Mrs. Magazine responded to our email! They said they would send us one of the three original copies of the Mrs. Magazine featuring Wonder Woman. We received it the other day along with a handwritten letter and a stack of cards for a free one-year subscription (pictured).
I currently have the magazine and several other posters and items for the exhibit in my home. It is
incredibly nerve wracking to be responsible for the very items that will be used in an exhibit. We have a small stand up Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman (pictured) that my cat tried to eat the other day. I have since obtained a large bin for the museum items to keep them out of little mischievous feline paws.
The focus of my research has shifted since my last blog post. My supervisor
wants a more comprehensive look at Wonder Woman instead on a focus on her as a character. After she and I discussed this shift in focus, I struggled with the broad nature of the research. There are so many facets of the history that would be fascinating to delve into, but because of limited time and space, they cannot be covered in depth. There are many contemporary issues in addition to decades of social, comic, and media history and events. Some of the most difficult decisions I have had to make are about what is essential to the exhibit. My favorite area of Wonder Woman history is her origin story, which there are several books about. Her creator William Marston had ties to Margaret Sanger and had two strong female lovers. In contrast to that, there is a ban on the 2017 movie in several Middle Eastern countries because of the choice of actress. One of the difficulties I found in creating an exhibit lies in determining the balance of historic and contemporary.
The space we have for the exhibit is small. Deciding which items and posters should go on the walls and perhaps in cases is not easy. We have several options for posters, toys, and
books, but some are more directly related to the text developed for the exhibit than others. Every item needs a caption and perhaps its own story. The process of collecting,describing, and displaying every object is more labor intensive than I anticipated. One of the vintage Wonder Woman toys we found is not in its original package (pictured), so it is my job to figure out how to display it. Updates about this unpackaged toy will be included in my next post.