#museologist notes

bah formatting. alt is in the images.

if you couldn't tell from the barrage of cases here photographed, the museum is the proud owner of 4 new pretty glass cases. 2 of them have 2 glass shelves, glass top, and 3 glass sides - one solid wood. and 2 of them have 1 solid shelf/floor space, glass top, and 3 glass sides. the other side of one is mirrored, the other is solid coloured, but i think that that is a vinyl sheeting i can peel off.

all four have storage spaces below the 'floor' of the case yippy, the space is even permeable so I can do some environmental controlling inside the cases without it being super obvious.

i am so excited, we took charge of four NEW – to us – cases yesterday. They are all glass and shiny and not – as – covered in tape and all of them are smaller than any single case in the museum – other than the two newest ones.

My employee asked her two sons to help us truck them across the street. We used a hand cart (4 wheels) from the lady we bought them from. So we took them across the street then the two strong men – as i am a weak person – hoisted them inside – 2 to the back ‘church’ area, one into our NEW basket gallery, and one to an isle where it fits.

2 of our beautiful glass cases fit exactly into a little gap that i want to fill. Well... one will fit in that space, but two are short enough to go into it. If that makes sense. Today I’ve been scratching tape off them – not half so bad as the cases that were already here though - and washing one out real well for the baskets.

One of the new ones is going to be filled with baskets that are small and delicate, one for geological things, and hopefully one for Japanese history. I am not sure yet if that fourth one will work out. If it doesn’t that’s okay.

All of these cases have storage space which is lovely. I can create small long boxes for two of the cases, and the other two have big voids below the shelf.

we now have about 2 cases too many for the space we are working with, however, as we dismantle more of the dioramas and change the floor plan up I am sure we will need them all again.

the only dark spot on our day was when one of the cases smashed into the corner of an older case and a big ol chunk of glass popped off. we covered it in card with a warning and I swept up the shards asap... but.. ugh. I had plans for the glass in that case lol.

However, that is not the fault of the volunteer movers who were paid in iced coffee, it is the fault of me for not ensuring they had enough space to get through.

I also had an iced coffee... and three other coffees... and was feeling a little bit... wired for the whole afternoon. It was a lotta fun, i gotta say. I can't wait to start planning things out for these new cases.

I once saw an exhibit displaying Neandertal remains. There were signs letting you know you'd be viewing remains and while you couldn't skip those parts of the exhibit you could skip the entire section. With remains that old there's not really discussions with descendant communities but one thing I noticed is that while some of the remains were real many were replicas as the actual remains couldn't leave their home museums.

If people are so adamant that displaying human remains in museums is for educational purposes do you think this could be a partial solution? Having highly detailed replicas will show whatever you wanted a guest to learn, such as what an improperly healed bone looks like while not putting actual people's remains on display. Or since it's accurate replicas would you run into similar issues of consent and not wanting to display your ancestors?

oooh I like how inquisitive people are today.

short answer; yes

long answer; replicas can be used to substitute delicate objects including, but not limited to, human and animal remains. this is done with some anthropological objects, like the ones you saw, many paleontology objects - every dinosaur you've ever seen likely, and other historical objects such as the human casts from Pompeii.

all of these objects are considered too delicate to move. so throughout the years museologists - and other -ologists - have come up with ways of making accurate casts from literal plaster casting to 3D printing.

there are some people who believe that museums should be made up of 100 per cent replica objects - though i don't know what they propose to do with our archives.

so lets pretend that tomorrow every ancestor in every museum was magically replaced with a very good replica. the question is still one about ethics. i don't want a facsimile of my grandmother on display for people to stare at anymore than i want her actual body there. she deserves more dignity and respect than that.

but what about non-human objects you ask

the Haisla people of BC created a facsimile of the G'psgolox pole for the Museum of Ethnography in Sweden during their efforts to have the original returned to them - it was successfully repatriated in 2006. using this as an example, replicas are a great way to facilitate repatriation both nationally and internationally.

but human remains, ancestors, are another question entirely.

i am linking a few ICOM sources for ethical questions and guidelines. as i sad for the other post, it has been a while since i've dealt with ancestral remains, so i want y'all to have other places to look for information.

ICOM Natural History Museum ethics

ICOM general ethics

earlier this month Ianto and I jad the honour of joining Dr. AP [name redacted] and her team at a local dig site. the Doc has been digging there off and on since the early 90s and she is pretty sure that this is the last year for digging but there is a vegetation servey for the future.

Ianto asked very nicely to help dig... But we agreed before we went that he would stay out of the trenches. He doesn't understand safe archaeological methods. So he sat up top with the Doc while I learned to hold a trowel.

The team was great. I spent most of my time with the Doc's second and her Zoarchaeologist trying my hardest not to break anything. While I assisted we (they)

found two largish fish bones and a single fish vertabra. I found a lump of charcoal big enough to plot on the map. Yay!

After lumch I joined Doc and Ianto up top. Partly because I wanted to pick her brain. Partly to hang with Ianto. But mostly because I know I was slowing their progress.

Every one of them went out of their way to make me feel welcomed BUT as the only one who had never dug before it was obvious that I was slower than them. Rather than try and match their speed and break something, I excused myself.

The site, Pitt House 54, has 17 stories or floors of human life in it. I didnt retain the date range of this dig floor, BUT in another quadrant was dug down during one of the Doc's previous trips. By one of the shovelbums there with us. (He's a local Native artist who just likes archaeology. This is his fourth or fifth dig with the Doc). There is a new test called Micro..ph... something. ( @chaotic-archaeologist please help) and what you do is you carefully lift out a slice of dirt like cake, wrap it up tight, send it to a lab where the dirt is infused with resin and sliced up and examined like a slide under a microscope.

Anyway. Doc wanted to do this Microph... test on one of the old trenches so she tasked 2 people with re-excavate the backfill there while the rest of us progressed with the current trenches. Every time they dumped a bucket full of damp backfill on the ground I was sure I broke something.

Just.

Thump.

THUMP.

Thump

while the rest of us carefully. gently scraped and brushed. It was hilarious and jarring.

Doc and I mostly chatted anout the dig, how she, an American, ended up digging in fhis area, the future of Camel Town Museum, my PhD goals, and her next steps now that she's dkne digging here (almost).

I had a lot of fun and learned a lot. I really want to go on a proper dig some day.

Once Ianto is fully trained.

And Camel Town won't backslide while I'm gone.

Today my employee is flipping through our copy of the Carr McLean catalogue. This morning she brought me a treasure trove of old photos and photo negatives. In a plastic bag.

That was falling apart.

Aaaaaaahhh

Anyway.

The museum, last year, ordered a bunch of acid free, archival quality photo envelopes. BUT if I put each individual photo from this cash into its own envelop, we'd run out before I was done sorting. So instead I broke them up into 4 envelopes, 1 negatives, and 3 of photos.

Now my head docent is flipping through Carr McLean and marvelling at the cost of all the archive quality things she wants us to have (flat trays, textile boxes, newspaper boxes, film negative cases, slide boxes and more!

I've marked off various things in Carr McLean that I want for the museums... but I haven't worked out a wish list yet. Once I do, I'll send it to the treasurer and hopefully get a few essentials - like cotton gloves.

Its interesting to think about the costs... if this museum had built up its collection of archival tools since the 60s (instead of starting this year), the cost wouldn't seem so bad to get a few essentials... but instead we are starting from bankers boxes, acid free paper, and acid free foam... not even the good foam. And the envelopes.

This is going to be a long journey.

Museologist Notes May 1 2022

Today is one of two days a week I am “locked” behind the front desk at my new museum (this may change as the summer goes on). Last week it was easy to feel rubbed raw by this duty. It can feel like all you’re doing is guarding the donation box. But it is just as integral as every other aspect of my job. More important sometimes.

Without someone to sit at the desk these two days, the museum could not be open. Which means the 10 people who stopped in today, could not have. They don’t need me for much other than giving permission “yes we are open” “by donation, but if you don’t have cash no worries” etc. But without me (and arguably the Boy) they might not have come in.

It also gives me 2 days to tackle some of the more fiddly bits - paperwork, financial tracking, correspondence, etc that falls to the wayside of the Big Tasks I do my other 3 days.

This is not my favourite job in the Museum, but in Small Museums, everyone does many jobs. This one is worth it. I would rebel a bit if on these 2 days the doors were closed but I still wasn’t “allowed” to do the Big Things.

This winter I’ll have all the time in the world for tackling the catalogue. So long as I keep my notes neat and organized, that should be pretty quick... once we have a DBMS picked out.

I am now in my new museum. I’ve worked one full shift and we are hoping to be open to the public by Friday (it’s Thursday now as I type this).

I do not have internet at home yet. I might be getting to share some with my upstairs neighbour but we still have to work out the logistics of it. (And I still need to get out of my old contract lol).

Ianto joined me at the museum yesterday and did amazing. I don’t want to bring him all the time, but I really look forward to him being there with me.

I will be focusing this blog on Museologist Notes (how to actually do museum work) instead of my Access Review blog because... small town. I might use ten dollar words when a five cent word would do. If you ever need clarification on anything I write, let me know. No judgment at all.

Notes from my first full day working there:

This is a Cabinet of Curiosity, not a museum

This is an antique collection, not a museum

Holy Clutter Batman!

Why are the delicate textiles in the ONLY case that gets natural sunlight?

What is the story of the town? It isn’t on display that’s for sure.

Can the building, as it is, become an accessible space? Likely not but worth exploring.

I have taken pictures of EVERYTHING on the main floor. Must do basement tomorrow (for posterity sake)

Here are some notes on things I was told about the museum

No one was allowed to update signage before I started. Therefore there is some (a lot of) very dated interpretation and not much of it at all.

Everything is written in beautiful and near illegible calligraphy

There have been complaints from local Nations on the use of “indian” in interpretation. (I am working on that now)

The Old Family that started the museum... were really into the local Gold Rush and neglected other aspects of local history

The Stairs to the basement are considered Condemned and therefore we cannot have public washrooms or use the basement as display area. Cutting our gallery space in half.

I think this will be a fun challenge. Today I’ll be tackling the “Indian” problem, doing fire safety checks, and starting to block off an area so I can update the gallery even with the museum open.

I have some exciting news! Yesterday I spent about 1.5-2 hours volunteering at my (new) local museum. It was catalogue work - important but often left to the side due to more pressing things.

I'll be volunteering there for ~4 hours a week for the foreseeable. Due to my mental health struggles I am not looking for a paid museum position atm so I can't devote even proper part time hours to the space. But hopefully, this will give me a chance to write more Museologist Notes on the Site!

And I have my first shot. Obviously I'm still wearing masks/distancing/staying home as much as I can this gives me hope that I might be able to get back into museums and write some reviews again!

Beginning is the hardest part of any project. Accessibility is no different. Some people think it is good to start small and I don’t disagree.

Take, for example, alt-text on digital images. The alt-text, or alternative text, can help your webpage with its SEO (how well search engines ‘find’ it). So a number of content creators simple put the SEO title into the alt-text and move on.