My name is Victoria Peck and I am a junior at Coastal Carolina University. I’m majoring in History and Anthropology and Geography. I have certificates in cultural heritage, applied archaeology, and geospatial technologies. Printing the Past: SC in 3D has been a really exciting project for me. I plan to go to grad school for Public history, so being able to gain experience by working with the Horry County museum to create our exhibit has been great. When the project was first explained to us by our professors I was immediately drawn in by the attention to accessibility that is prominent throughout the project. The idea that we were going to create an exhibit that accounts for the needs of so many different groups of people with different disabilities to make them feel more welcome in a museum setting was really exciting to me.
I have always loved visiting museums even when I was a child, and I was fortunate enough to have family that also shared this interest and would often take me to museums. Some of my favorite childhood memories are of family visits to museums and historical sites. The only thing missing from these trips was my grandpa. He was blind and would always decline when asked to go to museums with us because he felt like he would just hold everyone back. The few occasions he did go with us, he would spend the trip sitting down somewhere waiting for us to be done because he felt like he didn’t belong in the museum and that there wasn’t much else he could do. I strongly believe that everyone should be able to experience and enjoy museums regardless of any disabilities. The main goal of many museums is to educate and interpret history for the public. That should include all groups of people and not exclude those with different needs.
The main focus of the exhibit we created is to tell the story of Horry County. To do this we partnered up and went to the museum to find an artifact that we thing would be a good addition for the exhibit. My partner and I had decided we wanted to use an object that would enhance a visitors understanding of an artifact by being able to hold and touch a 3D printed model of the artifact. We also wanted to make sure it told an important part of Horry County history. We decided on a Native American pipe made out of steatite and was found locally and donated to the Horry County Museum. We chose this object because when it was original created and used it was something that would have been held and it has a engraved pattern on it that can be felt on the 3D printed model. We also feel that Native American history plays an important role in Horry County. The Waccamaw tribe is still present and very active in the community and their ancestors have lived in the area for many years. We wanted to make sure than when telling the story of Horry County that they were represented.
Through participation in this project I have gotten the chance to work with many different types of technologies that will benefit me in my future profession. We got to work hands on with the Horry county museum’s cataloging system PastPerfect as well as using the different technology required for 3D scanning and printing. We also got the chance to learn about all the behind the scene work that goes into museum exhibits. I am so glad I was able to gain all these wonderful experiences and to work on such an amazing project.