Survival Kit: Provisions for Your Research Journey Special Collections Research Center

Bird Library, Plastics Reading Room, 6th Floor

October 27, 2020 - present

An artifact can be an object of inquiry—even on its own, but in finding and articulating relationships among artifacts, a world emerges with its own history to tell. Survival Kit: Provisions for Your Research Journey utilizes a selection of artifacts, documents, and photographs from the Edwin F. Bushman Papers, a mid-century plastics engineer, and the Plastics Artifacts Collection, to guide students and visitors through developing primary source-based research projects that dare to inquire into the unexpected.  From the discovery of materials, to the unfolding of their analysis, this unique exhibition has been designed to function as a standalone resource for students, as well as a scaffold for instruction in any course that emphasizes primary source research. SCRC intends to provide live-streamed interactive class sessions, as well as asynchronous video tours, to immerse students in the environment of the exhibition.

The labor, skills, and perspectives that built this interdisciplinary exhibition were a collaborative effort between Courtney Asztalos, Curator of Plastics and Historical Artifacts; Jana Rosinski, Curatorial Assistant of the Plastics Collection and PhD student in Composition & Cultural Rhetorics; Lynn Wilcox, Design Specialist, Syracuse University Press; Ann Skiold, Librarian for Visual Arts; and Emily Hart, Science Librarian, Research Impact Lead. Also, we want to acknowledge the invisible labor and absent voices of those who made the manufactured objects from which these plastics collections were created.