Day 18: 17 February 2011

Are You There Oxygen?


Kaila and I worked in the basement all day today packaging clothing for conservation. It was kind of a long day in a very small room [with what we found to have very poor ventilation]. I do feel that we were very productive today.... we heard the same Rihanna song twice, completed the cycle. The pieces we worked with today really kept me going, though. I saw some of the most amazing dresses and coats from the 1800s and some beautiful ceremonial outfits. I probably took too many photos. Here are some of my favorites.

My photos really aren't the best today, I blame the lack of Oxygen.

We aren't quite sure what is sewn into this jacket, but it was too big to be a button [maybe a coin?]. The silk on the inside of this jacket was a dark pink from one angle and a bright baby blue from another. Awesome.

[Oh na na, what's my name?]

This jacket was dated late 1800s. The quality, however, looked brand new. It amazes me how they made their clothes. Tell me that your J. Crew sweater will look this good 150 years from now...

The detailing on this jacket was just beautiful. I will take two please.

Sailor style jacket and skirt. I just loved these buttons.

This dress blew my mind. Red velvet, so many ruffles. The thing weighed like twenty pounds and had the most adorable bustle on the back... 

Beading and proof that its not always tacky... Also, whose waist is that small?

Again, just so cool. I'm a sucker for ruffles.

This is the jacket of a wedding dress from the late 1800s. Yes please.

Then we hit the 1960s outta nowhere. yikes.

[Made in Hong Kong]

A dress from Poland. I loved the colors and the stitching on the sleeves..

This is a girls blouse from Holland. So teenie, so cool.

So, clearly not clothes, but I have been wanting to take a picture of this little guy for weeks. Hey buddy.

Day 17: 16 February 2011

Cake Day and Vintage Computers


And its Cake Day again! I do love Cake Day, happy birthday Februarians. I started the day doing data entry [and I am yet again covered in pink and orange highlighter] because there wasn't enough room in the van that was going to the Ford Museum to pick up a wheel chair. [A creepy FDR wheel chair.] I love my office at the CARC facility, I have a door and a ceiling and today I got to shut myself in and input to Bing Crosby and The Andrew Sisters. My oh my.


Then we headed over to the public museum a bit early and I tried to get set up to do a little more on the database. 

It was a lovely bonding experience between myself and this machine while it booted up. 

Then I ate some cake, drank some punch and chatted with a few museum execs about the new Grand Rapids tumblr page [not museum affiliated]. [http://fygr.tumblr.com] 

More data entry and a pretty delish Wednesday was over. Happy Hump Day. [I really don't like that phrase.]

Day 16: 15 February 2011

Oversized Errything


Kaila, Andrea and I [I think Jon was around the corner with our radio] worked in the basement moving quilts to a conservation through the oversized collections. Our work in the conservation room consisted of repackaging clothing, quilts and other textiles for long term storage. We wrapped them in tissue, placed them in plastic sleeves and heat sealed 'em up. Bugs and moisture are simply no good for super old stuff.

[Adorable Dinotrain in the oversized collections. I took mostly pictures in there today even though it really has nothing to do with me....]

Once again, I played registrar even though I'm super ok now! I promise.... So I recorded all of the accession numbers and made notes on their new locations and what they were. Then we figured out there was just enough signal to put on my Ace of Base pandora station and finished pre-break time with a packaging dance party. 


Successful.

[I ride this to work. Seriously.]

[I get a strange Indiana Jones vibe from random box #8. No one told me what was in there.]

[This is the room I was stuck in. The large space to the left of my finger is where I needed to be. And below is the creepy freezer that I spent some time with while waiting to be rescued.]

I love this boat. Note the creepy Hearse Carriage in the background. 

Kaila and I look good next to plastic wrap, no?

One can always tell when I spend an afternoon entering data. I am simply covered in highlighter by the end. Why can't I close a marker? I have a college degree for Pete's sake! It was a quite enjoyable second half of the day. I entered location codes to the tunes of A-ha, Toto and just a little Phil Collins. And dancing along in my head. 

Side note.

I Have These Things in Ma Brain


So, even though I am all of a three-day-a-week intern, I'm getting a little passionate about this place. I continue to be surprised and excited by the things that I find and the people that work in the archives. 


I feel like this facility is a huge part of the culture of this city. The Public Museum itself is a simply amazing place as well, but I am a little biased. Maybe. [yes]


AND


I have been thinking and pacing and losing sleep [ok just thinking] over ways to utilize the old museum building and incorporate things that I have found in the collections that are particularly interesting or super weird or really anything. I want to show people what we are working with here and what an asset this place is. I want to put together a small, weekend exhibit showcasing these pieces of the collection, invite the public in, show 'em what we got.


I have absolutely no idea if this is even a teenie possibility but I wanted to get it out of ma brain. Before it explodes. Or something.


Happy Ferris Wheel Day!

Day 15: 10 February 2011

My My, Do We Have Military Jackets

I took a pretty epic spill yesterday on some ice after leaving the museum and was a little worried that I would be useless today. I was. But luckily, someone useless was exactly what was needed. The clothing collection is currently housed where the city archives are moving and they need to get outta there. 

Andrea, Kaila, Tim and Jon all worked at getting a start on the moving process. I was assigned task of artifact number registrar. I basically sat and wrote down each number as things were put onto a rack. I felt pretty lame all day. 

Most of what we moved were old military and other public service uniforms. Very cool. I love buttons and it is very interesting to see how they are used on these types of apparel through the years, along with badges and patches. I found an old military button in Baltimore [shout out] last summer and it was a nice little side project looking into what dates it was in use and what uniforms it  was used on. 

[This is my button from Balitmore. I know, totally amazing.]

Anyway, I promise not to fall again and to be more helpful. 

Day 14: 9 February 2011

The Netherlands and Teeny Tiny Clothes


Andrea and I inventoried a few boxes from the Netherlands Ethnological Collections. The first box was filled to the brim with patterns. Little tiny baby clothing patterns. All hand made and insanely adorbs. The box even held many of the garments made from the patterns. I absolutely love when things are in sets. So often things are acquired to museums as simply pieces and parts of things [a reason why I love the lace making tools and photo from day 8]. There were also several samplers. These made me happy I wasn't growing up in the Netherlands as a girl in the 1800s. So many tiny stitches.  


I finished the day entering accession numbers and new locations into the computer. Always a bit daunting, as the list never seems to get shorter, but I was happy to discover that the set of 106 tiles that we inventoried the other day is listed as one unit in the database. That means 105 less numbers to type in and 105 less location codes to enter. It's the little things.

These are two little gems [ducks] from the taxidermy collection. Each little treasure is neatly boxed with a backdrop that should be similar to their habitat. There is also a handle on top for easy transport. [I was simply not aware that dead, stuffed things could be so heavy. I moved a giant owl as well.]

This is a little bitty dress pattern. We also have the dress. 

I thought this was probably the cutest box of cocoa ever. 

We had an entire box of [what I was calling] lady stuffs [all day]. It was really neat to see all of the beaded purses [like this one], hat pins, jewelry and sewing supplies.

Happy Wednesday everyone.

Day 13: 8 February 2011

Data entry makes my fingers numb. 






We were back at inventorying today but we are super behind on entering the locations of objects into the computer. We worked up in the collection for an hour or so and then spent the rest of the day doing data entry. We got almost completely caught up.

I want to know why this person had so many animal skeletons. 

Baby shoes. I mean, come on. So itty bitty.

Baby heels. [Why is it so cute?]

A box of boxes. I love how neatly these are packaged.

Two samurai masks from collections we are going to be inventorying later next week. They are so amazing. And super creepy. I wouldn't mess with that.

Day 12: 3 February 2011

Valenblog


Today Kaila and I started a pretty adorbs side project. We went through boxes of vintage Valentine cards, picked out a few that we liked and photographed them. They are going to go up onto a slideshow on the museum's website or their facebook page as a little Valentine Special. These were some of my favorites.

So grab your hubby and Happy Valentines Day.

Day 11: 2 February 2011

SNOWDAYYYYYY. Look out, winter is here.

Day 10: 1 February 2011

This is only mildly daunting


We have 36 more shelves to inventory. I am sure there will be more. I had several photos for today but they never arrived in my inbox and were deleted from my phone. Silly spacephone. 

Andrea and I worked on ethnological collections from Scotland, Portugal, Poland, the Netherlands etc. There were so many amazing artifacts. Adorable aprons from Portugal, hand stitched and obnoxiously bright. Little plaid tams. Handmade lanterns, painted tiles. Super grand. 


I did manage to snag one photo. [A fellow from my favorite Sufjan Stevens song. Or do I have that backwards?]