The title for today did not mislead. I did, in fact, do half of a job! That job, of course, is photo scanning!
Unfortunately, the catalog software was bugging out for most of the day, so I couldn’t make archive files for my photographs like I normally would before I scanned them. But, the scanner was definitely still working! So, to compensate, I scanned all the photographs to put in the files that I still need to make tomorrow. Surprisingly, I overestimated my photo count last week! I believe I said 75 photos, but the total actually comes in at a very low 63!
I managed to troubleshoot the catalog software in the late afternoon, so I ended up getting files made and completed for 12 photographs (in an hour, might I add, I’m very proud of my efficiency), putting my total now up to 21 of 63! Exactly one-third! It turns out that making a file goes a lot faster when you have the photo already scanned and ready to go. Tomorrow, since I don’t have Welcome Desk Wednesday, I should be able to get through a good chunk of the rest of the photos. My goal is to have them finished by the end of the week, so we’ll see how that turns out!
I got a ton of photograph files made this morning! 25 to be exact, putting my new photo scan total at 46 of 63! I’ll most likely finish the files by tomorrow, if everything goes according to plan! However, I won’t be done just yet because of one oversight. When I was making the finding guide, I had forgotten that the curator had set aside a scrapbook that was in the collection to put away later in a separate home. So, I totally forgot it was part of the collection! Luckily, I realized my mistake today and informed the curator, so I’ll be able to get that fixed once I finish making files for the photographs.
In the afternoon, I had Welcome Desk Wednesday! I thought that last week would have been my last, but the museum still needs people to sit up front due to lack of volunteers over the summer. So, Welcome Desk Wednesday is happening until the end of my internship! It was pretty gloomy out today, which in my opinion is perfect museum weather. Unfortunately, the public didn’t seem to agree since it was pretty quiet today. But that’s ok! There’s always Friday!
Today was a super productive day and one that was a little bittersweet. Today, I finished making files for all the photographs–63 of 63! I also corrected my mistake and added the scrapbook to the collection records and gave it a home in the object archives. But with that now done, aside from giving the collection a home (which will take a while, because we don’t have enough shelves), I have done everything that I possibly can to catalog the LaMetta Wynn papers.
This was a huge project, and I’m really glad I got to see it through to the end! It wasn’t the easiest, and it certainly wasn’t always simple, but I’m really proud to have done a project on this scale. I have some mixed feelings about being done. Part of me is really happy because I can move on to another project and learn even more about something I probably had no idea existed. But another part of me is a little sad. It sounds a bit silly, but when you spend a lot of time learning about a person, even if you’ve never met them in your entire life, you form a connection with that person. You see a lot of parts of people’s lives when you work in archives and collections, and it’s a little surreal to remember that all those people were people, not just names on a piece of paper or a face in a picture.
But now that I’m finished with a big project, and with such little time left in my internship, I probably won’t get a chance to finish something like this again before I leave. In the late afternoon today, I mainly worked on small projects like scanning small photo collections and got started cleaning the iron we got in again. I’ll probably be bouncing from task to task, but I’m not entirely sure. I suppose we’ll find out tomorrow!
Today was a pretty full day! I started out by finishing cleaning the ironing board base we got in, and it looks so much better! I forgot to take a picture of it, but the difference is really stunning! The only other part of the base that I had to clean that I haven’t talked about yet was the bottom shelf board, which went under the iron board itself. It was most definitely worse for wear, and I nearly had a heart attack when I saw some old empty spider eggs, but I took care of it as best I could! (I’ve rehomed the empty eggs in the vacuum, but I checked that they were empty first, for the arachnid lovers).
Also in the morning, the curator and us interns had to transport a cornerstone out into the lobby for an event happening this weekend at the museum. (Unfortunately, I believe it’s Freemasons only). But man, was it HEAVY! I suppose I should have expected that since it was a three-person job, but I now have a very deep respect for people who built walls and buildings out of stone.
Finally, of course, it was Front Desk Friday! Today was fairly slow, which was a little disappointing, but I had an impromptu meeting with a member of the Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce. That was most definitely not on my list of experiences I would have during this internship, but I’m still glad I had it. He was really knowledgeable about Cedar Rapids history, especially the history of the neighborhood the museum is in: New Bohemia (Or Newbo if you want to sound local).
I saw this bird wandering around our yard!