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.)
