nmma

For my last few weeks working at the Salem Museum, I mainly worked on a smaller exhibit that would go on the stairs. I decided to research a flood that hit Salem in 1985. I had no prior knowledge about this event going into it, so getting started was a challenge. However, once I got going it became much easier. Another challenge was designing the exhibit. It was a very limited space. Fitting everything, I wanted into that space proved to be difficult. After a while, I settled on a design I was happy with.

Overall, this internship was very enriching. I got to try out many different aspects of museum work. The museum staff were very informative and understanding. It also gave me a good idea of what I want to do if I ever go into museum work, and what I would do differently.

Spent most of my time this week working on accessioning a large collection of things from the early 1900s. The collection included about 70 letters that I had to sort through individually, which took a lot of time. It was satisfying to complete the whole thing after working at it for so long. I also worked on re-organizing some of the archives in the back. It was a huge undertaking, and not something I could accomplish completely in a few days. So, I decided to do what I could, and leave the rest to the next intern.

                Some of the staff was out this week, so I had to do stuff I usually did not have to. One of those things was setting up the meeting room for rentals. I also spent some time greeting guests at the front of the museum, which I was not a huge fan of, but it needed to get done. Overall a more laid-back week than previous. Preparing for the last part of the internship and working on a bigger exhibit of my own.

I worked through my 4th week at the Salem Museum. The picture is of a side project I worked on last week. It is a small exhibit in the lobby, dealing with baseball I worked on all the aspects of the exhibit, from the research to the setup to the writing. Of course, I was given some pointers from the staff, and I believe it is a much better final product because of it.

The whole thing had to fit into a small glass case, which made it a challenge to fit everything in. Minor league baseball was a subject I knew absolutely nothing about, so it was interesting to look into it. Luckily, I had the museums extensive archives to help research and construct the exhibit.

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Started my third week at the Salem Museum. I spent most of my time this past week in the library / archive section of the museum, conducting research for a new exhibit. I am looking into 14 prominent citizens of Salem throughout the ages, that provide an insight into the town at the time. It begins at the founding of Salem, and continues up to the modern day. It is a large task, but I am chipping away at it. It has been interesting to go through the archives to find information on these people. Some eras are a lot easier to find information on than others. Everything is well organized, but there are clear gaps in the archives. It was a slow process at first, but I have found it easier as the week has gone on. Next week I will be taking a break from this to work on a smaller exhibit in the lobby.

The first picture is of me standing among the archive shelves. All of the pieces are shoved into the back, so it is significantly less empty than it appears in the pictures. The second picture is of my notes at an early stage.

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Happy to be back in the Salem Museum to finally start this internship in earnest. The past week I worked with the staff to get acquainted with the museum and its innerworkings. So far, I have learned about the curatorial and archival aspects of the museum, which is exactly what I wanted to do. I helped re-organize the civil war exhibit, set up artifacts for a school field trip, and done a lot of accessioning. I have enjoyed going through newly donated material and examining / filing them. I can understand how some might find that type of work soul-crushing, but I have no problem with it so far. Next week, we start work on a new exhibit about Salem through the ages, focusing on one person from each era. It will be more research-heavy than what I have been doing so far, so I am exited to learn about what goes into that.

First picture is of me holding an authentic musket in the archive. We were bringing stuff out to show the kids on a field trip the next day. Luckily, I was not working when the kids showed up. Second picture is of a “key” and “sounder” for a telegraph that was recently donated, along with a half filled-out accession form.