Hello Dr Pepper lovers! My name is Kelli, and I am an intern here at the Dr Pepper Museum, and I am working with Gabe, our new Exhibits Manager.  My goal for the internship is to get a behind-the-scenes look at what goes on with exhibits from beginning to end, so I can learn more about the museum field.  I started in January and have had quite the fast-paced and interesting first two months as we prepared for and installed our new exhibit – Dr Pepper and Sports.  I had known a bit about museums, coming in as a first-year graduate student from Baylor’s Museum Studies program.  However, I was able to learn quite a bit through hands-on experience about the entire exhibit process …there is much more work that goes into creating an exhibit than one would originally think… 

I started out by researching; Joy (our Assistant Director) and I searched through the archives and found some amazing and interesting old material about Dr Pepper-sponsored teams and tournaments (from Waco, to Texas at-large, to teams in Canada and Norway!), and information about Dr Pepper and Sports throughout the years.  Some of the photos, information, and articles we found are available for visitors to take in when they come to see the exhibit.

The next step was to sort through the vast collection at the Dr Pepper Museum for things that would bring the topic of Dr Pepper’s involvement in sports to life. After sifting through the collections database, as well as the collection itself, we have pulled some fantastic objects to bring interest and variety to the displays – like posters, sports memorabilia, fan-related items, and commemorative items to name a few.  It was great to see how our research and all the objects have a relational association to one another, and what all we could incorporate into the space. (There are some pretty cool and surprising objects for you to check out when you see the exhibit!)

Ultimately, the most exciting part was installation, where it all gets put together! We began by removing the old exhibit, providing us with a blank slate to work with.  From there, we began to do a preliminary installation for each display case.  However, as this wrapped up, my internship hours for the week expired.  So the next step for me was to wait anxiously to see what the finished product looked like.  Gabe, Joy, Mary Beth, and Diane along with several part-timers and volunteers put in a lot of hard work and creativity to finish all the little (and big) projects that had to be completed in order to have the installation process come to a close.  When I arrived this week, I must say, I was very impressed.  The exhibit is amazing!

Ultimately, Dr Pepper and Sports explores local and nationwide sponsorships, advertising, celebrity involvement, pouring rights in stadiums, and promotions.  Using a wide variety of archival material and artifacts, the exhibit takes the visitor through Dr Pepper’s interaction with sports on the local to the national level, including college football. Also, visitors will be able to explore little-known aspects of Dr Pepper involvement, like the Army-Navy game, soccer, and golf.  The exhibit will come down in February of 2012, so come and check out the Dr Pepper and Sports exhibit today – it will definitely be worth the visit!