As an English major, I not only read books and write papers for my classes, but I also read other books and write in my free time. I’ve always loved reading and writing. When I think about writing, I used to think only about classic literature, popular genre fiction, articles, and other formal, organized texts.
During my junior year of college, that changed. In the fall of 2024, I interned with FSU’s Museum of Everyday Writing (MoEW) after it was recommended to me by both my professor and my sorority sister, who had previously interned there. The MoEW is an online museum run by FSU students. Rather than focusing on serious writing, this museum highlights casual pieces written in the day-to-day.
What is Everyday Writing?
This is often overlooked, which is why it’s so cool that the MoEW showcases it. Everyday writing includes writing in a planner, a reminder on a sticky note, a birthday card to a friend, graffiti, social media comments and captions, and so much more.
These small pieces of writing can go unnoticed, but this museum seeks to illuminate them. It emphasizes that these pieces of writing have value and meaning. On the homepage of the museum’s website, it says, “We believe these texts are worth attending to because they help form and sustain social relationships and organize our everyday lives.”
In emphasizing that these unseen texts have worth, FSU’s MoEW opens our eyes to looking at writing differently and seeing the beauty in small things.
Why an Online Museum?
The concept of a fully online museum might seem a bit out of left field, but I think it’s really special. The MoEW can be accessed at any time and is constantly updated. An online museum can instantly evolve without having to demote any older exhibits or artifacts, like a physical museum may need to. This museum is also unique because anyone can submit their own artifacts to be featured in its archives!
Standout Exhibits
For my internship, I created an exhibit centered around book annotations, and I uploaded a wide range of book annotations to the museum as artifacts. I explored many types of book annotations, including those comprised of comments, definitions, highlighting, tabs, underlining, and other elements. I documented these annotations and wrote about what purpose they serve and why they’re meaningful to a reader’s experience.
One of my favorite exhibits featured in the MoEW is by Ashley Jongerius, and is about tagging and classification systems. Jongerius explores the tagging and classification systems of the MoEW, FSU’s Strozier Library, books, fanfiction, and social media. I find it extremely fascinating because I’ve never thought much about these systems in the past, but I use them daily.
Other interesting exhibits are Emma Baker’s exhibit about graffiti in Central London and Noland Blain’s exhibit about The Sweet Shop. Baker documents political graffiti and soccer graffiti. I think it’s interesting to see these messages that are all within one area. Blain archives writing at The Sweet Shop, a beloved restaurant next to FSU. There are so many more exhibits to look through, so you should definitely check them out!
How Can I Get Involved?
The MoEW is run by FSU graduate students and undergraduate interns, so if you’re an FSU student and you want to get involved, you can apply. Additionally, anyone can submit artifacts. You can find anything you might be looking for on the museum’s Linktree, and read more about it on Instagram, Facebook, or the museum’s blog.
Not many people know about FSU’s MoEW, but I think it’s a hidden gem. It has so many interesting artifacts and exhibits in its archives, so I encourage you to spend some time exploring what it has to offer.
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