Week 3 Days 5 and 6 (May 27 and 28): Phase 1 is officially over

Sorry again for the late response (I've apologized way too many times and should just stick to the habit of posting on time). I shall keep this short and sweet since this week was very much like the last. The only difference is that I finally finished taking inventory of all the items on the shelf. All I have to do now is go back and tweak some things on the new database. I'm really proud that I got this far and that I was part of the process of creating an actual database. I feel like this was the easy part and the hard part begins next week when Christine and I begin creating collections. Thankfully Dr. Beiler (that's my supervisor at UCF in case I haven't mentioned her before) shone a light towards what direction I should take this and where to find valuable information on how archiving really works. I'm terrified because I'm just really hoping I don't screw this up. On the other hand I truly feel like I'm leaving my mark on this awesome little museum which has come to mean so much to me in three short weeks.

By the way Christine finally showed me the attic and it's pretty huge. It was clearly more than an attic when it was first built and more of an upper level for extra bedroom space. The attic is where they keep this slightly creepy mannequin which from what I heard was put up there due to its creepiness. Christine warned me that the room I was stepping into held the actual mannequin but that didn't stop me from letting out a yelp the moment I saw it's face. She thought it was hilarious, I'm pretty sure I had a mini heart attack. She then showed me this little room which in and of itself was creepy because even though the sun was shining bright outside, the room was WAY too dark for my liking. For whatever reason we both got really quiet and just stared into it when the air conditioning cut on, making this really loud noise, which inevitably made Christine create her own little yelp (sweet, sweet revenge for laughing at my totally logical fears of life sized dolls). While we're on the subject of things that go bump in the night, Christine told me that she doesn't like to go up there unless there is someone else in the museum because she doesn't want to accidentally get hurt or trip down the stairs and no one will be there to help her or hear her. Look, I'm a pretty smart cookie and I know what that she REALLY means. She doesn't want to be pushed down the stairs and the last thing she sees when she looks back is the face of a haunted mannequin looking down at her as she meets her doom at the bottom of the stairs. That's not a way you want to go and no one would believe you anyways. When no one's around does a mannequin maniacally laugh out loud?

Anyways that's all for now and I promise to post at least one picture next week of this way too realistic mannequin.

P.S. I just read the last line to my first paragraph and realized it sounds like I'm declaring my love to a building. Nicholas Sparks I hope you're reading...you just found your next big sappy novel/blockbuster.

Week 2 Days 3 and 4 (May 20 and 21): The work continues

So Tuesday and Wednesday consisted of more independent days which have come as a huge learning tool for my internship. As much as my boss Christine continues to apologize because she feels like she's not there for every uncovering of every box it gives me a sense of independence to do it on my own and figure out little problems as I go (honestly she doesn't even need to apologize since she answers every question I have and is always there if I truly get stumped).

Side note: Christine introduced me to the assistant curator, Bethany Gray, last week and she is hilarious. Put those two women together and they are honestly a riot. It is NEVER dull day when they are both working on an exhibit together. I wanna be just like them when I grow up.

Back to my internship. If I'm not mistaken I got about 8 shelves done in the span of two days. I know that may not sound like a lot but this is also part of the learning process which is the people I work for have A LOT of meetings to go to. Apparently this is the norm. Learning to balance your work out around other peoples schedules. This is definitely something I need to keep in mind if I ever take a job on like this in the future. The reality is that there are a thousand things to do, everything from giving tours, sending emails, several meetings within a day and possibly holding down more than one job at a time. Time management has become my best friend so far and I've told procrastination to take a backseat.

I know it sounds like you don't have time to procrastinate but it is up to you (or really me) to set a pace, work on my own and get the job done. Advice to anyone who ever takes on a job like this or needs to take a large amount of inventory: as tempting as it is to get on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Buzzfeed, etc. just don't do it. I've learned that taking breaks is fine and even encouraged but social media or browsing the internet just because your mind wanders a bit isn't going to get you through that next box of phone manuals (I found way too many of those this week).

I found some really interesting things and learned some cool trivia about specific people and the files that were in the research library. Found a few books written by Rose Cleveland (sister and temporary First Lady to President Grove Cleveland). I was a little confused as to why her books were in any of the boxes I was searching through and why she even had her own file until I did a bit of research. Apparently Rose was totally in love with Episcopalian bishop, Reverend Henry Benjamin Whipple's second wife, Evangeline Simpson. For those who don't know, although Rev. Whipple lived his life mainly in Minnesota, he had a winter home in Maitland, Florida. After his death both Rose and Evangeline continued their lives together in Italy where Rose would eventually die and 12 years later Evangeline would also pass away and be buried next to her long time lover and possibly soul mate (no idea if they were soul mates but it adds to the drama). I just really want to know why this hasn't been made into a soap opera yet. Besides dramatic love stories I also promised to deliver some pictures of some of my more interesting finds and I shall not disappoint my readers.

A close up of some of Maitland's original minutes. As you can see there is a date written on there for 1906 but actually contains the minutes between 1897 - 1916. 

Another photo of Maitland's original minutes 

A very old toaster that I found. It even has the original detachable plug in the box.  

The 1931 sign in book for the registered voters of Lake Maitland. Includes correspondence sent to the town clerk about people who signed up to vote but were possibly not from Maitland. Enclosed with this correspondence is a huge list of all the people who are believed to be real Maitland residents and a more detailed list of people who moved to other cities and the addresses they were possibly living at proving they were no longer Maitland residents.

Have a great weekend, hope you enjoyed my post and hopefully I'll have more pictures for you next week. 

Week 1 Day 2: The real work begins

Apologies for the late update since this was technically due yesterday. However just keeping on track with my second day on the job. Yesterday was definitely more of an independent experience. Christine was working on an exhibit for the museum so I knew that I would be doing a lot more solo work. She of course was still available if I had any questions and she was only a few steps away but that didn't mean I wasn't a bit nervous to work a full day by myself. I just really didn't want to mess up or let anyone down. Once I got into the rhythm of looking through a few boxes I was able to work faster and easily recognizing the old items I was looking at, and what type of importance they held to both the Maitland Historical Museum, the Telephone Museum and the Waterhouse Museum which is also under Christine's care and one of the branches of the Art and History Museums of Maitland.

 Just a little background on the Waterhouse Museum so as not to confuse anyone, it is the former home of pioneer settler and builder William H. Waterhouse. The Waterhouse family were a prominent bunch in the early days of Maitland and the home is an impressive view of Florida living (okay so rich Florida living) during the Victorian period.

I'd also like to give a little run through of the Telephone Museum and the Maitland Historical Museum (something I should have done on my first post but I'll just give a quick run through now). The Telephone Museum displays the early years of telephone technology and more specifically early telephone service in Central Florida and Maitland. The museum also includes the local history of the Winter Park Telephone Company.

The Maitland Historical Museum houses some of the phones from the Telephone Museum and highlights some of the pioneer families of Maitland which includes the Galloway family, the Waterhouse family and the legacy of Andre Smith. Here you can find different stages of what life was like in Maitland and Central Florida as well as housing the research library.

Pretty sure I've covered everything so back to my internship, Christine and I came up with a shorter way of getting through the boxes quickly without having to write down too much detail about every single piece within a box, which I'm sure I talked about in my first post. So with that in mind, I used this same method while taking inventory of all the boxes on the second side of the first bookshelf (also known as Case 2). Christine came up with a "priority scale" of 1-5, 1 being very important and 5 being something that isn't as important and considered a common item. While all of the items in the museum are stored within boxes, it can be a little difficult to find specific objects or documents and I wasn't always sure what I was going to find when I opened a box. Some moments were more frustrating than others but I understood no matter what I had to get through as many boxes as I possibly could. I'm proud to say that I got through 5 1/2 shelves located on Case 2 all by myself. Hopefully next Tuesday I can be even more productive and be one step closer to finishing up my inventory so I can begin to put together a collection or two.

Also just a small story but the house where the Maitland Historical Museum is in is a bit creepy since the house is very old. Connected to the research library is a small room/closet/bathroom closed off by some curtains and unless you turn the light on in there it is very dark even with the light of the research library on. Yeah well I was trying hard to be brave and not let my imagination get the best of me as I stood next to said room with Christine having a conversation of how far I had gotten, when I began hearing noises. Honestly the sound resembled small pebbles being thrown or small objects being moved. I stopped mid-conversation and just stared at whatever I thought was going to come after Christine and I because in my head I swore the ghost of whoever used to live there was going to start throwing enough pebbles at us to kill us both! Turned out that part of the house has some kind of thin roofing material and it was just rain. Christine thought it was hilarious, I saw my life flash before my eyes. But it doesn't matter I'm totally gonna tell people how I faced off with a ghost and didn't die.

Week 1 Day 1: Short intro. about yours truly, about my internship and my first day on the job

Hello all, my name is Ambar Payne and I am currently a senior at the University of Central Florida. I am majoring in history and hope to be enrolled in a Master's program in library science by 2015. My hope is that this internship will give me some up close and hands on experience of the type of work archivists are tasked with. This blog will be all about said internship, the work I'll be doing, the learning experience I'll gain and of course some of the problems I'll have to deal with head on.

I might have possibly rambled a bit so to get to the point what IS my internship about? I'll be working this entire summer with the Maitland Historical Museum's archives (aka their research library) alongside museum curator, historian and all around awesome lady Christine French. I'll be taking inventory of all the boxed and shelved materials which have been placed on four large, moving shelves (you know which bookshelves I'm talking about, the ones where getting crushed in between them could actually happen but no one wants to talk about it at the funeral because it's such a weird way to die). This includes both written documents and "3D" objects such as telegraphs, antique porcelain dolls, women's clothing from the 19th and 20th century and really anything else that has been donated. After I've taken inventory of all the boxes on all the shelves Christine and I will create categories or collections in which to place all of these items.

The goal was to do a shelf a week but today, on our first day, we managed to do a full 5 shelves. Between the both of us we plugged in as much information as we could into an Excel spreadsheet, breaking down these items as much as possible. The more detailed the easier to find. Until we ran into the problem of, "Hey wow, that last box had two items and this one has 20. Lets get a new strategy going." Apparently these types of problems happen in small museums all the time so I just took a deep breath, hoped for the best and revised our strategy. Things that may not be as important definitely get a description because we need to know what is in the box, which has become its temporary home, but anything that was incredibly important received much more detail and given a higher priority (sorry plastic View Master, you were cool but how did you get here?).

I realized how much I really don't know about archiving and no matter how much history I think I know, the more objects I pulled out of a box the more I didn't realize what it was or from what era it came from. I definitely have a lot to learn but I'm not ashamed of that, in fact that really gets me excited because it gives me a chance to learn something new, allow me to be more independent in my work and I haven't had this much fun in a long time. It's like going to work without realizing that's what you're there for and like rummaging through a really cool antique shop looking and touching things that were created over a 100 years ago.

I think this is enough for now but I'll be back to write more everyday I have to "work." Tomorrow I'll be doing a lot more solo work with Christine taking a little bit of a backseat, where today I got more of a pattern going with very close supervision. I'll try to upload some pictures, give little tidbits about the Maitland Historical Museum and all the work I'll be doing. Until tomorrow folks!

-Ambar the History Student