Built to Protect—Peter McGuire

Enriching the museum experience

As the Educational Intern for spring '26, I was tasked with updating the Denver Firefighter's Museum's exhibit on firefighting gear over time, which consisted of two assembled sets of firefighter gear and a small interpretive sign pointing out the names of the gear. The DFM introduced me to the pedagogies they use, and I came back with a plan to let visitors learn about gear by wearing it themselves. To my pleasant surprise, the museum was happy with the direction.

UDL—Universal Design for Learning

Show information more than one way: visually, tactilely, through data. Visitors explore the gear with their hands, bodies, noses, eyes and minds to understand its meanings.

OBL—Object-Based Learning

Lead with the object and layer the labels so the object generates the question before any text answers it. Visitors explore through the objects and the questions those objects raise, which gets guests talking.

EDGE Framework

The Exploratorium's design principles engage girls in STEM exhibits by making them accessible. This exhibit uses two-person try-on stations, open questions with no single right answer, and Heather Larson featured as a female protagonist.

Testing with users

As with many projects, what seemed like a great idea on paper failed to engage visitors when the prototype went up. I first designed four stations, each built around a flip-panel "decision tree" with a real historical fork, three possible paths, and a reveal connecting the choice to what actually happened. I observed from the prototype that, by that point in a visit, guests already had reading fatigue. Instead, they skipped my activity and focused on handling the objects and talking to each other. So, I reworked the exhibit to focus on the interaction and conversation naturally arising from the objects.

Prototype test on the museum floor: a historic yellow turnout jacket on a wooden stand in front of the Adventures of Supersquad backdrop, with a cardboard 'What Would You Do?' mock-up panel and pros-and-cons flip cards on a small table beside it.

The first plan, on paper

Hand-drawn planning sketch of the exhibit layout: a row of wall panels—drone firefighting, how fast fire grows, smoke-eating, OSHA and occupational safety, women and firefighting—above four object stations for a helmet, jackets, a beard cut-out, and a breather mask, each paired with a 'What Would You Do?' decision box, annotated with case dimensions of 3 by 2.5 by 2 feet, two boxes.

Planning sketchThe original four-station plan, before prototyping cut it back to the objects.

Measured build drawing of the exhibit on paper: a top-down plan and a front elevation of an eight-foot-wide, six-foot-tall wall of framed posters above four object cases, dimensions marked throughout—cases three by two-and-a-half by two feet—with a materials list reading wood boxes times two, helmet mounts times two, coat racks times two, coat mounts times two, breather mount, laminated beard on a stick, and posters in eighteen-by-twenty-four, twenty-four-by-thirty-six, and twelve-by-thirty-six inch sizes plus nine two-sided flip cards.

Build drawingTop and front elevations with case dimensions and a full materials list.

The finished exhibit

Kid-oriented panels use EDGE's body-movement and collaboration engagement: do first, ask questions, no reading required to participate. Adult panels allow parents and facilitators to answer the bigger questions about why gear changes over time, giving more meaning to the objects than simple museums labels can.

Kid Register

do first, read second

Exhibit—The Jacket

Installation photo: a historic canvas fire coat and a modern turnout coat hang side by side on a handmade wooden rack, mounted in front of the adult interpretive panels.

Object label as installed, illustrated with a vintage firefighter holding a hose: My jacket has thick canvas with a rubber coating. Before I go into a fire, I soak my jacket in water. The steam from my wet jacket helps block the heat. But my jacket has problems: When it is wet, it weighs too much. The steam from my wet jacket can get too hot. I make heat from working hard in my jacket. Nearby placard, Try On Real Firefighter Gear: What do you notice about the jackets? Why does the new jacket have different layers? Were either of these jackets used in a fire? How can you tell? Why do you think the jackets are so heavy?

Body Movement

One of EDGE's 9 attributes: whole-body interaction, not just hands-only manipulation. Pulling on the coat lets visitors feel the weight before reading about it.

Relatable figures

Illustrated firefighters voicing the real problems with older gear give younger visitors an emotional way into an engineering problem, not just a label to read.

Plain-Language, First-Person Voice

OBL asks for "conversational tone... tested by reading aloud." The jacket talks in first person—"My jacket has thick canvas..."—at about a 4th-grade level, so a parent isn't translating a label into kid-language on the spot.

The exhibit now builds on what visitors already do. It doesn't need a separate interactive: putting the gear on starts the conversation.

Other kid stations

Helmet try-on station: two historic fire helmets on stands beside a wall panel of discussion questions.

The HelmetTwo helmets, a century apart.

Mask try-on station: a modern SCBA mask and air tank beside historic beard-filter imagery, with an Instagram tag-us callout and the Women and Firefighting Safety panel behind.

The Mask / SCBALaminated cut-out beards vs. modern air mask and tank.

Firefighting in the Future drawing station: a blank flip-chart pad hung by a doorway for visitors to sketch their own answer to Safety Isn't Solved, beside a case of Denver Fire Department badges.

Firefighting in the FutureA blank page with the prompt: what will change in the future?

Adult Register

facilitate the conversation

Exhibit—the wall's opening argument

Panel as installed, Why Does Firefighting Gear Change Over Time? Fire emergencies occur less often but pose greater danger to firefighters than ever before. 1. Fire emergencies change: buildings are now made from a wide range of materials that produce toxic smoke and burn faster. 2. Safety has changed: today, workers and employers are both responsible for safety, not just the individual firefighter. 3. Dangers are better understood: we now know that breathing smoke can cause cancer and heart disease; scientists have learned a lot about the dangers firefighters face.

Panel as installed, Fires Are Faster Than Ever. Historical materials: whole room burning in 29 minutes. Modern materials: whole room burning in 4 minutes. Factors that have changed: synthetic materials burn fast and make toxic smoke; lightweight construction uses manufactured wood and glue instead of solid wood; open floor plans let fire spread and allow more oxygen to burn; lithium-ion batteries can go from smoke to explosion in as little as 15 seconds.

Multiple Means of Representation

UDL's first principle: show the same idea more than one way. The kid stations argue "safety isn't solved" through touch and emotion; these panels make the same argument with history, images and data.

Real-World Data

OBL asks for concrete language over abstraction. "29 minutes to 4 minutes" and a cited 1971 NFPA mandate are both checkable, sourced right on the panel.

Collaboration

These panels work for adults with and without children accompanying them by providing complementary information to the objects and addressing the "big idea."

Other adult panels

Panel as installed, Smoke Eating: What Is Acceptable Danger? Firefighters once called themselves smoke eaters and protected against smoke only by soaking their beard in water. Resistance to Safety Equipment: early smoke masks, Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus not required by law until 1971, ear-scarring used as a badge of courage, and soot-covered gear once worn as a sign of heavy use.

Smoke Eating: What Is Acceptable Danger?Why firefighters once called themselves "smoke eaters" and how the concept of danger has changed.

Panel as installed, OSHA, Safety Standards, and Research. Before OSHA, safety standards varied by city and state and new regulations were mostly triggered by disasters—writing rules in blood. The 1970s shifted toward evidence-based, proactive research. Barriers to safety compliance: lack of funding, training time, and speed and safety concerns for departments adopting new gear.

OSHA, Safety Standards & ResearchHow safety went from "writing rules in blood" to research-driven.

Panel as installed, Women and Firefighting Safety. Heather Larson, who worked 1985 to 2006, challenged Denver's firefighter strength test and became the department's first female officer, retiring as Captain. Women firefighters are 1.8 times more likely to sustain an occupational injury than male firefighters; 65% report ill-fitting gear, and 37.5% report workplace harassment.

Women & Firefighting Safety—Heather LarsonHer fight against a rigged strength test and the data on what's still unequal.

A history feminism used, then buried

Spiritualism was a tool feminism "embraced, profited from, and disposed of." This class had an open-ended final project, which I used to explore a passion of mine and build a portfolio piece. I am especially interested in eccentric religion and the impact of 19th-Century Upstate New York on American religion and politics.

UDL—Universal Design for Learning

Valuing and cultivating multiple ways of knowing and making meaning. Every panel and interactive offers more than one way in.

OBL—Object-Based Learning

Lead with real evidence, then let prose explain it. Without physical objects, this exhibit uses primary sources, images, interactives, and the feeling of real space to draw visitors in.

EDGE Framework

Name a protagonist and ask questions with no single right answer instead of handing over a conclusion. This exhibit keeps meaning-making approachable and personal.

Facilitates learning through argument and exploration

The Narrative—text and primary-source images carry the argument through like a museum exhibit. The Interactives—a map, a network graphs, and a flow diagram—let a visitor explore the argument for themselves.

The Narrative

understand the time and place through named individuals

Exhibit—The Parlor as Homosocial War Room

StoryMap stop titled Upstate New York, 1848: The birth of feminism and ghost communication. Text: How did ghosts contribute to power-building in the parlor? Kate and Margaret Fox were eleven and fourteen years old when the rappings began on the night of March 31, 1848, in a rented farmhouse in Hydesville, New York. The mysterious knocking or rapping gave yes/no answers or numbers on request. Their mother called the neighbors. The neighbors called more neighbors. Within weeks the story had spread to nearby Rochester, where Amy and Isaac Post, friends of the Fox family, welcomed them in. Within eighteen months, the Posts' reform network hosted the first congregation of American Spiritualism. Spiritualism spread through reformer circles like wildfire. This exhibit explores Spiritualism's crucial role in feminism and how feminists seeking respectability wrote Spiritualism out of their own history. Beside the text, an oval studio portrait captioned The Fox Sisters: Miss Margaretta Fox, Miss Catharine Fox, and Mrs. Fish.

StoryMap stop titled Amy and Isaac Post tied radical reform together. Text: Welcome to the parlor of Amy and Isaac Post. Take a moment to notice all the furniture. This room served many functions: eating, resting, knitting, creating art, reading, discussing, and organizing. When families visited each other, they did all their usual domestic work and child-raising in these spaces. Amy and Isaac were Quakers in Upstate New York, and their parlor hosted many luminaries of radical religion and politics. As a final stop on the Underground Railroad, the Posts personally helped formerly enslaved people start new lives, including Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs. For radical reformers like the Posts, religious belief went hand-in-hand with feminist and racial social justice. Below, a subheading reads Explore the Posts' social world, with the prompt: Click on the toggle to erase Spiritualists from the social network. What do you notice? Who remains? Are there any names that you recognize? Beside the text, an archival photo captioned Parlor of the old Post Residence—In this room Douglass held meetings with his friends and planned the safety of runaway slaves, credited to the Rochester Public Library, Division of Local History.

Amy Post ties the exhibit together as she tied together the social network that combined abolition, feminism, and radical visions of religion. She provides an emotional core and a clear example of the thesis: a Spiritualist written out of the story until the recent publication of her papers revealed the radical reform networks of New York.

Multiple Means of Engagement

Works at different levels of attention—from a casual five-minute glance or a fifteen-minute reflection to an hour-long exploration.

Object Before Label, Digitally

There's no physical object here, so I encourge connection with objects and primary sources by asking visitors to imagine themselves inside the Post parlor.

Guide Labels, Open Questions

Labels that tell you what to do, not what to think. This exhibit asks "What do you notice? Who remains?" and has no single right answer.

Other stops

StoryMap stop: Spiritualism made womanly weakness a strength. Text: The stereotypes of womanhood—nervousness, sensitivity, emotional excitability—became the tools that women used to channel spirits. Piety had always been the special reserve of women, but Christianity constructed women as second-class citizens. Spiritualism gave women control over piety to create a new form of agency. Quoted beneath: Women, by their peculiar organism, by the fineness of their nerves, the susceptibility of their sensations..., have always been peculiarly susceptible of impressions through the imaginative and sensational parts of their natures—Emma Hardinge Britten, The Place and Mission of Woman, 1859. Beside the text, an engraved portrait of a Victorian woman in mourning dress.

Womanly Weakness, ReframedSpiritualism turned the era's own stereotypes of feminine nervousness into a tool for public authority.

StoryMap stop: Channeling created a cover for women's speech. Text: Sleeping preachers normalized delivering religious revelation from a trance in early 19th century America. Spiritualism allowed women to use the loophole of the trance on a wider scale. A woman didn't need to be submissive or passive when a dead man was speaking through her. Quoted beneath: If it is a shame for women to speak in the Church... woman ought to be ashamed of the church. Let woman come out of the church; and, when she comes out, the minister and all the congregation will go out with her—Lizzie Doten, Banner of Light, 11 February 1860. Beside the text, a scan of the Banner of Light newspaper masthead, subtitled An Exponent of the Spiritual Philosophy of the Nineteenth Century.

A Legal Cover for Public SpeechTrance channeling let a woman speak in public without the shame 19th-century religion attached to it.

StoryMap stop: Spiritualism appropriated voices from the past. Text: While early Spiritualists channeled voices of white men—Benjamin Franklin was a favorite because of his association with electricity—later Spiritualists appropriated voices from Native Americans and Asians. The associations with lost wisdom or esoteric traditions gave added authority to white women's speech. Appropriation allowed white progressives to claim Native authority while continuing to dispossess actual Indigenous people. Quoted beneath, attributed to a channeled Native spirit guide: More than three hundred harvest moons ago my people lived where the head waters of the Shenandoah river rise... They were a peaceful people. Pure thoughts must be my white canoe.—Cora L.V. Richmond, channeling her spirit guide Ouina, in Ouina's Canoe, 1882. Beside the text, an engraved oval portrait of a young woman in Victorian dress wearing a cross necklace.

Appropriating Native and Asian VoicesWhite Spiritualists claimed Native and Asian "spirit guides" as a source of authority.

The Interactives

explore the argument yourself

Exhibit—the social network graph, used twice

Interactive social-network graph, first use. A toggle reads Remove Spiritualists, with a legend for Abolitionist and feminist. Concentric rings labeled, from center outward: Post Family, At the Parlor, One Step, Two Steps, Wider Network. Amy Post glows at the center, connected to Isaac Post, Kate Fox, Margaret Fox, and outward to Frederick Douglass, Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Jacobs, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, William Lloyd Garrison, and others. A side panel reads: Amy Post, 1802–1889, White, tagged Spiritualist, Abolitionist, feminist. She hosted the Fox Sisters, attended Seneca Falls, sheltered Harriet Jacobs, and preserved Sojourner Truth's letters, all in the same year and from the same Rochester parlor.

The same network graph, second use, re-labeled. A toggle reads Toggle these buttons, with the same Spiritualist, Abolitionist, feminist legend. Concentric rings now read, from center outward: Author, Included, Minimized, Stripped of Spiritualism, Erased Entirely. Elizabeth Cady Stanton now glows at the center; Amy Post has moved to the outer Erased Entirely ring. A side panel reads: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1815–1902, White, tagged Abolitionist, feminist, Author. What Actually Happened: co-organized Seneca Falls; principal author of the Declaration of Sentiments; co-edited History of Woman Suffrage volumes 1 through 3; used Spiritualism's network without being of it. How History of Woman Suffrage Told It: Author. Co-wrote and edited HWS volumes 1 through 3. Primary subject of her own historical interpretation. Her framing of the movement's origins shapes what the record contains and omits.

These interactive network graphs involve the visitor in the erasure of Spiritualism. Amy Post moves from a central figure to a peripheral one. The interactive allows visitors to toggle off Spiritualists—in effect erasing them firsthand.

Multiple Means of Representation

The interactives communicate on three registers: gestalt impact, text labels, and interactive experience.

Real-World Data, Applied to Categories

OBL calls for concrete, sourced content over abstraction. The relabeled rings—"Erased Entirely," "Stripped of Spiritualism," "Minimized"—come straight from the scholarship on how this erasure happened.

Layered Labels

Click a node and the sidebar goes deeper: name and dates first (tombstone), then tags (thematic), then a full paragraph (extended).

Other interactives