I can’t believe that it’s already my second-to-last week. It feels like yesterday that I was arriving at the museum on my first day. I feel like my skills have grown tremendously between then and now! I know so much more about how museum collections work than I did when I started. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg! Between digitizing files, conservation work, front desk and store management, cataloging, and scanning, I’ve done so much more than I ever thought I would during my time here. I’m incredibly grateful that I have this opportunity and I really think that being an archivist or a collections registrar is something I want to spend my life doing.
Today, though, I went back to my roots, doing what I did when I first started: small collections work. The collection I’m working on now consists almost entirely of photos, and it can all fit into one folder. Talk about compactness! Most of the photos I’m finding revolve around hairdressing and Black hairstyles, which is a topic that I find super interesting! I haven’t really gotten the chance to look deeper into it, (mainly because I feel a little embarrassed asking these questions as a white guy) so this is a very welcome opportunity.
Then, in the afternoon, I started to cut out the foam that I helped unpack a few weeks ago! Right now, I’m cutting off the corners to make the foam into a circle, and then I’m packing them into the garden beds we made. The trickiest part, though, is that I also have to cut holes in the top two layers, so kids can “plant” plastic fruits and vegetables. When I wasn’t struggling with the scissors, I spent the rest of my time struggling to keep the foam still. But even with those challenges, I got one garden bed done! Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to finish up the other one.
Today was more laid-back than I thought it would be. I couldn’t use the computers to continue logging the small collection that I’m working on, so instead, I finished the foam pieces for the garden bed! I’m really proud of how they look, especially since I have never worked with the fluffier kind of foam before. The rest of the morning was mostly spent getting books down to the cart in the store, and incorporating some file folders into a cabinet.
Then, of course, it was Welcome Desk Wednesday! I had a feeling that today would be slow, but it somehow exceeded my expectations. Only five people came into the museum. Two of them had a question about collections, and three people came in to see the museum. I suppose with it being August, people are getting into the back-to-school season. It was a little disappointing, but I brought a book to read in case things got slow. Looking back, I’m really glad I brought it.
Today was fairly uneventful. I finished scanning my small collection in the morning, and rehomed some files in the morning. But then, I was reminded by the curator that the Wynn Papers had not one, but four separate scrapbooks. I had only cataloged the fourth one! So, most of the morning and mid-afternoon was spent getting all of the files and photos out of the binding, which was very much worse for wear, and putting them in a folder and then in a box. Luckily, a box had some extra room, so I didn’t have to make a new one, which I’m very happy about.
In the late afternoon, I worked on the play garden beds some more! I’m onto the final step, which is covering the holes that I cut in cloth and gluing it down. I managed to get one bed totally done, but the second bed had some problems. Namely, the marker that I had used to outline the holes showed through the light fabric we were going to use! So, at the curator’s suggestion, I tore off the edges of each hole that had markers on them, which also made them look a tad more realistic (Have you ever seen a hole that’s perfectly 90 degrees?). I’m super excited with how well the garden beds are coming together! It took a bit of trusting the process, but I think the one I got done looks pretty good! We’ll see about finishing the second one tomorrow.
Today was super busy! To start the day, the curator of the museum took us interns on a field trip to the Masonic Center in Cedar Rapids! I honestly had some mixed feelings about it. They have a lot of artifacts, since the only requirement was that the object had to have been previously owned by a Freemason. But some of the artifacts in the cases were a bit unique. They had a samurai armor set from Japan, some cuneiform tablets, small statuettes from Egypt, jade from China, and a lot of Native American things. It all felt a little uncomfortable to me, given the colonialist rhetoric that’s so prevalent when it comes to the history of Freemasonry. None of the rooms had anything to do with a whole history of Freemasonry or anything. It was more like walking through a really large collection of stuff rather than walking around a museum. Fortunately, though, the curator at the Masonic Center is working hard to change the exhibits and make a more comprehensive story in the museum.
Once we got back to our museum, I finished making the play garden beds! I’m really happy with how they look, and hopefully people will have fun playing with them when the next temporary exhibit goes up. I know I had a lot of fun making them!
Step 4: Repeat until you have the desired amount of garden beds.
Here’s what they look like with some plastic play food.
Of course, last but not least, it was Front Desk Friday! The museum was busy today, and that’s always great to see! I’m kind of sad that today was my second-to-last one, but that’s all the more reason to enjoy this while I have it.