The Heritage Collection: An Intern’s Experience
One of my favorite things about working in museums is that no two days are exactly the same— and this has held true in my internship with the Heritage Collection at Minnetrista. It’s been a joy to be able to jump in, work alongside, and learn so much from Mindy and the rest of the Collections and Storytelling team. First, a brief introduction: My name is Kathleen. I study Public History, Fashion, and American Sign Language at Ball State University. I have worked in museum interpretation for just under two years, been an intern at Minnetrista since January, and been a history nerd since before I could read! I love diving into research— going down the rabbit hole— as well as working with my hands and learning new hands-on skills, all of which have led to an internship in collections management being a great fit. It would be difficult to try and sum up the entirety of my experience in just one blog post, so instead, I’m going to share four things I have learned about working in collections through a few brief anecdotes and stories.
Number one: Objects tell stories.
When working with the collection, particularly doing research as part of the cataloging process, I very quickly started to see the ways studying objects from the past gives insight into the people who made and used the item or the time and place it is from. I’ve been cataloging a quilt made by Barbara Moll, a textile artist from Muncie, for the 150th anniversary of the McCall’s magazine. The stitches themselves tell a story. The rows and rows of tiny hand-quilted stitches and the precise way the piecing lines up speak to the skill of the makers and the time they dedicated. However, as I began researching and looking at archival material, I found that there was so much more. Moll’s design notes detailed the symbolic significance of each quilt square she chose and how they all connected to her overall goal to “incorporate the connections, collective experience, and fellowship of women”, specifically focusing on 20th-century women and the similarities and differences between their experiences and those of women in past centuries. I was able to look at the quilt with new eyes and know not only what the designs meant to its maker but with some understanding of what Moll specifically saw as important experiences of womanhood and what issues she saw women facing at the time of making the quilt. Unfortunately, not every object has the extensive documentation that this quilt does. Even so, whether the stories are big or small, there is potential for stories in the things all around you if you know how to look.
Number two: Learning to make the right decisions is about learning the right questions to ask.
There is rarely a situation where one universal “right thing to do” will apply to every object, every circumstance. The collection has objects in a wide variety of materials, conditions, sizes, etc. The unique circumstances of practically every individual object require unique considerations when handling, labeling, moving, storing, and displaying them. Learning a.) what questions to ask myself and b.) the appropriate response given those observations have been so important in learning how to use best practices when interacting with collections objects. An Object Handling workshop by the Indiana Historical Society’s Local History Services provided an excellent example, advising us to ask ourselves questions such as “What is the object made of?”, “Does it have any weak areas, cracks, tears, or loose pieces?”, “What size is the object?”, “What am I wearing?”, “Are my hands clean?”, “Is my route clear?” to determine how to handle or move an object. With time and practice, the process becomes quicker and more automatic. Metal? Gloves. Textile? Wash hands, no gloves. And so on. Confidence builds with experience, but you can’t gain experience without asking questions.
Number three: In collections, you’re going to use your full range of skills— some you’d expect and some you wouldn’t!
When I started my internship, I knew I would be using my research skills, and I knew my prior knowledge of/experience with historic garments would come up with the textile in the collection. However, I could not have anticipated all of the different skills I’ve picked up in different areas of my life that have come in handy during my time at Minnetrista! Many of these have been textile related, such as hand sewing, used for stitching in object labels, and experience creating sewing patterns and fitting garments, which has come into play when dressing mannequins for display. Besides textiles, there are also miscellaneous home improvement skills that have come up, particularly when working with exhibits, like installing paintings at the Bob Ross Experience. And then there are the skills I’ve learned while here! For one example, just in the past week, I’ve started to do some object photography. I had hardly any experience with photography prior to this, so I’ve been learning a lot through the process. The variety of tasks involved in a collections internship makes it a great opportunity to both use existing skills and develop new ones.
Finally, number four: It’s important to be able to laugh!
Sometimes we run into… surprises. When you’re dealing with everything from jars to furniture, from wedding dresses to metalworking tools, from 130-year-old canned pears to six-foot-tall papier mache clocks (couldn’t make up either of those if I tried), you inevitably encounter unexpected situations from time to time. When these challenges come up, it can be helpful (and a lot more fun) to find humor in the situation instead of getting frustrated. Was it the most pleasant task in the world when Mindy and I had to clean expired peanut butter out of some jars so they could be returned to the collection? No. But the sheer absurdity of the situation— being out in the parking lot with masks, gloves, spatulas, a trash can, and the two jars of peanut butter older than either of us— and being able to laugh about it together made a strange, but necessary task more enjoyable. You can take your work seriously without taking yourself too seriously!
My internship this semester has introduced me to a whole aspect of museum work that often goes unseen, but that is vitally important to the field of Public History. No matter where my career takes me after graduation, I know that the skills and lessons I have learned here in the collection at Minnetrista are something I will carry with me for a very long time.
