Intern spotlight: William Satloff, Collections Department.
I arrived at the Brooklyn Museum on a sunny morning in early June. Still healing from a brutal week of final exams, I had not yet prepared myself for the first day of my internship in the Museum’s Marketing and Communications Department. I was so unprepared that I felt no nerves at all– no butterflies, no sweaty palms. I hoped for a peek into the inner workings of a large arts institution and to engage in meaningful work. My internship experience fulfilled both these wishes, and gave me a gift I could have never anticipated. Through thoughtful and passionate conversations, my fellow interns have changed my relationship with museum spaces. The interns take on a variety of responsibilities in departments across the museum, bringing their commitment and drive to every corner of the building. William Satloff is an intern in the Collections Department. This is what he shared about his role:
— Ginger Adams
I’m William Satloff, the Brooklyn Museum summer intern tasked with inventorying and conservation-grade repackaging boxes of commercial textiles. I work primarily with textiles related to L. & E. Stirn — cloth merchants that set up shop in NYC in the 1890s. Because most of the materials I handle are more than a hundred years old, they’re often dusty and sometimes completely disintegrated.
First I protect my nose, mouth and lungs with a particle respirator; then I cover my hands with latex exam gloves. (The gloves are also to protect the paper and textiles from the oils on my hands!) Then I’m ready to get to work.
Each box has roughly 2,000-3,000 textile swatches and samples. To process all that, I’ve developed a routine to get through one box every four days. To lay it out for you... First I unpack the box — removing each item one-by-one, inspecting for any labels or tags, taking note of format and dimensions.
As I make my way through the box, I group the items in categorical stacks, considering what types of categories would be helpful to someone archiving the materials in the future. I subsequently write a brief description for each stack on a slip of paper that will stay with its respective materials through the packaging process. Next, I photograph examples from the most interesting categories (i.e. reflective sheers, metallic thread embroidery) to represent the box’s contents.
Then I type a categorical inventory, outlining what companies, fabric and paper formats, and types of textiles (i.e. stripes, plaids, sheers) are in the box. I print the inventory and photographs to include in the repackaged boxes. After that, I wrap each category up in archival materials so they can be stable in a box for 10-15 years, or more. This step includes measuring and cutting acid free board to support the paper-backed specimens, sealing loose textiles in polypropylene bags with twill ties, and more. Finally, I pack the materials back into their original box. Usually I need to find better housing and expand to a second box when repacking because the conservation materials increase the total volume of the contents.
It’s a lot of steps, but it’s really fun. I get to handle the art as opposed to looking at it behind a glass case. Because of the work I’m doing, these historic textiles will get a life beyond collecting dust and falling apart in some storage area. I’m given the independence and responsibility to make decisions about how this set of the Museum’s objects will be received by future collectors, curators, and conservators. I was hoping my internship would give me an opportunity to see how a major museum really functions and to get practical, hands-on experience with a key part of museum operations — this summer’s experience met and exceeded those expectations.
Posted by William Satloff
