Museum Goods

If you haven’t caught on yet, museums require special archival materials for virtually everything they store in their collection. As I mentioned previously, they use specific glue, tissue paper, labels and tags. All of the materials must be water soluble and if any pen is used (for example, to write the catalog number onto a tag that is sewn into a garment) it must all be used with acid-free and non-bleeding ink. Fancy stuff. Additionally, all of the garments and artifacts are stored in special boxes. Apparently they cost around $80 each – yikes!

 If you’re curious where they get all of their stuff see this website:

http://www.gaylord.com/listing.asp?H=4

 Gaylord is supposed to be one of the leading producers of museum and archival materials. I never knew it but there is actually a whole industry of museum suppliers, go figure.

See you next time.

Allison

To The Archives!

Today was a big cataloging day. Michelle gave me a mountain of boxes of artifacts and said ok, go! Before I delve into the pieces that I worked on, here is a glimpse into the process known as “cataloging.”

(Disclaimer: This is the mountain of boxes that need to be shelved and organized in the basement… NOT the ones that Michelle had me work oh. Phew)

When you start off with a garment, you first lay it out flat on a table that is covered with tissue paper. But you can’t just see any old tissue paper – like the kind you use to wrap presents, oh no. For museums there are two types of tissue paper; buffered and unbuffered. Buffered tissue paper contains an agent that combats acid. You can use it on all plant-based materials such as cotton. Unbuffered tissue paper is used for animal-based materials such as silk and leather. Unbuffered paper is used for most of our garments, especially if you are unsure of what the fabric used. So anyway, put the garment on the paper, check.

Next you collect all of the information to input into the PastPerfect museum catalog software. This entails taking the measurements – i.e. length and width – noting the condition of the piece, being sure to look for any discoloration, holes, wear and tear etc. You also write down the information on any labels or other information you can gather from examining the garment – fabric, style etc. Whew, okay so you’ve got all of your deets – now for the more hands-on stuff.

All items in the museum collection need to be labeled with the catalog number so they can be identified. This requires that we CAREFULLY sew a label into the inside of each garment piece in the museum. When I was growing up my mom wanted me to sign up for sewing classes. I was never interested in sewing or doing anything domestic like that. Well, those sewing classes would have come in handy right about now! With some instructions from Michelle and through a little bit of trial and error I successfully sewed in a label into the fur coat – score! The important thing to remember when working with objects is that all work and conservation must be REVERSIBLE. Therefore all of my stitches must be loose.

 Another way to label an artifact is with a paper tag – i.e. for those items that you cannot sew a label into. Once again, however, you can’t just pull out of scrap of paper and a string from your drawer. Tags with cotton strings cannot be used because plant fibers contain acid so we must use nylon strings. And the third and last way to label an artifact is by gluing a label on. For example, today we were cataloging some ash trays from the Dunes Casino here in Las Vegas. We assigned the item a catalog number and printed it onto a piece of paper. Then, we used polyvinyl acetate glue to adhere the paper to the item. This specific glue is water soluble and therefore, yes, reversible.

 Now that you’ve got all of your details, a catalog number that you have fixed to the item, we take a picture of it and we can upload all of the details into PastPerfect, viola! Cataloging is a bit of a process but is fun to examine each piece and try to figure out how it was used or worn and the story behind it. I’ve decided that being a museum registrar is kind of like being a forensics technician.  Ever seen the television show “CSI” or “Bones”? Yup, kind of sort of somewhat like that.

 Allison

Trunks and Tyrannosaurus Rex

One thing to remember when being an intern is that you are the lowest on the totem pole and sometimes you just have to pay your dues. Today was more of a “grunt-work” kind of day. But although I wasn’t necessarily doing any high-profile projects, I still had a good time getting to know some of the staff members better and getting accustomed to the museum rhythm. As an intern, if you have the attitude of “what can I learn from what I’m doing” any project you embark on – from organizing cabinets to filing – will be beneficial and rewarding to you. Just remember that you are here to see the in’s and out’s of museum life and even from the floor while you scrub out stains you can get a glimpse of that.

Today we did some organizing of cupboards and clean-up projects around the classroom. One project that I actually found very therapeutic was peeling labels off of our trunks. Let me explain the trucks. Throughout the year the Nevada State Museum lends out trunks to teachers in the area. There are three different types: women, mining and centennial Las Vegas. Inside are various historical objects and items that teachers can use as aids to teach Nevada history. It is a really neat program that the museum offers. And free!

Since its summertime, all of our little trunks have now found themselves back at the museum – and you know what that means – prep work for their next adventure in the Fall. So today I worked on peeling old stickers from each trunk so we can paint anew and taking inventory of the pieces in there. I’ll go into depth next time about the specific contents of each trunk.

Today was also fun because for the first time since interning this summer we had some kids come into the classroom, yeah! We had the children color on various coloring papers that we had made up which displayed various parts of Nevada history: gold miner, Nevada state seal, indigenous animals, Native American pottery etc. Although I am lost when it comes to working with children, it was fun to hear about their experience at the museum. When I asked what they saw at the museum today I heard a choir of cries – “mammoth!” “wolves!” “dinosaur!” “bobcat!” Although the children were a little too young to tell me about the first settlers of Las Vegas or the Atomic Test site, they really seemed to enjoy the museum and looking at all of the interactive displays. I am looking forward to working more in the education department and seeing how they work to excite children of all ages about history.

I think I’m also going to have to go home and brush up a little bit on my natural history. As the children were telling me all about the fossils they saw and dinosaur this and dinosaur that, I realized my memory of the subject is a little fuzzy. I guess even for a history buff like me, there is always more to learn.

Maybe I’ll start with a rousing viewing of “The Land Before Time” to get me started. I’m off to pop the popcorn. See you next time.

Allison

Conservation: Take II

Remember my last post about conservation? Here’s some of her advice in action:

1. While cataloging Michelle and I came upon a fur coat in the museum’s collection. The accession record noted that the donor said that the coat was made of beaver fur. After examining the coat, with white gloves of course, we were unsure if it was actually made of beaver. To be honest, it felt like a poor quality carpet. With Caroline’s help we pulled a tiny piece of the fur from a less obtrusive part of the coat and took it over to the microscope. Although I probably should have already learned this is my biology 100 class, apparently you can differentiate fur by its structure. By looking at our “beaver” fur under the microscope we saw that the fibers were woven together in a knit-structure – a sure sign that it is not a real fur. Caroline also taught us about leather. Cow hides can be split into several layers and each layer can be used for many purposes. By putting several different leather gloves under the scope we could see which was the top grain and which were lower down. Ever heard of “top grain” leather being the finest and most expensive? That’s where that comes from.

2. In the afternoon Caroline held an impromptu “workshop” for us interns and several of the museum faculty. She taught us all about document conservation. One important thing to know when dealing with paper is that paper is hydrophilic – it likes water. Have you ever spilled something on your carpet and when it dried it left a “tideline” of dirt along the edge of its path? Me too! Caroline taught us how to life those stains – particularly when they appear on paper. These tidelines need a place for the dirt to go. What you do is wet the stain and put a blotter paper (such as Volera) on top and leave it for a while to set. The capillary action will draw out the stain as it moves from the wet to the dry environment.

Caroline also taught us how to seal a tear on a historical document. To practice we each took a dollar bill with both a clean cut and a rough tear in it. The “glue” that we used was made from wheat paste that she made at home. It looks like a clear silly putty. To seal the cut you take a paint brush and apply a generous amount of the wheat paste along the cut lines on both sides. Then you make a sandwich. First put down a piece of glass, a piece of blotter paper, Volera (it kind of looks like tissue paper), the document or in our case $$, Volera, blotter, glass and then a weight on top – remembering that all conservation must be symmetrical.

An hour later you pull the paper out from its layers. The tears should already be pretty hard to find at this point. To stabilize the cut you next apply Japanese tissue paper. This is thin and expensive paper that is made of durable, strong fibers but when used it blends in into the document. You next apply a small amount of water – always use tap NOT distilled water as tap has ions in it – to the Japanese paper and place the tissue paper to the back of the document. 10 hours later your tear disappears!

These techniques were very fun to learn and helped to remind me that although many artifacts come into museums and are not in “display” condition it does not mean that all hope is lost! With some simple conservation techniques stains and dirt can be lifted, fabrics can be reshaped and documents can be pieced back together again. Neat, huh?

See you next time.

Allison

Perks

Perk #743 of interning at the Nevada State Museum. This internship just got sweeter 

Conservation 101

Do you ever have those days where you just can’t stop smiling? As a fellow history nerd, let me tell you, today was one of those days. Today was my first full (i.e. 9 hour day) at the museum. Unfortunately I don’t think every day will be like this but a girl can dream, can’t she?

So it just so happened that there was a volunteer conservator – Caroline – at the museum this week working on the restoration of a few pieces in our collection. And can I just say, she is AWESOME. She was telling stories and cracking jokes – she has one of those magnetic, boisterous personalities that you can’t help but like. Caroline spent a good part of the morning teaching me all about the work of conservators. (Although, before you get too excited and start planning your future career as a conservator, she did add the caveat that there is little money in such an occupation. She was only volunteering at the museum this week, not getting paid for any of her work – sounds like an exciting career but the monetary benefits appear a little bleak – just something to keep in mind).

Below is a photo of one of the Anasazi moccasins that she was restoring. Using q-tips that she makes herself, she used a laundry detergent to clean each of the beads individually. Later she used water to rub off the dirt. And in order to initially work with the stiff moccasins, she had to humidify them in order to make the leather more malleable and easier to work with. In such a dry climate in Las Vegas, this requires a little leg work. Using the materials she had on hand, she placed a water into a small cup and sealed the moccasins in the bag. The water evaporates and becomes trapped in the bag which creates humidity and those softens the leather so she could clean it. Viola!

Another piece that she told me about (but that I unfortunately did not get the chance to see) was a silk dress. Due to aging and the silk had started to deteriorate around the neck of the dress. She hand-dyed thread with watercolor paint and sewed them into the garment to support the original fibers. All of her work requires a keen attention to detail and of course a steady hand!

One of the key tenets of conservation that she kept chanting to me was “cool, dark, dry”! These are the conditions that an artifact is best preserved in. Caroline mentioned the caves in Germany where Nazis had kept artwork that they had confiscated from the Jews. Due to the perfect blend of “cool, dark, dry” the paintings, when found many years later, were in impeccable condition. Reminds me of another favorite movie of mine – “National Treasure.” Remember how the National Archives stores the original Declaration of Independence? It is in a glass case that is precisely calibrated to protect against intense head – “dry” and “cool” and the lighting is pretty darn dim in the large room where it is shown to the public – “dark.” Seems to be a recipe for success.

But by far one of the sure highlights of the day, among many, was seeing a pair of 1,000 year old Anasazi agave moccasins. I got to see them close up, not behind a three inch slate of solid glass. Call me a sucker for anything old and historic, I know.

Next time I’ll finish up and tell you about the rest of the day with Caroline so stay tuned!

Allison

Back Into the Classroom This Summer

Let’s play a word game. I say “museum”. What would you say? History? Dinosaurs? Exhibits? Art? Well I bet what doesn’t come to mind very often is “classroom.” Today I started my first day working in the museum classroom. It is a fantastic place where children can come and experience history and natural history hands-on.

I’ll be working with Stacy Irvin, the Curator of Education. It is funny how small the world can be. When she was a masters student at UNLV she worked with all of my bosses at my job in the Science and Engineering building! But I digress…

Today was pretty low-key. Until the real action starts this summer, Stacy and I will be working on getting the classroom jazzed up and ready to go to have children come in. After a brief intro into the classroom set up I got to work covering bulletin boards and scheming ideas for some displays. I spent a good part of the afternoon performing surgery on our cardboard cutout Rex, the T-Rex. After taping him up and few times and having him fall off, most of his appendages ended up needing a good amount of love and hot glue. Crossing my fingers he stays up – next time would probably result in his death.

One perk of these days in the classroom will be the opportunity to unleash my creative side – or rather create it. I have never been one of those artsy-fartsy types so this will be a good mind-stretching activity. I now also have a greater appreciation for teachers. Who knew working in a museum could be such good preparation for teaching? Talk about killing two birds with one stone. I am looking forward to working with children this summer and doing some hands-on projects with them – it should be fun!

Until next time.

Allison

Let the Adventure Begin...

After seeing “Night At the Museum” entirely too many times I was more than excited to start my exciting adventure at the Nevada State Museum. After all, what could be more fun than working in a place where exhibits come to life and have you running for your life from Attila the Hun? When I found out that I would be spending my Fridays in the museum basement with all of the top-secret boxed up artifacts, I secretly hoped I would at least find a mummy or two down in there.

The big day finally arrived and I was on pins and needles. If you haven’t been to the Nevada State Museum, it is an impressive sight to see. Relocated to a brand new, state-of-the-art building next to the Springs Preserve it is dressed to the nines. If the giant tree in the lobby isn’t breathtaking than surely the towering wooly mammoth fossil in the natural history exhibit will leave you reeling. I’ll admit that I haven’t properly walked through all of the displays yet ::looks down in embarrassment:: but I am looking forward to getting to know the lay of the land soon.

This first day was a basic introduction. I met more names than I will ever remember (sorry) and learned that frequently staff members bring donuts into the staff room - vital information. I met with Michelle Lord, the Registrar of the Nevada State Museum. She will be my supervisor, mentor and basement buddy.

First off I learned about the exciting world of museum cataloging. I never knew there was such an intricate system to organizing and accounting for artifacts! Speaking of “Night at the Museum,” remember the 2nd movie - the Smithsonian one? Well if you remember the action scenes with the star museum guys fighting the Smithsonian ones (can you tell it’s been a few years since I’ve seen the movie?), they were in the museum basement. That’s where I’ll be! The Nevada State Museum has a HUGE  basement where all the pieces that are not on display are kept. Their storage cabinets are all on rollers and you push a button to get the shelf to move open. I feel like a little kid sometimes because I can’t help but just push the button and watch the shelves move every now and then when I walk by. I am eager to crack open some boxes next week and see how this whole process works.

Follow me as I take a journey and walk a few miles in the shoes of a museum intern and go “backstage” at the museum. Hopefully there will be some laughs, new experiences, and adventures along the way - with few tears or embarrassing moments in tow. And rest assured, if I ever find myself being chased by a giant eskimo wielding an axe, I’ll be sure to capture it with Instagram, my trusty companion for the summer.

Until next time.

Allison