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.