Internships Blog

Due to the fact that I am not from the area (or from Virginia at all) the history of Roanoke never interested me until I began to handle the artifacts that make up this local history. During the process of moving the museums’s collections and the following sorting, I handled hundreds of artifacts that have deepened my appreciation for the area. Seeing the plans for Hotel Roanoke, reading over events that were held during wartime, and holding the pictures of those who made Roanoke what it is has been a special experience, and one that makes me happier to live here.

The museum’s move has also shown me the importance of remaining flexible. In this line of work one cannot become entrenched in the task one completes. Throughout the day so many changes and surprises happen that in order to do a job well done, you must remain pliable and loose. On any average day any out of the ordinary task may be asked of you, and you must have the mindset to drop a certain task in order to complete this newer, potentially more important task.

New Collections Space

The History Museum’s collections’ space (where artifacts are stored) moved from Center in the Square to the Jefferson Center last week and the entire experience has taught me a lot about the stresses of  inventory management. When I would help pack certain items for the move, the amount of items in the museum’s possession that are not accessioned or labeled made the job of marking their packages very tricky. The movers responsible for this endeavor also severely underestimated the amount of time and effort it would take to move everything from the museum’s collections’ space in Center in the Square, potentially adding more financial stress to the move and definitely adding more schedule conflicts. Observing the museum at such a tumultuous and obviously stressful time is an interesting experience because it showed me that no matter how much planning one may try to put in place, outstanding obstacles and challenges will almost always present themselves. As one can see from the photograph above, moving the artifacts was also only one part of a multi-month long process of moving and organizing the museum’s collections. Managing all of what the museum owns seems like an unapproachable task, but noting the way processes are deconstructed and handled develop a greater sense of how to approach such monumental chores.

The Museum’s collections is being forced to switch locations. As a result, the last few weeks of work have consisted of soft packing pictures, carefully packing textiles, and hand-making boxes for specific artifacts. While this appears like it is less exciting work that falls more into manual labor, the repeated work has actually been very exciting. This is due to the fact that I have seen almost every artifact in the museum, and have been able to handle several swords, World War I and World War II era clothing, and local photographs that all captured my interest immensely.

This continues the theme that has been running through my head all summer. This work may not seem glamorous to learn about, describe to family members, or to write a blog post about; but when this work is being done, and the hands-on aspect of the work takes over, the history comes to life (even on a Monday). I have been able to handle rifles, jackets, swords, helmets, pants, and patches from the areas of war that interest me the most. In that moment there is a special connection between myself, and the man or woman who trained, fought, lived, loved, cried, and wrote home while wearing that very same jacket. I hold these artifacts with great care and respect for a man or woman whom I have never met. I hold these pieces of clothing and wonder what they may have seen. The horrors,good times, and adventures they have encountered before they were boxed up contain a life time of lessons that I get to encounter, look into, and take care of, before I pick up the next artifact, and take off on another adventure. That connection is what has made this Internship so fun, and so special.

Working at a smaller museum with so much in its possession is fun because there is always work to be done. Many of the museum’s records have not been updated in years, so much of my and my fellow intern’s time will be spent working with the museum’s accession software this summer. At times it seems like there is so much work to do, but not enough people to do everything. Ashley, the museum’s curator and our supervisor, has often mentioned the limitations of a smaller budget and staff. This experience expands upon a high school volunteer job I had with the Melrose Branch Library in Roanoke City which also had its limitations regarding support. The diligence of the passionate staff in both experiences made an impression on me as I observed the way they cared about their positions greatly despite any struggles with financial limitations. These positions have taught me valuable lessons in learning to work with what is given and thinking creatively. Experiences like these inspire me to work with a sense of purpose and pride in serving the public.

My first week working in the museum I spent unpacking and condition reporting a shipment of Lewis Hine’s photographs. I then moved into working in the program Past Perfect. These two activities provided early interest in the material, and an early interest in museum work. The hands-on nature of the work I have been doing is what I have always wanted from a job rooted in history.

Seeing the Hine exhibit transform from pictures in a box to a true museum exhibit was a very rewarding experience, as I was able to see the results of my work first hand. Being able to see the reactions of the museum visitors to the photographs I helped process, hang, and make available was also a very positive and rewarding experience. This work has been very fun, and I am very excited to continue my internship and look in to a career in the field.

Hanging Pictures for an Exhibit

With a fellow Roanoke College intern, the O. Winston Link/Historical Society of Western Virginia has offered hands-on experience with both photographic and historical sources. The Curator of Collections and Exhibitions, Ashley Webb, worked with us on setting up an exhibitions of photographs by Lewis Hine which was set to debut on Friday of my first week (my first day was 06/12). I attended the exhibit and felt a sense of pride in the parts I helped with such as lighting, hanging, and making labels for pieces. A lot more mathematics and planning goes into hanging photographs than one would assume.

Collections

The second photograph is from our Collections room in Center of the Square in downtown Roanoke. With the museum being moved out of the space, my fellow intern and I will at some point be dealing with many artifacts in this storage space. We spent much of this week soft packing framed photographs and even packaging artifacts like clothing. Ms. Webb has already informed us that we will be working with military uniforms and other textiles throughout the summer for the move. This week I also handled negatives from O. Winston Link and worked with the electronic catalog system. I very much look forward to this internship and all the skills and practices I will be familiarized with and exposed to.

Well I must admit that it has been a sort of bittersweet or and I climactic last week for my internship. I only say this because with the hours and hours of work that Alex and I have put in to this World War I exhibit of the last month is a little disappointing to know that I’m not can it actually get to see the exhibit and all of its glory we managed to start groundwork with putting the of the exhibits this week I did everything from stuffing some fake sandbags to taking in the materials that will be on display, and even putting up posters around Salem help with the promotion side of things.

(Week 4) So today Alex Burke and I went to go visit a gentleman who has been involved with the acquisition and collection of military artifacts and specifically in this instance a wide variety of artifacts from World War I. This was a great treat for me because I’ve always been a big fan of military history and I’m also a bit of a firearms enthusiast so it was really cool getting to work with his collection and inventory it for the museum in preparation for our World War I.

This week is been a lot more pleasant been able to get a break from doing the transcriptions for the Whitescarver family. What I have been doing as of this week has been not only working on research in order to for ride foundation for the World War I exhibit which Alex Burke putting together. I have to say that this was a job that was really pretty enjoyable because I got to research a lot of the units in the American expeditionary force that drew from this region of the country through volunteers and draftees.

Again this week I primarily been working on transcriptions of the Whitescarver documents which has been more than a little bit monotonous. However I must admit, this week I was rewarded for my efforts when the Whitescarver family came in to see the product of the transcriptions and I was able to relate with them about what I’d learned from the World War I correspondence that they have so generously donated to the museum.