My individual project this summer was to develop a series of events for visitors with Alzheimer’s and dementia, as well as their caregivers. Through the program, people with memory loss and their caregivers will learn about Virginia Beach and the station’s history, participate in sensory activities and crafts, and spark their own creativity and long-term [...]
I loved being at the museum over the past 10 weeks; I had so much fun and met great people. More importantly, I learned so much about public history and working in a small museum. I was impressed by the amount and variety of programs the VBSRM offered over the summer, which resulted in [...]
Throughout my time at the Virginia Beach Surf & Rescue Museum, I’ve learned an immense amount of information about Virginia Beach’s past, as well as the Life-Saving Service and Coast Guard. I have enjoyed getting to know the people and places that helped shape the Virginia Beach community people experience and love today. For the [...]
One of my favorite things to do on any vacation is take a ghost tour. I’ve done them lots of places: Williamsburg, Charleston, Boston. To me, as an avowed paranormal skeptic, they provided a fun way to learn local history and stories that aren't shown in museums. Once I started leading them myself, I discovered [...]
As a historian, I have an insatiable curiosity about the past. And I know a lot about it: the good, the bad, and the ugly. I’m very happy living in the twenty-first century with things like the internet, cars, and medicine. And, being female, I would not enjoy experiencing the diminished status and rights of [...]
We start each Ghost Walk with the same series of questions: Who here believes in ghosts? Do we have any non-believers? Who is a skeptic? At the beginning of the summer, when my internship at VBSRM began, I was firmly in the non-believer category. Starting a tour I visit historical sites quite frequently [...]
Lifeguards. Hotels. Surfboards. Bathing Suits. All parts of daily life in Virginia Beach, and all things that have a long history. One of the best parts of small museums is that they tell the history of the everyday and seemingly ordinary things. A lot of museums center around “big” events—wars, politicians—and “grand” objects—famous artwork, fancy [...]
Museums can be intimidating spaces for some visitors. They’re full of artifacts you’re not supposed to touch, a lot of unknown information, and a lot of reading. On top of that, most people feel they have to act a certain way when in a museum: namely, quiet. But museums are created for the public, to [...]
Kids can be hit or miss at a museum. Some seem to be incredibly bored, while others have the best time and could spend hours in one. But throughout my time at the Virginia Beach Surf & Rescue Museum, they’ve become my favorite type of visitors to interact with. Why? Because they tend to find [...]
One of my favorite aspects of being an intern so far is the Ghost Walks. Guiding them allows me to have a lot of interaction with guests: I get to help them have fun in the building and learn interesting information about places in Virginia Beach they might have seen or visited. And I love [...]