Day 14: Cleveland Rocks! And has great art!

Today was an exciting day! We had a field trip!

Mary and Kieran are excited about our field trip!

Mary and Kieran are excited about our field trip!

We went to Cleveland to meet up with Dennis and Kathy Barrie, the team who are designing the new Cummings Center for the History of Psychology Museum. They have a very impressive resume — between the two of them they have designed the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC,  the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH, the Mob Museum in Las Vegas and they are currently working on the U.S. Olympic Museum in Colorado Springs.  They shared their background and how they became involved in museum design. They also spoke with us about their process for designing museum spaces and shared the early plans for the Cummings’ History of Psych museum. It was incredibly interesting and we learned a lot.

The conversation also highlighted the value of the archival work we are doing — the Barries mentioned how helpful it is for them to have so many artifacts to work with.  Maybe some of the things we find in Schopler’s collection will end up on display!!

The group with Dennis and Kathy Barrie

The group with Dennis and Kathy Barrie

Afterward, we spent a few hours walking around the Cleveland Museum of Art. Knowing how much effort goes in to designing the space and flow of the exhibits gave us a whole new perspective!

The beautiful atrium in the Cleveland Museum of Art

The beautiful atrium in the Cleveland Museum of Art (photo courtesy of the Columbus Dispatch’s website)

Day 13: A Quiet Memorial Day!

Today we learned that Memorial Day is a quiet day in Akron. Everything on campus was closed.  Almost everything in walking distance of campus was closed.  And there were no parades or Memorial Day activities in downtown Akron.  All in all, very very quiet.  So we took it easy.

You know that nothing happened when the highlight of the day was…

fresh linens!  Woohoo!

Fresh linens! Woohoo!

It was probably a good thing because tomorrow we have a big day planned…stay tuned!

Day 12: Hudson and Cuyahoga Valley National Park!

Our Sunday outing took us to a historic town called Hudson.  It was founded by David Hudson in 1799 and was modernized in the early 20th century through the wealth of James Ellsworth, who was born there.  Ellsworth owned several coal mines in the area and also was a prominent banker.

Well, hello there!

Watch your step, Mr. Ellsworth!

A fun fact about the Ellsworth family is that James’ son Lincoln was a polar explorer who was later featured on a postage stamp.

We could have used Lincoln Ellsworth's jacket -- it was cold in Akron last week!

We could have used Lincoln Ellsworth’s jacket this past week – it was chilly in Akron!

After some lunch, some of the students stayed to enjoy the shopping and sunshine…

Jenn enjoying the sunshine in Hudson

Enjoying the sunshine in Hudson

While others went to Cuyahoga Valley National Park to check out Brandywine Falls…

Aren't the Falls beautiful?

Aren’t the Brandywine Falls beautiful?

Brandywine Falls

An unobstructed view!

After the hour long hike we went back to Hudson for some dinner and wandering around.  There were lots of great things to look at…

This was in front of an instrument repair shop.  I hope that all of the repaired instruments come out of the shop looking this good!

This was in front of an instrument repair shop. I hope that all of the repaired instruments come out of the shop looking this good!

and we found new cars for Dr.Hahn and Horhota!

Dr. Hahn dreams of the green truck.  Dr. Horhota is totally going to trade in the minivan for the GTO

Dr. Hahn dreams of the green truck.  Dr. Horhota is going to trade in the minivan for the GTO…if only we could all fit!

Day 11: Yes, we are working on a Saturday!

Wow!  We have already reached the half-way mark!  Time is really flying by.

In the morning, a small group of us ventured out to the Countryside Conservancy Farmer’s Market in Howe Meadow. They have over 50 vendors, live music, and cooking demonstrations! It was a lovely way to start the day.

The market was bustling!

The market was bustling!

Jenn and Dr. H enjoying some delicious coffee and a non-traditional breakfast of kale salad and...

Jenn and Dr. H enjoying some delicious coffee and a non-traditional breakfast of kale salad and…

Perogies!!  (Thanks to Dov for the photos and for backing up Dr. H on this fine choice...)

Perogies!! (Thanks to Dov for the photos and for supporting Dr. H on this breakfast choice)

In the afternoon several of the students headed to the CHP to conduct more research for their blog posts (Still secret!  Stay tuned!)  but in the evening it was time for some fun.  We went up to Highland Square, a cool neighborhood in Akron with lots of little shops and restaurants.

Yum!  Mary Coyle's has been making delicious ice cream since 1937!

Yum! Mary Coyle’s has been making delicious ice cream since 1937!

Day 10: More organization and a mystery solved!

Day 10 brought more organization, more filing, more plastic clips, and more acid-free boxes.  We also stumbled across the answer to one of the mysteries in the boxes —

Looks like my confusion over the puzzle earlier indicates that I behave like a typical child...

Looks like my confusion over the puzzle earlier indicates that I behave like a typical child…

Another neat item we found was Temple Grandin’s business card!

We wondered if Dr. Schopler had this for research related reasons or if he purchased things for his farm from her!

We aren’t sure whether Dr. Schopler had this for research related reasons or if he purchased things for his farm from her!

The students also had the opportunity to start searching the archives for material to write about for their blog posts (which will be posted at the end of the course).  I’d like to post about the cool stuff they are researching but I don’t want to steal their thunder…you’ll just have to check back in another week to see what they found.

Day 9: Organizing our piles!

Now for the hard part!  Today we started the process of sifting through all of the piles we created yesterday.  We began with the categories we thought would be easiest (published works, conferences, teaching).  Even though these categories were quite well organized to start, it still took us all day!  We looked through the contents of each folder carefully, removed items that weren’t supposed to be kept in the collection (e.g. old receipts, plane tickets, things that weren’t written by Schopler or his direct associates), swapped out paper clips for plastic clips, re-filed the contents into acid-free folders, and organized the folders by date.

So many folders!

So many folders!

After that, the organized folders were placed into acid-free storage boxes.  By the end of the day we had restored some order…

Organization makes Jenn happy!

Organization makes Jenn happy!

…but there is still a lot of work to be done!

...but it also might be time for a break...

It might be time for a break…

Our best finds of the day?

Schopler's ID card

Schopler’s ID card

Hmm...this seems as though it should go together...

Hmm…I really thought these pieces would go together…

And a sign of the challenges we face…

 

If Eric Schopler doesn't know where this goes...how are we supposed to know?

If Eric Schopler doesn’t know where this belongs…how are we supposed to know?

Day 8: Making piles!

Day 8 had us sorting out the contents of the boxes onto tables that each reflected a different category (biographical information, manuscripts published by Schopler, TEACCH materials, conferences, personal correspondence, etc.).

Before!

Before…

This was more challenging than it sounds — where does a partially complete cow puzzle go?  (The answer is ??? – our miscellaneous category of wonders.  But where will it go next?)

By the end of the day we had organized chaos…

After!

and after!

…and a whole bunch of empty boxes.

The sign of progress!

A sign of progress!