the Bibliography of British and Irish History. What I have learned from these sources is that the tames only froze over to the extent of frost fairs for about 400 years and the freezing was due to the slow movement of water caused by the Old London bridge with its 20 narrow arches. I also learned that merchants had to petition the king to setup stalls on the ice during the fairs and that these stalls sold many goods including different types of alcohol, food and candy. I also learned that games and sleigh rides on the ice were common occurrences and that woman and children could pay for donkey rides. After reading these sources I might look at how life was after the frost fairs stopped and if other fairs were invented to take the frost fairs place.

I have already had a good amount of experience with finding sources online but I learned to look through many databases for the sources that best fit my project. I also remembered how hard it is to find good primary sources that fit my research. I knew very little about this topic before this other than that Frost Fairs were multi day long parties. These sources have put into perspective that it was more than just a party, but it was a way for the community to come together in times of hardship during the harsh winters. Some new questions that have arisen from my research how did fisherman make their money during these freezes? was it only the change of bridge that caused the frost fair to stop or did climate change? What did the citizens think when the Thames stopped freezing over? Were they happy because they could move freely or were they sad that they no longer had the frost fairs?

I think that coding should be learned by everyone because as technology continues to advance more and more jobs and tasks will be completed online so knowing how to code or program will be well received by employers and will be useful for the rest of our careers. In Matthew G. Kirschenbaum’s article, “Hello Worlds”, he states “Programming is about choices and constraints, and about how you choose to model some select slice of the world around you in the formal environment of a computer.” I like this quote because I think it pertains to my field of Public History. In the field of public history, one must gather sources and interpret it for others to see and an online exhibition is one of the best ways of doing this because it allows us to pick and choose what we want the audience to see in order to get our interpretation of the event or period across.

My experience with coding so far has been interesting but also very time consuming and complex to figure out. The reason I say that it is complex is because it is a whole new language to learn and without the tutorials, I don’t think I would have been able to complete the assignments this quickly. My experience with coding before these assignments were almost non-existent, I had one class on html in high school and I didn’t pay attention so when going into these assignments I had no idea what I was doing. The tutorials helped tremendously but I will need to continue to practice these languages in order to learn the nuances.

Mall history site:

The scholarship seem sound and as current as it needs to be for a history site. The interpretation is that the National mall is an important landmark and should be remembered. I think the content is very well communicated to the audience, it is easy to understand and laid out in a easily accessible manner. I would like my project to also be easily accessible and I might try to add a map into mine like they have done on this site.

The design of the website is easy to use because it looks like an online exhibit where you click the topic that you are interested in. the project functions as expected on my computer but I’m not sure how well it works when at the mall with many people around. Yes, I think the design is clear and effective. I would like to follow a similiar design and make my project look like an online exhibit. I like the layout of the exhibit style project and I find that they are easy to use.

Covers the history of the national mall and events that occurred on the mall, is also used for people who are touring the mall.

The site is for historians of the national mall or anyone who would like to know the history of it. My project audience will also be historians and anyone who wants to know about festivals of the past.

Developed by the Roy Rosenzweig center for history and new media, George mason university with generous funding from the endowment from the humanities.

They get their sources from the library of congress and other credible sites.

“Histories of the National Mall.” Accessed February 12, 2024. https://mallhistory.org/.

This project has helped me create an idea of what I would like my project to look like, but I think I will add of humor and lightheartedness to mine because it is about festivities.