Miniature Marvels

Camille Johnson's 21st birthday did not go exactly as planned.

Sitting at her birthday lunch with her family on March 11, 2020, she received an email about Trinity's COVID-19 response and campus shutting down. Johnson '21 had to quickly pack up all of her belongings and finish the remainder of the spring semester of her junior year online back home in Portland, Oregon.

Johnson was the first student researcher to join Trinity's Roots Commission in January 2020. According to Johnson, the Roots Commission had to pivot from its original plans to visit Trinity's first campus in Tehuacana and conduct interviews in person there because of the pandemic. Instead, Johnson and her fellow researchers started looking into online records and digital resources to piece together the important players in Trinity's history.

"I had just learned about how to do this kind of work in Dr. Lauren Turek's public history class the semester before, so it was really cool to look into financial records, for example, to see where the money for Trinity was coming from and put together an online exhibit about those people," Johnson says.

Many students take their time choosing their major, but Johnson knew that she wanted to major in anthropology before she even arrived at Trinity.

"I remember I wrote about discovering my love of anthropology in my college essay," Johnson recalls. "From a young age, I was obsessed with ancient Egypt and watched all sorts of documentaries, so I knew coming in that's what I wanted to do. Dr. [Jennifer] Mathews was the one who made me wait a semester before declaring just to be sure."

While Johnson was set on her major, she did change her mind on what she was going to minor in. As she was learning more about archaeology, she leaned into geosciences to complement her major. In Summer 2019, she studied abroad and did archaeological fieldwork in Belize. The more African American studies and history classes she took, however, the more she began to realize where her interests really lie.

"I still have such a passion for archaeology and the science side of it, but I knew I really wanted to end up at a museum no matter what kind of path I took. My passion for African American studies and African American history really led me down the more historical research path," Johnson explains.

Johnson ended up triple minoring in African American studies, history, and museum studies. Following her graduation from Trinity, Johnson received her master's degree in museum studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program.

"I won't lie. Trinity was hard. I did well, but it was difficult," Johnson admits. "Grad school was honestly way less difficult because Trinity challenged me and prepared me. Trinity really encourages research, critical thinking, and coming to your own conclusions, so I think that helped me in grad school, which is by default much more open-ended in a lot of ways."

Johnson has worked as the assistant curator for the National Museum of Toys and Miniatures in Kansas City, Missouri, since September 2023. The museum's miniatures are more like fine art pieces that were designed for collection and display, while the museum's toys were built for play. According to Johnson, the museum is not usually interested in unopened, first-edition toys. Instead of a first-edition Barbie that is still sealed in the box, for example, the museum would rather have a first-edition Barbie that was opened and played with, even if that means that Barbie is not in the best condition.

"We look for toys that have unique stories or provenance attached to them," Johnson says. "I love to tell stories, so getting to present these narratives to the public has been very fun."

In her role at the museum, Johnson has been able to channel her passion for African American studies and history.

"We're getting ready for an exhibition that's opening in the summer about Black dolls, which I'm very excited about," Johnson says. "Essentially, my role here is to help push our diversity initiatives forward. I'm helping rewrite some labels for our permanent exhibitions to reflect that, and I'm having an amazing time doing all of this and having my hands in a lot of different areas of the museum."

Johnson has been encouraged to see more museums embrace difficult histories and take a less neutral approach to important, controversial issues as they invite visitors to take on a more active role in their museum-going experience.

"The stereotype about museums is we're up in our ivory towers just imparting information upon the masses as these superior keepers of knowledge, but increasingly museums really want people to come and formulate their own knowledge through facts that we present and questions we raise," Johnson says.

Johnson returned to campus this spring for the first time since graduating to attend "Rooting Trinity University's History: Past, Present & Future," a series of panels and discussions marking the achievements of the Roots Commission.

"At first, it felt weird talking with my professors as more of a peer rather than a student, but it was nice," Johnson says. "It was really cool to see that the work has been continuing and learn that they've been able to find more information and make more connections, and it was touching to hear how engaging in this careful work of historical inquiry is honoring Dr. Carey Latimore's legacy."

Johnson remembers how she spent so many hours talking with Latimore in his office before class, and she believes personal connections like that are what make the Trinity experience so special and meaningful.

"All of the professors I had were impactful in some way. I feel like without any of them, I probably wouldn't be doing exactly what I am now," Johnson reflects. "The advice I give everyone is find a professor that you really enjoy and latch onto them because that kind of guidance is unparalleled."

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