Jul
23

A Collection of Olympic Proportions

Last year, the Office of Visitor Services and Volunteer Management hosted Kenneth Cohen, Edward & Helen Hintz Secretarial Scholar and Curator at National Museum of American History, for a virtual lecture about the Olympic collection at the Smithsonian. Now that the Tokyo games have been postponed, we still wanted to celebrate with you! If you were unable to join us live, you can watch a recording of the program below.

Please note the two polls collected during the lecture were available and viewable to live attendees only. If you’re interested in knowing what we asked, Here are the questions:

Poll Questions

What do you think of when you think about Olympic Collections?

  • medals
  • uniforms
  • equipment
  • tickets and memorabilia (fans)
  • advertising

What topics do you think our collecting should consider in the future to help communicate the deeper meaning of the Olympics?

  • stadia/venues
  • support staff
  • financing and pay equity
  • other
  • don’t change anything: diversity of athletes, their messages, and consumerism

If you prefer to watch the transcribed recording with closed captions, please visit this link:

Recording of webinar:
https://smithsonian.zoom.us/rec/share/z-dtCZDw8EBIf4nk90LzcJADOr3Haaa80HRN_aBey0e4b8IjbA3PDFRAa25wg7fQ

Password: 31@jkuDG

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Posted: 23 July 2021
About the Author:

Alexis Nolan (nee Miller) is the Lead Volunteer Coordinator with the Office of Visitor Services and Volunteer Management.