It wasn't until a year ago when I first heard of the Mercer Museum. I was looking for a place to volunteer at and one of my teachers told about this old museum that is really cool and is always looking for help. Personally I love history and the the idea of working in a museum was astounding to me. I have no idea why I haven't thought about it before!
My First day at the museum, they told that I had to spend the whole day learning about the museum and its roots, and I did as I was told. I spent the whole day at the museum learning about this one of a kind place. When I first walked into the great hall, I was shocked. The only thing that you can do is look up as far as you can for as long as you can. When I said that I spent the whole day at the museum I meant it. I spent hours upon hours upon hours in that scary dark castle, and if I went back today, I would still find things that I missed. What I loved about this place, was that it was created by one man. (Technically the museum was built by a team of 7 or so but you get my drift). When Henry Mercer first started his expedition for tools and gadgets that people were throwing away, he was seen as insane, but of course today he is seen as an innovator and a genius. One of my most favorite aspects about his collection was that in his collection he owned no more than 20 guns, but he had thousands of shoe horns. This just shows that Mercer wasn't concerned about the items that everyone knew about, but really the items that no one cared about.
That is probably the creates lesson I learned when I went to that museum. I learned that in order to become a good innovator you not only have to look at what people are collecting, but what they are throwing away. As in we can't just look into the future for new inventions or new idea, because chances are, the idea was already thought of and everyone just forgot about it. If something wasn't thought of, the best way to come up with a new one is to look into the past. the more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future
Here is a link that you can use to look at the Central Court of the Mercer Museum. (it is the one at the bottom)
http://www.mercermuseum.org/visit-us/online-tours/
Hi Dan great job on your presentation last tuesday! Unlike some of the other presentations, I liked how you were passionate about your topic and had interest in it. Also that you were actually able to intern there over the summer is awesome. "to become a good innovator you not only have to look at what people are collecting, but what they are throwing away." Interesting statement and very true!
ReplyDelete"the more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future"
I agree in other words, you have to look into the past in order to see the future.