Handout D1

Can You Hear Me Now? Connecting to Visitors through Real Stories of Artifacts and Place

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WHAT:

On November 29 from 12:00 – 1:00 PM, the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, at University of Illinois Chicago, will unveil a new alternative label that challenges the objective matter-of-fact way that museums usually present information about an object. This label for Jane Addams’ Travel Medicine Kit was commissioned by the Museum and created by artist and scholar Terri Kapsalis, and takes the shape of a meditative essay. There is also an audio version of the essay available, and the essay is on sale in the museum’s gift shop for $10.

WHEN:

Opening November 29, noon-1 p.m.

Reserved readings available: 2-4 p.m., November 29, 30; December 4, 7, 11, 14.

Regular museum hours: Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.- 4 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 4 p.m.

WHERE:

Jane Addams Hull-House Museum

800 S. Halsted St.

DETAILS:

Kapsalis followed Dr. Ronald Koch, Dr. Adam Negrusz, Dr. Robert Gaensslen, and Amy Turenne, scientists in UIC's School of Pharmacy, as they tested the contents of the kit. These forensic experts and pharmacists used cutting-edge technology such as gas chromotography-mass spectrometry to discover what medicines Addams kept with her as she traveled. The essay pairs observations about this scientific investigation with a meditation on rest and restlessness, antagonism and peace, domesticity and social justice, and medicine and poison.

"This project gave us an opportunity to explore the link between social reform and the very personal experience of health and illness through stories about Jane Addams medical history and travels,” says Hull-House Program Coordinator Heather Radke. "Kapsalis helped us to understand how the famous Dr. S. Weir Mitchell impacted the lives of women such as Jane Addams, Charlotte Perkins Gllman, Virginia Woolf, and Edith Wharton. When women were treated with Mitchell’s 'rest cure,' they were often confined to their beds and not allowed to write or read in an effort to cure them of their 'nervous ailments'."

Hull-House Museum is also inviting visitors to sit in Jane Addams' bedroom and read Kapsalis' label as they are served a cup of herbal tea. Visitors can sign up for thirty-minute slots to have this experience (the label takes approximately 20 minutes to read) during late November and early December. The museum encourages visitors to sign up right away for the limited number of spots. Sign up here:
http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/_museum/_exhibits/Alternative%20Labeling/alternativelabeling.html

In the Spring of 2011, Hull-House Museum presented the first in their series of alternative labels, a poem written by Luis Rodriguez that is now the label for several of the museum’s artifacts related to immigration.