Tim Shay

In the last of my visits to the Salem Museum, I finally finished my small exhibit.  As I explained in my previous post, I had already done much of the research for the signage of the exhibit and had thoroughly dug through the museum’s archives to find any objects that were relevant.  All that had remained was to type up the information I had collected and position the objects I had found to shape my exhibit.  These two tasks were not as easy as they sound!

With an exhibit as small as mine, there is a delicate balance between the different mediums that information can be presented.  There is less freedom of choice when your only space is a small table and two walls to hang things on, as opposed to filling an entire room.  Surprisingly, I had gathered quite a lot of information that I felt was both important and interesting enough to be included in my exhibit.  I knew beforehand that I wanted one longer sign that gave a majority of the context and narrative of Lake Spring Hotel/Park, with some small ones spread throughout with other tidbits.  When I began typing up the main sign, it became clear that I had too much stuff to say.  I was over a page before I had gotten halfway through the story of the Hotel.  Something that was impressed upon me throughout my tenure as an intern was that even if we have a sharp and distinctly historical interest in the subject, the museum ultimately has to cater to the visitors.  Most of the museum’s patrons would not be interested enough to stand there and read more than a page of information, especially for such a tiny exhibit.  So, I had to cut my main sign down quite a lot; even more so when Fran, the director, did some edits! However, I was very satisfied with the outcome.

With m signs squared away, I then had to arrange the objects I had selected.  At first I was concerned, for most of what I had were either pictures or items that needed to be hung- I had very few actual “items.”  The presentation of the visual information is just as important as the written information.  To be a successful exhibit, the narrative cannot be derived fully from one and not the other. My signs would convey the story of the property, and my pictures would definitely provide visual context- it would be easy for any Salemite to see the stark differences from the contemporary landscape to the modern.  As for my items, I merely had some wooden souvenirs and two old spoons from the Hotel.  How was I to incorporate those in any meaningful way? The answer hit me when I walked past the welcome desk and saw a magnifying glass sticking out of a office supply storage cup.  An exhibit that is visually and intellectually engaging is one thing, but one that is those things plus interactive is much more.  I arranged my small items and left the magnifying glass there with them and I wrote up a sign telling the onlooker to use the glass to view the intricate details of the man-made objects.  Both of my supervisors loved it!

The process of putting together my exhibit was not as exactly cut-and-dry as I have laid it out above.  Working with the objects gave me ideas for the signs, and vice versa, so at times I would be going back and forth from the table to my laptop.  All in all, though, I feel like everything came together really well!  I employed many of the skills of researching and visual display that Alex taught me, like creating a dynamic of varying heights, for example.  I’m proud of the way my exhibit turned out, and of all that I learned about Salem and the museum process in general.  I am genuinely sad to be finishing this experience, but I am also sure that I’ll be back to the Salem Museum.

 

Finally, here are some pictures of my exhibit:

Here is what my exhibit looks like as a whole.

Close up of the table portion.

The left wall, which features two invitations to balls that were hosted at the Hotel, dating back to the late 1800s.

This is one of the most interesting pieces.  Its a poster (somewhat in pieces) advertising the Hotel that has been sealed over top of a beautiful piece of wood.

This is my main sign, you can read it if you wish!

The interactive portion of the exhibit.

And finally, my supervisor, Alex, and I on my last day.

Well, it’s been awhile…again.

 

Since my last post, I have done so much during my internship with the Salem Museum.   A rather large difference between my internship experience as opposed to the other summer interns that I have picked up on is that, while my peers seem to have specific assignments or tasks, my experience has been very sporadic.  My supervisors did not bring me on with any particular projects in mind.  That being the case, my work over the past summer has been reflective of that.  On any given day, I could come in and work on accessioning new items, or writing up a paragraph on a display, or setting up for an event, and so on.  I have done all of these things and more in the past weeks.  Since it’s been awhile, I’ll give examples of some highlights.

One day, the Salem Museum received a cylindrical display case from the Salem Library (a picture of this will be at the end).  Once we had gotten it inside, my supervisor immediately wanted it put to use.  He was planning on putting up a small exhibit to coincide with the 60th reunion of the George Washington Carver School’s class of 1957.  The Carver School was once a local school for African Americans of Salem and the Roanoke Valley, and even beyond.  Now, the building is Carver Elementary School.  My supervisor tasked me with gathering the items to put on display and doing the small write up for it.  I used our archival database, PastPerfect, to find any related items in the collection.  Alex choose what to use out of what I had found.  Then, using some of the resources in the research library on the third floor of the building, I wrote a short paragraph explaining the history and significance of the School.  That display, essentially all my own, went up for several weeks!

Another project I helped with recently is the new Roanoke College exhibit for our 175th anniversary, to be opened in the main gallery in a few weeks.  Something that my supervisor was concerned about was having a lot of information for this exhibit, but not many objects to put up.  He had me scour our archives, looking for every Roanoke College related item I could find.  I searched through both our item and photo collections, compiling an ever growing list as I went.  As it turns out, the Salem Museum had a multitude of Roanoke College items.  We had anything from a former president’s top hat to old copies of the Brackety Ack to a panoramic photo of an entire class! (I will be uploading some pictures of a few of these items at the end).  This was honestly one of my favorite experiences of the summer.  Not only did I get to quietly rummage through our archives, I also got to see, touch, and learn about our wonderful college’s history.

While my internship has not necessarily been structured around one project or task, there has been some instances of continuity.  For example, I have done multiple small, sporadic research ventures for various things like those I have detailed above.  I did something similar for an antique grandfather clock that was donated to the museum, as well as with an inquiry into the old West Salem Auto Body Shop.  I really enjoy these mini projects, for they allow me to independently research and navigate our archive collection.

Currently, I am working on my own exhibit as my final project.  This will focus on Lake Spring Park, more commonly referred to as the duck pond, and its predecessor, Lake Spring Hotel.  I have already compiled notes, again, using the research library’s resources, and created a list of all of our artifacts that I can use to furnish the exhibit.  Now, all that is left is to create a write up and design the exhibit!

 

(This last picture is of some Roanoke College students at the top of Macafees Knob, just like some students do today!)

In the many weeks that I have regrettably and unintentionally neglected this blog, much has been going on at the Salem Museum.  The last time I updated the blog, I had started learning how to fill out accession forms for donated objects so that they can be logged into our online database and find a home in our archive.  My supervisor, Alex Burke, tasked me with filling out accession forms for a donation of a handful of objects and, once that was completed, to go through and take some brief notes on another pile of donated objects to help determine what the museum may want to keep.  Well, as it turns out, that task did not get completed until today, nearly three weeks later.  My supervisor, the assistant director, went on vacation for a week, during which the head director, Frances Ferguson, had me begin on my first major project.

I came in one day a few weeks ago while Alex was on vacation, and after some small talk, Fran told me of an idea she had had.  The main entrance to the museum is a short hallway which opens up to the foyer, which includes the reception desk and the gift shop.  On the left side of the hallway stands a table with some pamphlets and flyers.  On the right sits an old bench that is technically a part of the collection, but we still put it to good use.  Also, hanging on the wall are three paintings. I’ve walked through that hallway countless times by now, but I cannot begin to describe those paintings because I don’t think I’ve actually paid enough attention to them to notice.  Fran recognizes that this is the experience of most of the visitors to the museum, so she wanted to make better use of the space.  Her idea is to create a general timeline of Salem’s past to provide a context to the information that the museum expresses.  This is a great idea, not only because it would be a better use of the space, but also because there really isn’t anywhere in the museum that gives background information of Salem; each exhibit dives into a specific aspect of Salem’s past, but nowhere do you quite get the full story.  Once we had agreed that it was a great idea, (not that it truly mattered what I thought, she is the director after all), I began immediately doing research.  My main source was a comprehensive history of Salem written by two former directors, John Long and Mary Crocket-Hill, (Long also used to be a professor of military history at Roanoke College), which the museum sells at its gift shop.  I skimmed through all 200 some pages, picking out dates of importance.  While there was some discretion on my part, I tried to include as much information as possible so that Fran and Alex could make the definitive decisions.  Essentially, the entire week that Alex was gone consisted of me compiling that data, and then trying to put that data in chronological order.  During this time I had the idea to include population numbers throughout the years to see Salem’s demographic growth  as well.  After about a week, I had everything compiled and put in chronological order and was ready to present my research to them; however that did not come to fruition. One Saturday I was sitting at the reception desk while helping out with an event the museum puts on called “Civil War Saturdays.”  I was working on the final touches of my research notes for the timeline when I happened to glance down and see a binder labelled “Timeline of Salem.”  I picked it up and started to leaf through it, and to my dismay I immediately found information that was not in my notes.  It took me another few days, but I finally gathered everything I could find into one document and presented it to my superiors.  I’m not sure when this timeline will be finalized and brought into existence, but I’m glad to have been a part of the project!

As one would expect, I learned quite a lot while working on the timeline.  Even as someone who has lived in Roanoke and had relatives in Salem for my entire life, I quickly realized that I knew almost nothing about the area’s past.  Salem has a very rich history, going back all the way to its founding in 1802!  One day in the past weeks I was on a run around Salem for Cross Country summer training.  As I was running, I was passing some of the very places that I had learned about in my research.  For example, Lake Spring Park, better known as “The Duck Pond,” is named so because in the late 1800s, a hotel resort by the same name stood in the same spot.  A fire caused it to close down, and a little later the property was bought by the city and turned into Salem’s first public park, which it remains to this day.  I ran past the duck pond that day, reflecting on my experiences there; my parents had taken me there countless times as a kid.  While the park had been a part of my own past, I did not know about its past until very recently.  This made me think of all of the other places I had learned about, like the history of our own Elizabeth campus, and how there must be many more people like me who have lived here for many years but did not know about our area’s past.  This led to an idea: what if the Salem Museum partnered with the City of Salem to erect signs at some of these places with a brief description of their respective histories?  I pitched the idea to Fran, and then to Alex when he returned from the beach, and both really enjoy it!  The museum does have a lot of things going on at the moment, so I don’t know when or even if my idea will progress into a reality, but I am working on researching and gathering resources for it!

The time that I’ve spent at the museum since my last post has been a whirlwind.  I have been assigned and complete my first major project. I have learned every step of the process of bringing in new objects to the museum’s collection, from the initial donation to preserving it in the archive, to logging it into our online database.  I have learned how to take down an exhibit and put up a new one in its place.  I’ve also done some more mundane tasks like helping with event set up and manning the reception desk, but such is the life of an intern.  I’ve become very personally invested in the museum and am very excited for the rest of my time there.

(Photos included are: picture of the main source for my timeline research plus my notes, an old framed photo and knife that I accessioned, and two views of the exhibit I helped set up)

My first two weeks interning at the Salem Museum can only be categorized as extremely educational.  I have been learning both about the Salem Museum as a whole and about the history of Sunny Salem.  This has been fun for me personally because despite the fact that I have lived in this area my entire life, I have found in these past two weeks that there is much that I did not know about my hometown.  For example, I had not the slightest clue that for a long time Salem was a hub for soda manufacturing companies until I saw an old soda pitcher sitting out in an exhibit and asked about it.  One of the reasons I cited in the process of choosing the Salem Museum for my summer internship was that it would be a great experience to learn about my community, and that is already happening!

So far, my duties have been hinted at, but not prescribed.  My supervisor is the assistant director, Alex Burke. He happens to be a recent Roanoke College alumnus of the History department and also has lived in the Roanoke area for many years, so we have gotten along greatly thus far.  The first task he gave me was to familiarize myself with the museum.  It took me six hours over the span of two days to go through each exhibit while also taking extensive notes.  I tend to have a critical eye, so I wrote down many comments that I believe will help with the overall presentation of each exhibit.  It also helped that I just recently returned from my May Term to Greece with Dr. Hawke, where we spent countless hours observing the many national museums dedicated to the ancient past.  I came back with an appreciation of what a well done (and well funded) museum looked like, so I am trying to apply that experience to my internship.  Currently, the Salem Museum has exhibits about anything from historic houses in Salem, to the now-demolished Lakeside Amusement Park, to Salem’s role in the Civil War.

After I took in all of the Salem Museum’s public areas, Alex showed me the inner sanctums of the museum.  Unfortunately, not all of the museum is cool and history related- there are in fact supply storage rooms and electrical closets that have nothing to do with the history of Salem.  However, MOST of the building is about cool history, (the top part of the museum is actually one of the oldest homes built in Salem).  He showed me the archival rooms, exhibit workshop, and research library.  Thankfully I did not have to climb into the crawl space in the attic, but I was warned that that could possibly be in my future.  Out of everything, my favorite area by far was the archives.  Learning about history through lectures or textbooks is really great and interesting, but there is something more magical about holding an object of history in your hand.

Other than being shown around, I have not been given any long term projects or tasks.  When I have gone in, I have essentially just followed Alex around, helping him set up a new exhibit for the 25th anniversary of the museum. This has included preparing display cases, creating exhibit signs, helping hang pictures on walls, and looking through the archive for exhibit-specific objects.  Last time they even had me drive out to the confederate solider memorial a few minutes up the road to take pictures so that they would have updated photos for the upcoming exhibit.  I believe that soon I will be given more direct tasks.  Alex has mentioned teaching my how to generate accession numbers and how to catalog items.  He’s also hinted at me organizing the archive room, which will be an exciting yet incredibly long process.

I have really enjoyed my time interning at the Salem Museum these last two weeks and I am looking forward to what I will be doing here in the future!

(Attached is a photo of me cutting out a sign for the new exhibit and the picture I took of the civil war memorial.)