Elissa Lonzo, “Updating Educational Materials for Visitors at the Center for Nursing History”
Mentor: Jessica Nelson, History, Letters & Science (College of)
Poster #177
The Center for Nursing History in Cunningham Hall is one of six nursing history museums in the United States, making it an important resource for the UWM and Milwaukee communities. It highlights both local and national nursing history through displayed objects and written signage. The goal of this study is to update the self-guided visitors’ materials, which have not been updated since 2016, to improve visitor understanding of and engagement with the galleries. This will be achieved by establishing various recurring themes, such as “nursing in the military,” “nursing education,” and “international collaboration.” By establishing these themes, visitors will have more control over their experience in the galleries and will be provided with frameworks through which to understand their learning. They will be able to choose to follow particular themes as they explore the gallery. Our planned outcome is a new visitors guide that will engage visitors through these themes. This will include new object images, descriptive and informative text, and specific engagement with the gallery’s thematic categories. The visitor’s guide will be available both in hard copy and digitally on the CNH’s website, so that visitors who cannot visit the galleries in person can still have a deeper understanding of the CNH’s materials. This will increase access to the CNH’s resources. Through this project, we hope to make the Center for Nursing History more accessible to UWM’s School of Nursing, UWM students, and broader community visitors who may be interested in medical history.