As mentioned in the last post, I have more on Past Perfect, the archives, and research for the feature exhibit I worked on in the Salem Museum. Work began in earnest for me on the feature exhibit in which I learned a great deal about what goes into making an exhibit because you can’t just throw something in a case and call it good. The first step of the process for me was to properly learn how to use the archives in the museum. I got on a computer and used past perfect to look for anything and everything we had relating to the forestry department and the fire department. I eventually produced a few really interesting things such as a bunch of sculptures of woodland critters made by Grace Smyth. Grace Smyth was a member of the forestry department and an artist who set up a museum in her house in Salem designed to teach children about anything from Native American life to the forestry department. I also found out that her sculptures were donated by my grandparents who knew her personally. The next step in the process was making pictures and signs. I had no idea what went into just sign making at museums, but once you get it down its actually pretty quick and painless. The fire department gave us all sorts of old pictures and photo albums for the exhibit. I was in charge of taking the pictures and scanning them into the computer so we could have them printed in high resolution and the correct size. While scanning is pretty dull, what came next was a lot more entertaining. Once the pictures were printed and scanned, they were glued onto a poster board and cut out using exacto knives and a whole lot of patience. What I later found out is that there is a list of all the people who interned at the Salem museum that is ranked in order of worst to best that ranks us in our ability to cut pictures out of poster board. I can only hope I am ahead of the curve in this.