Changing Sites

I wrapped up this semester's internship this past week, but that doesn't mean things are over! I have several major projects planned for the next couple years, and I'm excited to share them with the world.

From now on, however, I will be posting to a new blog: athensdustbunny.wordpress.com

I hope to see you there!

repatriation

First of all, I want to apologize for not writing the past few weeks. I hope to make it up with some extra length this time, because quite a lot has happened.

After my progress report meeting two weeks ago, I walked into the museum that afternoon rather apathetically. I didn’t know what I wanted to do next, and the suggestion that I try to connect things more to anthropology was weighing on me. I’ve always viewed anthropology as my fun major, whereas journalism is my practical major. It’s easy to determine what I would want to do in journalism, but I know I couldn’t stay sane without my anthro classes. How could I emphasize anthropology in my museum work? And what exactly makes an anthropological perspective different from a historical perspective in a museum’s sense? I’ve heard history majors discussing what they like about history — studying the people — but how is that different? After reflecting on these questions for a while, I have determined the difference to be in the focus: historians seem to focus on individuals or small groups (like a military company), but anthropologists study the culture as a whole. I might be wrong, but this is my rather uneducated interpretation of a question that is incredibly relevant to my life’s path.

But I digress. That day, I walked into the museum feeling lost and glum, even contemplating just going home to reflect (I didn’t). Back in the collections room, however, Lynn, a volunteer in the genealogical center and an archaeologist by trade, Jessica, and two interns were just beginning to sit down to a meeting. The interns were both also anthropology major. I was invited to join them, and we learned about NAGPRA laws.

Lynn walked us through the history of the law and gave anecdotes of her own experience. She emphasized how good the law is for building relationships with tribes in the US. Although some archaeologists and biological anthropologists lament the law’s existence because they feel they could do so much more with the artifacts, Lynn described how it is within the nature of anthropology to support the law. By recognizing — through self-detrimental action, no less — the historical property of these tribes, we show that we value and respect their history and culture. When she showed us some of the artifacts in our collection, she trembled with emotion at the history.

The level of respect she had for the artifacts was amazing. For example, because we were all girls, she specifically mentioned rules regarding “moon time” — meaning, menstruation. Apparently, women are believed to be particularly powerful during this time of the month, and, out of respect, we should not handle sensitive artifacts during those days, especially human bones.  This is one of the things that I truly love about anthropology: just how aware and thoughtful the anthropological thought process is about the intricacies of others’ beliefs. I don’t mind stepping aside every once in a while, if need be.

Back to the meeting: Lynn and Jessica asked me and the two other interns if we would be interested in learning the process of repatriating items through NAGPRA law. I heartily agreed, as did the others. Until the job is completed, we will be going through the boxes — especially the Sprague Collection — to pull out associated and non-associated ceremonial artifacts. For now, we will compile a list, but eventually we will help the museum repatriate the items.

This seems like the guidance I’m looking for. I’m fairly certain that part of my problem with the Sprague Collection is its size. I need a small project to begin with and might need to proceed with small project deadlines in the future.

The day after the meeting, I began going through a box of items that Kate had set aside because they appeared to be NAGPRA-relevant. I catalogued them onto an Excel spreadsheet and began going through other boxes. It amazes me just how bluntly disrespectful archaeologists were years ago. Sprague’s notebook clearly states that some of these were found in mounds or next to skeletons! It makes me glad to live when I live.

After going through the NAGPRA box and Sprague’s notebooks, I’m a little at a loss of what to do. The other two interns haven’t been working with me, so I can’t bounce ideas off of them. Instead, I’ve been turning to Donald for advice. I like him: he’s an older man with a long, gray ponytail with a history in historical architecture restoration, who pokes fun at all the interns. He and Lynn (they are married) are a wonderful addition to the museum’s ambiance, and I’m very happy that they are there. I feel like I can turn to them for any kind of career advice.

The obviously NAGRA things are completed, so I now have to sift through the thousands of artifacts to try to distinguish what is special from not special. I don’t know how to do this — I don’t even know which points are which! Donald recommends that I just begin to familiarize myself with the collection and focus on the differences between Woodland and Archaic points, for example. Unfortunately, this means I am back to the mental stagnancy of a few weeks ago, when I didn’t want to even look at that area of the room. I hope that my awareness of this matter will make it less of an issue. I want to want this!

I will be working on my own for now, but I really want some expert guidance. Donald says he doesn’t know much about points, and Lynn, when she’s there, is always busy in the genealogical center. Supposedly, we will be bringing in experts from the Blenner-Hasset Museum, for instance, and I will soon begin to attend lectures and conferences. Kate did these last summer, when she was heavily involved in the collection, but I’m concerned. I don’t know if I have time for all of this! I want to become obsessed with this collection, but I also don’t want to give up my other classes or large portions of my free time for it. I suppose I just need to contemplate my options some more.

not just cookies anymore

For some reason, I found difficulty getting into a project this week. I worked with a box of old Girl Scout uniforms (found an awesome one from 1930! Blue with long sleeves full of patches), and, although I followed some artifacts from their donation into this box (why are so many people donating their old uniforms lately?), I didn’t do much other than that.

I’ve noticed a correlation between this lack of productivity with extreme productivity in the journalism world. My advisor warned me of this before declaring a double major: oftentimes, students who do this end up emphasizing one over the other. I didn’t want to do that; I promised myself I wouldn’t! Unfortunately, I’m facing the realization that he might have been right… I still want to beat the odds, however; it will just require a little more effort in terms of balance.

Speaking of which: I spoke with one of the other interns this week, one whom I had never really met. She is a journalism/history double-major, and we were excited to find each other. She’s a junior, and she managed to make her required journalism internship through the museum via public relations.

She mentioned interning at the Cincinnati Museum Center last summer, too, and I immediately got excited. I’m from Cincinnati! If I could get a PR internship through the museum, I would be fulfilling multiple requirements while checking out something I may potentially want to do as a future career. I don’t want to settle for working at a newspaper for my required internship. I’m working for the Athens NEWS, and I know I don’t want to do only print for the rest of my life. This would also resolve some of the issues I’m having with finances. I hope this works out.

Generally, I spent a lot of time this week talking with people more wholeheartedly than I usually do. Rather than distracting myself with work, I talked with the other interns, Donald and Jessica. While this is a big step for me — not having a premise to talk to someone — I know it’s not exactly productive. I know I can’t do this every week.

It was a wonderful break, though.

1-arrowhead, gray, 1" long, notched

This past week, I continued to listen to myself and my interests, so I can be sure to get exactly what I want out of my time here. I should be using this time to explore and enjoy, not forcing myself to do something I don’t want to do. 

From here on out, I’m going to have multiple projects working and allow myself to flit between them as I see fit. It seems irresponsible, but I think it’s where I need to be right now. Feeling this tied down is not conducive to pushing myself and expanding my knowledge and abilities. If I do want to work in a museum someday, I should know how to bring an artifact from donation to accession to box on a shelf, or how to preserve a large, fragile multi-tiered dress, or how to preserve odd-shaped documents in Mylar. Rather than focusing on one thing, I’ve recognized that I need to have a breadth of knowledge before I can move on.

I’ve begun my days with the Sprague Collection. The box that I have been working on is nearly complete — or at least as complete as it can be at this stage in the process. All of the tags are printed and cut, and most of them are in the proper bags. That is the fun part so far: matching Dr. Sprague’s descriptions to the points. Sometimes they’re obvious, but other times they’re more of a challenge. “1-arrowhead, gray, 1” long, notched” isn’t the most descriptive description in the world when nearly every point is a shade of gray and about the same size.

When I’ve tired of working on the points, I’ve moved on to a box of random textiles. I spent the better part of an hour sorting lace and crochet collar and cuff combinations. I sewed labels into the hemline of a 40-year-old Girl Scout uniform that had recently been donated, accessioned the parts and soon I will find a box for them. It’s somehow fun to me, but possibly only because it’s new. So many of the other interns work on textiles day-to-day that working on this project gives me a chance to work with them.

The new interns are starting to pour in for next semester. One of them lives on my floor! I told her I was quite excited and we plan to go to an upcoming intern outing together. I like the idea of being the knowledgeable one. Hopefully, one of the new interns will be interested in the Sprague Collection so I’ll have a buddy when working on it. This might answer my question of if I’m not liking the collection because I work alone.

I need to share what I’m doing with someone else to truly enjoy it, I believe.

a change of pace

After deciding to finally begin work on the Sprague collection two weeks ago, I knew I had to stick with it. Though it wasn’t what I had hoped — the collection at this point requires a lot of “bagging and tagging” — there was a bit of a thrill to handling something that old.

But somehow, I felt disconnected. Maybe it was because I am only just now delving into these boxes, or maybe it’s because the points are so far from where they were found and there’s no way to bring them home. Honestly, however, I think I might just be not as interested in the collection as I thought I was.
I love the concept of working this far in the past, but I have so little in common with the people who used these points. They lived about a thousand years ago somewhere in the eastern half of North America. It’s hard to say for certain where some of these points came from, and I know next to nothing about the people who used them. I know I eventually will be able to understand so much about these people just from the way the points have been knapped or whatever, but I don’t really know how I feel about it until then.

I know it seems like I’m giving up so quickly. And that is exactly why I’m taking a step back from the collection. I found myself struggling to actually want to come into the museum to work on them, and I don’t want that to happen. I enjoy the museum as a whole and some aspects of it so much, and having to drag myself to come sort points was, at this point, detrimental to my experience.

For these reasons, after two weeks of working with the collection, I’m stepping back for a while. I will return to it here and there, but I don’t want it to be my only project. There are still so many things about the museum that I want to experience and learn!

Most recently, one of the other interns taught me how to work with textiles, something I haven’t done yet. She showed me how they write the number on tiny strips of fabric and then hand-sew the label into a discreet seam. Because Jessica loves textiles, there are books upon books in the collections room detailing the evolution of fashion since Athens County was initially settled. Right now, all I can say is, “Oh, this looks like it came from sometime between 1850 and 1940…” and I would love to change that.

I think I have officially decided that my passion here is with documents, especially personal correspondence and newspapers. Combined, they are such a rich, contextual records of the happenings of history. I can’t tell if I like them simply because I do or because they’re relatively familiarly easy to analyze. It’s just like reading a book for English class. I do think that personality comes out in amazing ways through personal correspondence, but it can’t be the only way of knowing someone in history. It would be incredible to pick someone in Athens’ history and study him/her, kind of like how I did with Gladys Brooks (a WWII WAC and Athenian) when I was helping with the Women in WWII exhibit. Jumping from artifact to artifact seems impersonal and not useful.

Another new goal of mine is to design and put up an exhibit of some sort before I graduate. Even though I’m not going to be doing it for credit, I fully intend to continue volunteering at the museum next semester and beyond, so I will have time to get really in-depth in a topic. But what would I do? After writing through this, it seems like I should just pull together a profile display on one particular individual’s life. That could be interesting! It would have to be someone who donated a lot of things to the museum… Should I do a profile on one of the members of the Sprague family? That would incorporate both the points and the profile, and so much of our collection belonged to that family. Seems like a good idea to me!

"bagging and tagging"

Unfortunately, I made it to the historical society only once this past week, but I used that day to finally engage myself in the Sprague Collection. After meeting with my advisor about my experience so far, I knew there was really no excuse to further postpone my first day working with the points. I would have to suck it up and push myself to do something that intimidated me in order to, hopefully, one day, narrow down my interests to something I can fully pursue.

Somehow, though, through all the hype, the day didn’t seem that bad at all. It was almost disappointingly enjoyably easy — although I’m not quite at the difficult part yet. I approached Donald, who has been heavily involved with the collection, as soon as I entered the room, not allowing myself to pause for more distractions and delays. One of my greatest delay tactics, I had realized, was that I really didn’t know where to start and the scope of what I would be doing. He suggested that I look through the boxes and put everything loose or in old Ziploc bags into new, acid-free baggies.

Not too terrible.

Because each artifact needed to be in its own bag, even down to the tiniest points, I positively flew through piles of bags throughout the course of single shoebox-sized compilation of points. The monotony of unbag, rebag, set aside became more of a side note to participating in conversations with others in the room. I felt much more social than I had been when going through documents, but, at the same time, I felt less fulfilled. I wasn’t actually gaining any academic knowledge from the experience other than efficiency in bagging speed.

I still have to learn how to categorize the points. That will be my greatest endeavor regarding this collection, and I have hope that it will be more fulfilling than “bagging and tagging.” I will continue to familiarize myself for now, but soon I will take the next step and name things on my own.

a bout of reflection

Last week, I began to notice flaws in the way I was approaching this internship: I was overenthusiastic yet uninformed and too preoccupied with myself. I determined to make less “noise” this week to try to be a silent but efficient helper in the collections room. Most days, I snuck into work quietly enough that Jessica would remark as I left, “I didn’t even see you come in!” 

I took on odd jobs that were worthy of the label “intern’s nightmare,” as the employees put it, such as organizing and cataloging a large donation of tiny toy soldiers (this contained the collection room’s mascot: a strategically one-armed, handmade Hitler figurine that turned up one day). When I ran into problems, rather than run to someone high-up, I figured things out myself or, when that didn’t work, turned to more experienced interns. This also prompted some good conversations. This new approach is probably good to master, especially the problem-solving bit. I expect that to be very useful in a formal job situation.

Unfortunately, though, I’m still trying to figure out what aspect of this I like most. Nearly every intern I have spoken to is planning to get a master’s degree in museum studies. Do I want to go that route? Would I find this fulfilling for the rest of my life? I can’t say, yet, although I expect the job of a curator is much more complex than filing. What I do know is that my family would respect my choice if I decide to do this: they’re quite the history buffs! I went home at the end of the week, and my little sister was enraptured with my stories. Knowing her, I highly recommended doing an internship like this if she ever gets the opportunity.

I do want to work with journalism in some way, though. Should I gear my academic track toward public relations, so as to more easily meld the two fields? My thesis is at the back of my mind at all times, and I think I’m coming up with some solid ideas. I’m excited to build up my skills to get to that point, but, until then, I’ll keep my plans a secret.

On another note, the date to tear down the TB ward has been pushed back by two months! I do wish I could be of more help, but I’m very happy for the Society and all that it has done to raise awareness and change the mind of the administration.