Week 9 & 10:
The Last Hurrah

August 21, 2016

Hi all! I’m logging in one last time to share my experience in my last two weeks at the AAMI. “The Museum Squad” as we dubbed ourselves had a lot of fun and made a huge amount of progress in the construction of the temporary exhibit.

Week 9

The second week of August involved a lot of painting at the museum. This year, Brianna hired a professional painting crew for the walls. She told me that in the past she and the other staff have done it themselves, but it takes 3 times longer. While that was in progress, I was mostly working on the never-ending magazine inventory. I did find some of The Crisis magazines from the 1940s though, and that was incredibly cool. If you don’t know, The Crisis is the magazine of the NAACP and was founded by W.E.B. Du Bois, so there’s a lot of history in every issue.

Brianna, Felicite, Alyssa, and I were all scrambling to get other, smaller projects finished as well. We took a group trip to Home Depot, that was supposed to be quick but we ended up being there for 3 hours. We needed lumber, plywood, paint and stain in order to make the slave narratives reading nook. The lumber was for various shelves that will be throughout the exhibit. The plywood had to be cut into various sizes to give the area a rustic, log-cabin look. The next day we sanded and stained the wood. This, of course, needed to be done outside. And, of course, it happened to be one of the hottest and most humid days so far.

In our sweaty delirium, we all declared ice cream the true love of our lives. So the next day, the Museum Squad took a little walk to a fantastic little ice cream parlor down the street. This little bonding moment was unashamedly glutinous, and definitely earned. Moments like those have definitely been some of my favorite at the AAMI, and have really helped me with socializing and networking skills. The week ended with nicely painted walls and materials ready to go for the following week!

Week 10

My last week at the museum saw the exhibit really come together. Although we had a nail gun fiasco, Brianna and I were able to put up the log-cabin wall and it looks fantastic. That same day, a garret that Brianna had made arrived. The garret, which is a part of an attic, is a replica of what Harriet Jacobs lived in for years as a fugitive slave. It is only three feet at its highest point. Guests are encouraged to get into the garret to try to get the picture of what it was like for those on the Underground Railroad. Brianna did such a great job designing this exhibit, and I’m just happy I was there to help with the execution.

The first few days of week 10 still involved a lot of paint. We had touch-ups to do, and we also had to paint two of the reading nooks. When the painting was done, we were able to bring in the reading nook furniture! The spaces look really cool. Each one has the books that are discussed in the exhibit, and more from that respective time period. The furniture is time-period appropriate — you definitely can’t miss the 1960’s nook! After all of that was put together, we mostly did busy-work as we waited for the panels to arrive from the printing company. Brianna was told they wouldn’t be arriving until the 19th or the 22nd.

On Thursday, Brianna and Felicite took Alyssa and me out to lunch. This was their thank you to us for all of the work we put into the exhibit. When we got back to the AAMI after lunch, the panels had arrived! Before we put them up though, Brianna wanted to finish up the little things we had been working on before. It wasn’t until after Alyssa and Felicite had left that the panels started going up. Since this is her third year creating exhibit’s at the AAMI, Brianna is now a pro at putting up the panels. That, combined with my help, had nine panels up in one hour! On Friday evening, we put up the last panel.

My time at the AAMI has been amazing. I learned more than I thought I would, and made great friendships and connections. I went into this internship thinking that I knew what museum curation was. I was wrong, and I am so glad I was. I think it unlikely that I would have gotten such a hands-on experience at another museum. Brianna’s philosophy is to have her interns do everything she does, even if the interns panic at the thought of touching artifacts for fear of breaking them. I could not be more appreciative to everyone who made this experience a possibilty for me. THANK YOU!

And don’t forget to come check out “Mightier than the Sword” at the AAMI, opening August 27!