Upcoming Projects and Furniture Cataloging

First thing this morning I pulled some historic park uniforms, hats, and a saddle from storage for Colleen, the museum curator. Someone came in later in the morning to look at the objects, which belonged to their grandfather when they worked at the park early in the twentieth century. After that, I worked on rehousing for the remainder of the morning and into the afternoon. 

Around lunchtime, Bridgette and I discussed some upcoming cataloging work I will be doing on some ethnographic materials. The objects I will be cataloging were used by Native Americans in ceremonies related to the buffalo management strategy and recent wolf integration, both of which have been very controversial. In order to catalog these materials, I will need to research these issues in detail in order to give them context in the database. Luckily, the HRC has a large binder full of information, documentation, and articles related to these events and ceremonies. However, ethnographic materials often come with stipulations - some objects cannot be handled by women and others can not be associated with certain colors to give two examples. Part of my research will include figuring out whether I am able to handle these objects at all, as the museum takes its responsibility to respect Native traditions very seriously. I am looking forward to researching and learning more about these objects and these ceremonies to the extent that I will be allowed to do so. 

In the afternoon, I worked on cataloging some historic hotel furniture. First, I cataloged a bench from the Old Faithful Inn. Housing this piece was easy because it was already where it belonged in storage, so all I needed to do was tag it with the catalog number. I had trouble figuring out when this bench was made, but Bridgette was able to help me figure that out. These benches are still used in Old Faithful on the observation deck, where visitors sit to watch Old Faithful Geyser erupt. 

Old Faithful Inn bench

After cataloging the Old Faithful bench, I cataloged a bench from the Canyon Hotel, which no longer stands after burning down in the late 1950's. The enormous hotel was slated to be demolished because it was sliding down a hill, but it mysteriously burned down before that could happen. This bench was donated as part of the Davis collection, a huge 3/4 purchase and 1/4 donation of historic Yellowstone objects. The purchase was made possible by the Yellowstone Association and the remainder of the objects in the collection were donated by the Davis family. 

According to the object paperwork, this bench was used in the Canyon Hotel in the mid-1930's. Bridgette showed me a great way to research the dates furniture was used in the park hotels over the years: the museum has scanned photographs of the interiors of the hotels over the years. By looking through the scanned pictures, the museum has been able to date much of their historic furniture collection. 

Canyon Hotel Bench