When an institution like the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History invites you to join them for anything, the correct answer is “Ohmy GAWD, yes!” Especially when it’s a Twitter chat for their #ObjectsofWonder campaign to talk about great specimens and artifacts in museum collections around the country.
With a list of museums, a file of images and notes, and about 30 tabs of possibly relevant info opened on my web browser, I started watching Twitter the morning of the chat. Which was good because people started to chatter about things they expected to see and I got to pull some additional images and info last minute (*cough cough gators cough*).
The hour-long chat was a blur. I felt like I was playing three pianos at once. I had to accurately post info and photos, on topic and spelled right (in 140 characters or less), while trying to keep up with other museum’s #ObjectsofWonder posts, and also keep up with the comments on my previous post, AND scan for ways to cleverly interact with other museum’s posts, AND search for related images and making sure to watermark our new logo on images on the fly, AND also field questions/comments from non-museums. Three pianos.
It was a lot of fun bantering with other museums and Twitter users. And museum folks are definitely punny people. It took an hour of follow up after the chat to make sure every question or comment was responded to. I’m sure many of these museums have multiple people contributing to their Twitter channel, while we have little ol’ me. I look forward to meeting the people behind the Twitter handles one day.
Here’s the list of museums that officially participated, and their Twitter handles:
| Museum | Handle |
| Cincinnati Museum Center | @CincyMuseum |
| Florida Museum of Natural History | @FloridaMuseum |
| NC Museum of Natural Sciences | @naturalsciences |
| North Carolina Historic Sites | @NCHistoricSites |
| Samuel D. Harris National Museum of Dentistry | @SDHNMD |
| The Rockwell Museum | @RockwellMuseum |
| San Diego Natural History Museum | @SDNHM |
| Denver Museum of Natural History Museum | @DenverMuseumNS |
| Natural History Museum LA County | @NHMLA |
| Cleveland Museum of Natural History | @goCMNH |
| National Anthropological Archives (NMNH) | @anthroarchives |
| Smithsonian National Museum of American History | @amhistorymuseum |
| Smithsonian Libraries | @SILibraries |
| Smithsonian Archives | @SmithsonianArch |
| Biodiversity Heritage Library | @BioDivLibrary |
| Smithsonian Affiliates | @SIAffiliates |
| Recovering Voices, National Museum of Natural History | @RecoverVoices |
| Smithsonian | @Smithsonian |
Here are most of the images I used either as original posts, or as responses to others’ posts.
