Tegan Kehoe

Probably the most important things I've written since the last time I posted a quarterly update have been regarding civic participation. As regular readers know, civic participation as an individual and as part of my responsibility as a historian and museum professional is very important to me. In these polarizing times, participating is more important than ever. There are 12 known active hate groups in my state of Massachusetts ; staying out of the fray would do nothing to combat their violent messages. One of the causes I care deeply about is making sure that everyone has a chance to be involved, and in that vein, I posted an open letter last month (which I also sent to a number of news outlets) asking for more coverage of nonvoters.  This past week, I had the opportunity to visit the much-publicized exhibit "the Davis. Without Immigrants," also known by its hashtag #ART-LESS, which was up over Presidents Day weekend. I reviewed it on my blog , describing my experience ...

I am sending this to a number of my favorite media sources. I encourage you to share this verbatim with attribution, or to write your own letter with mine as a model. I’m writing to ask for more coverage of the Americans who did not vote in the presidential election in November. Trump voters have gotten a lot of media attention, and rightly so, but their voices are disproportionately amplified. 42% of eligible voters did not cast a vote (fivethirtyeight.com). This proportion has become typical, and it’s a serious problem in American democracy. This year saw new restrictions in many states, ostensibly to prevent voter fraud. How do people caught in red tape feel about the election? How do people who never vote feel? To understand our political climate, your audience needs to hear their stories. We need coverage of people who were prevented from voting by legal or illegal, intentional or unintentional means. People whose registrations were rejected. People who were turned awa...

Since my last update in August, I've been working on a couple of longer-term projects, so I have a bit less public-facing material to show for my work, but I'm happy with where things are going on them. If you get a chance to stop by the Paul S. Russell, MD Museum of Medical History and Innovation at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, we recently put up an exhibit on Walter Guralnick, a retired oral surgeon who recently celebrated his 100th birthday, and on bits of the history of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at MGH. Earlier this fall we did an exhibit on Visual Thinking Strategies, which is an art education technique that's now also being used in healthcare education. A smaller version of the exhibit is still in our second-floor gallery, and we will be moving the exhibit to a case in the main lobby of the hospital sometime in the new year. We are about to mount our first exhibit specifically designed for the hospital's research buildings in the Charlestown ...

I'm the first to admit that my website, which is intended to be a one-stop place to see what I've been up to, is the place I'm usually last to update. If you happen to be looking for what I'm doing right now, Twitter (@tegankehoe) is usually a better bet -- although it may be that what I'm doing right now is participating in a Twitter chat, which leads to a flood of tweets on a narrow subject. For the website, I intend to get on a schedule of updating quarterly. So here's what I've been up to lately: I am currently the Exhibits and Education Specialist at the Paul S. Russell, MD Museum of Medical History and Innovation at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. It's a fascinating place to work! You can see what the museum is up to by checking out our Facebook page . I occasionally write guest posts for the museum director's blog column, "Museum Mysteries," at the online magazine Wonders and Marvels. Here's one of my favorite pos...

Last month, I participated in National Novel Writing Month for the first time. The challenge is to write the first draft of a 50,000 -word novel in 30 days, but I was a part of the minority who chose to work in a different format. I drafted a 50k-word book of essays about life lessons from being a museum guide. The working title is " On Creaky Floors: Wit and Wisdom on the Life of a Museum Guide," but who knows how many times that will change as a more final version of the book takes shape.  I celebrate Christmas and I recently finished my present shopping, so now feels like a good time to post this raw (unedited) excerpt about relationships with material things. ~ Becoming a “museum person” also helped me understand and affirm my relationship with material things. I say museum person here rather than guide, because I don’t think this particular kind of self-identification needs to be limited to staff and volunteers -- frequent museum-goers can have this feeling, too. As ...

Royall Must Be Recognized, Not Revered Students at Harvard Law School are calling for a change to the school’s seal, which incorporates the family crest of HLS benefactor Isaac Royall, one of the biggest slaveholders in colonial greater Boston. I’ve often heard people react protectively towards the historic names on buildings, street signs, and other institutions, saying that you can’t try to erase a piece of history just because you don’t like it. I agree on the surface, but as a historian and museum professional who studies how we create and perpetuate public memory, I cannot ignore the fact that we as a society erase or paint over pieces of history all the time. Just as photographs can never be fully objective because something is always left out of the frame, public memory is a process of constant choices. There’s simply too much history to commemorate all of it all of the time, and what we commemorate changes. What’s important is that we as a society choose wisely when we honor ...

I haven't been publishing online very much in the last six months or so, largely because I've been working on projects in other media, such as articles for a forthcoming history textbook, a radio play produced by the Post-Meridian Radio Players , and bringing myself up to speed on two centuries of medical history and innovation for my work as the exhibits and education specialist at the Paul S. Russell Museum at Mass General Hospital. Here's a selection of my recent work which you can find online. Why? A post for Chameleon's Dish Theatre on why small theater matters Self-Care for Museum Students A post on the Tufts Museum Studies blog Transitioning into the Wider World My farewell post on the Tufts Museum Studies blog Moire for a Soiree -- Free Knitting Pattern A 1920's-inspired knitting pattern for a scarf and purse set, designed and written by yours truly.