Blog #2
6/24/22
This past week as been so insane at the museum but incredibly fun at the same time. At the beginning of the week, I worked on updating the sports exhibit, I researched all the sports teams in the Salem area and wrote about any state or national wins they have received. What stood out to me was Glenvar high school, if you ever have free time, I recommend looking at their teams as they have been winning many championships over the past few years. Salem high school also has an incredible forensics team who just broke the VHSL record or most consecutive wins. This year was their 16th year they have won the forensics championship, dominating their competition. The rest of the week I have been learning how to archive items and artifacts we are given and adding them to our database. I learned the layout of the archive room and walked through to learn the routine. There is a very specific way that historians go about archiving in museums. An item is first given an ID number that is specifically geared towards them, it starts with the year it is being archived. Then it is numbered based off how many items have been received in the year, I began at 423 as the item was the 423rd item that has been archived into the system this year. The final number I based on how many are in the collection, if it is only one item the number is 001. If there are three items with in one collection you go from 001-003. I have spent the past few days helping clean up the archival room and finally add all the items collected into the archival database so they can be properly used. The last thing I did this week was create an exhibit in the main hallway. We decided to do something different, and we create a case that showcased women’s fashion accessories through the years. We filled it with disco shoes from the 70s, old jewelry, fashion fans from the 1890s, hair snoods from the 1910s, hats from the 1920s, as well as an old Salem class ring from 1910. It has been so fascinating diving into different historical topics as well as being able to learn the little things you do not think of when you go to a museum. So much more work is done behind the scenes than anyone could imagine!
