kjwest

Today was my last day at the History Museum/Historical Society of Western Virginia at O. Winston Link Museum in Roanoke, VA. This internship has taught me a lot about the various activities that a curator can be called upon to keep a museum up and going. My duties ranged from accessioning new items to organizing items we had had for decades. I helped with the move of the items within Collections from the storage at Center in the Square to the O. Winston Link Museum. I made shelf lists to mark where items were being placed. I have learned a great deal since I have started this internship in January. I have learned how to properly store different materials and why certain materials are better for archival purposes than others.

Today I was working on a new accession for the museum. We have received several photos and sheets of film from an anonymous donor that needed to be added to our files. The image above is of a archival folder and another archival folder that has been cut down to a smaller size that will fit into a small archival box. This smaller folder is to hold individual pieces of film.

 

It’s been a while since I have made a post. I’ve been busy helping my supervisor with various tasks involved in moving the Collections storage for the Historical Society Museum of Western VA. The two pictures involved in this post are of some film for photos that I found while sorting photos. The task I had been given was to help empty several file cabinets full of photos that had all been sorted categorically. It is more helpful for the photos to be sorted by their accession numbers, so the move has opened the opportunity to properly sort many of our items.

 The picture to the left shows 3 archival boxes full of photos and multiple stacks of photos with no accession number, meaning that we will have to go through at a later date and find each photo’s individual number.  The photos at the top are of photographic film in mylar plastic envelopes that have been labeled with archival ink on top of acryloid. Each photograph or piece of film needs to be put in its own mylar, placed in a labeled archival folder, and put into the box that corresponds with the year of the accession record.

In the past three weeks I have been busy taking care of various tasks, most of which I forgot to photograph to illustrate this blog.  The picture above is of a case in which there are 3 record books that contain financial information and are currently a part of our banking exhibit that opened on the 3rd of February.  This exhibit also contains the banks that I was working on in previous weeks.

Last week I was working exclusively in Collections with artifacts.  I spent all of Tuesday and Thursday matching information to object, packing, and adding information to a spreadsheet.

Today, I worked on organizing large maps and blueprints that we have on loan in order for them to be returned to their owner(s). They had to be handled very gently and organized in a specific order.  It was interesting to skim over maps regarding hospital, residential, and businesses.  I have also been given my main project for this internship, which will be to look through our FIC (Found In Collection) items and matching them to items within our records.

 

I have just finished my second week as Intern at the Historical Society of Western Virginia.  We are currently in the midst of establishing some new exhibits so I have had a lot of hands-on work these first two weeks.  The first couple of times I came in to work we were adding volume to mannequins with padding for a clothing/textile exhibit, a picture of one of said mannequins can be viewed to the left.  This exhibit shows various forms of textiles from the 1930s, including clothes and quilts.  I also assisted my supervisor in the installation and hanging process of the quilts required for this particular exhibit, which was very fun and helpful.

 

 

This past week I have been working on a different exhibit.  We will be opening a loan exhibit of antique cast iron banks in early February and I have spent the past week creating an inventory of the banks that encompasses the information given by the owners and shows just how many we have.  The banks are in such a wide variety of figures, animals, buildings, etc.  They need to be handled very delicately and require gloves.  I have loved working on this because it is very detail oriented.  The image to the right is of two banks I have inventoried; one in the shape of a cute little Scottie dog, and the other of a cat on a wash tub.

This is my last week at VMT and I absolutely have loved the experience.  Everyone has been so welcoming and happy to teach me about the museum.  This semester I have learned so much including the ins and outs of PastPerfect, accessioning processes, and helping with events. My supervisor has been absolutely amazing and she has helped me so much in learning about the down to earth everyday workings of a museum.  The picture above is from the Christmas event and has all the employees and volunteers working that day.  I know now after having done this internship that I definitely would want to continue to pursue a career in museum work with collections and archives.