Yellowstone Heritage and Research Center Internship

Finishing up a few little things

2009-08-12T17:12:00.003-06:00

I spent the day today finishing up some things around the office. In the morning, I worked on a box for a ceremonial pipe that I will be cataloging tomorrow. I also learned how to enter appraisal values into ANCS+ and entered in the values for several objects that I have already cataloged. Then, Colleen had me enter the results of our accession inventory into ANCS+.

After lunch, Colleen gave me and John a researcher's request of photos and negatives to pull from storage and scan. The list was lengthy and it took us about an hour to pull everything. Afterwards, we started scanning each one, which I hope to finish by the end of tomorrow. I can't believe that tomorrow is already my last day of work. It has really snuck up on me!

Installation of Fort Yellowstone Case

2009-08-11T19:13:00.010-06:00

Today, John and I installed the last of the exhibit cases. Our fellow intern Jake had done all the work for the case, but his last day was last Thursday and he did not have time to install it. We used the photos Jake took of his mock up as our guide throughout the installation so the exhibit would be as true to his vision as possible.

After looking at Jake's mock up, we realized that we did not have all the labels we needed. Although we distinctly remember mounting them last Thursday, they were nowhere to be found. After a long search, we finally decided to reprint and remount them.

Like me, Jake had made his own mannequin for his case. His displayed an army uniform from Fort Yellowstone before NPS was created. Although his mannequin looked amazing, we ended up putting the uniform on one of the new mannequins that Colleen had ordered that came in yesterday. The new mannequins have very sturdy bases, whereas Jake's had a pole through the leg that would fit into a base that he made out of block ethafoam hidden under one of our wooden platforms. Jake's mannequin and base were probably more than adequate, but we decided we might as well use one of the new mannequins just to be sure.

Getting the uniform onto the mannequin proved to be quite challenging. The pants and jacket to the uniform belonged to different people and were very different sizes. The pants were too small to fit on the male manneqin, but fit perfectly on our female mannequin (we were thinking about padding the stomach of the female mannequin to make the coat fit). The jacket was way too big for the female mannequin but fit perfectly on the male mannequin. Our solution was to use the male mannequin but not to button up the pants. We found that they stayed up on their own without being buttoned and that this did not put any stress on the pants. After finishing the mannequin, we started installing the case.

We put the mannequin into the case first. Then we worked to arrange the labels and photographs the way Jake wanted them. We did have to reimagine the exhibit a little bit, because some photos were mounted larger than they were in the mock up.

Jake's case after installation

After finishing Jake's case, we finished up the platform in the corner between my two cases. John put two small metal hook and eye's into the wall behind each ski. Then we attached the skis to the hook and eye with fishing line. This will make it more difficult to steal the skis and will also ensure that they stay standing up and do not fall over.

Stove and skis with photos behind

My two cases and the platform with skis and stove

After attaching the skis to the wall, I put up my last photos and labels on the walls in that corner area. Now, the exhibit is completely installed and it looks great!

Installation of Poaching Case

2009-08-10T19:23:00.002-06:00

Today I concentrated on installing the "Poaching and Army Scouts" exhibit case. In the morning, I worked on mounting a few labels that had not been printed last week. I started installing the exhibit in the afternoon and it took the rest of the day to complete. For the most part, the case stayed true to my mock up, but I did decide to put four photos on the wall outside the case rather than inside so that they would not be crowded. I finished installing the case, but did not have time to finish installing the stove and skis on the platform outside the case or to put the photos and corresponding labels on the walls above the platform. Hopefully by the end of the day tomorrow I will be completely finished installing!

Poaching/Army Scouts Case

Installation of NPS Case

2009-08-06T21:37:00.003-06:00

This morning, I finished making exhibit mounts, including a stand that will hold Peter Holt's diary and one to hold an assortment of NPS badges, patches and pins. Both of these mounts will hold the objects at a slight angle for better viewing.

Next, I finished mounting and trimming all of my text panels. When all the mounts and text were finished, I was able to begin installing my "Creation of the National Park Service" case. I began by installing the mannequin that I made a few weeks ago to display the early NPS uniform. As the top of the mannequin is a coat hanger, I needed a pole to run along the top of the case to hang it from. I wrapped a small metal pole in muslin and then Colleen helped me secure the pole inside the top of the case with pins. Then I was able to hang the mannequin from the pole.

From there, I arranged all of the other objects inside the case and then lined up all my text panels the way I wanted them. Then I began attaching text panels to othe back and left side of the case. Please note: as the side of the case is clear glass, I made two each of the photos and text panels that I attached to each side of the side panel. That way, I could utilize the sides of the case. I finished the case at the end of the workday, and will have to install my other case on Monday.

Mounting text panels

The finished product

Photo Mounting and Label Issues

2009-08-05T17:41:00.011-06:00

This morning, the entire staff of the HRC went out to breakfast at the Roosevelt Hotel. As it is nearing the end of the summer, it was nice to get out and spend a little down time together before we all leave.

When we returned to work, I finished mounting and trimming all of my photos. After I finished, Bridgette and I figured out how to put a photograph behind each of my group labels. We "washed out" the photographs so that they would be very light, yet visible behind the text. As our labels will be printed on white paper, this will eliminate an overabundance of the color white in our exhibits.

I also scanned and printed two pages of Peter Holt's scout journal for the exhibit. As the journal was wrongly stored open in the past, it lays flat naturally and does not close. When I exhibit the journal, it will be open, but with a layer of acid free paper on top of the open pages and the printout of the scanned pages laying on top to protect the pages from light damage.

Peter Holt's Diary (right) and reproduction (left)

By mid-afternoon, I was ready to print my text so that I could begin mounting it. Unfortunately, we did not have a standard text size for the exhibit. It has been very frustrating that I have had to change my text size and layout several times in the last 3 days because none of the interns could agree on a text size for each of the types of labels. Bridgette and I finally decided on a standard size for the cases, and as soon as everyone else has finalized their labels, I will standardize their text to make sure they are all the same. Although I had changed my own text to the correct size and layout, we had some printer issues which kept me from printing them. To say the least, this was incredibly frustrating. Eventually, I walked away from that to do some exhibit mount making.

We are making very simple exhibit mounts. Basically, we are making stands for the objects we are exhibiting out of the materials we have on hand. I made a stand for the megaphone by covering a square of block ethafoam with muslin, secured with pins. I also made a small stand to hold a photo of Peter Holt up on the platform at an angle. I cut the block out of ethafoam, and again pinned muslin over it.

Exhibit mount

I am hoping that tomorrow I will be able to print and mount my labels, finish making exhibit mounts, and start installing my exhibit.

Wolf Skulls and Mounting Photos

2009-08-04T07:12:00.002-06:00

This morning, Erica and I worked on gluing wolf teeth back into their skulls. The Yellowstone Wolf Project collects the skulls of all of the original and descendents of the original wolves that were reintroduced into Yellowstone in 1996. Researchers remove teeth to extract DNA and to collect other infromation about the wolves' health and lives in the park. When they are not being studied by the wolf project, the wolf skulls are stored in the HRC and belong to the museum collection.

Erica and I used Fixodent Free (water soluble/no dyes) to reattach the teeth to their skulls. Most of the time, we had to attach only one or two teeth to each individual skull, but sometimes there were multiple teeth to reattach. In these cases, it seemed like putting together a puzzle as we had to use trial and error to figure out which teeth went where.

Before attaching tooth

After attaching tooth

After gluing in all the wolf teeth, Bridgette taught us how to mount photographs onto foam board for the exhibit. Basically, we cut pieces of foam board that are a little bigger than the photos. Then, between the photo and the foam board, we placed pieces on dry mount adhesive paper that were cut the same size as the photographs. We placed these into a dry mount press, which closes over the photograph, adhesive paper, and foam board and heats them at 250 degrees to attach the photo to the foam board. I finished this process for about five photos and will finish mounting my photos tomorrow.

Dry mount press

Mocking Up My Exhibit Cases

2009-08-03T06:04:00.007-06:00

This morning, I did some final editing of my exhibit text before handing it over to Colleen and Bridgette for editing and approval. They made a few small changes, but overall thought they were great.

Afterwards, I concentrated on mocking up my exhibit cases to make sure everything would fit and to get an idea of how big I should print out my photographs. I mocked up the "Creation of NPS" case first. I set aside half of the case for the mannequin I made last Thursday with the early NPS uniform (represented by the boots in the photo). Please note: the back of the cases we will be using in the exhibit have wooden backs, rather than the clear glass backs in the mock up case.

In the other half of the case, I set up a platform for some smaller objects. There, I set the revolver and holster and megaphone I had selected for the case earlier. I had originally planned to set the NPS hat on this platform as well, but it ended up being too big. Instead, I decided to exhibit a selection of early NPS badges, patches, and pins.

Unfortunately, these patches, buttons and pins have very little documentation in ANCS+. None of them had dates of use so I wasn't sure which ones would be from the early NPS era. Bridgette showed me a great NPS website about early uniforms, pins, hats, and badges that I could use to find out which ones from the collection would work in the exhibit. I selected a small assortment from the early NPS era for the exhibit, which I arranged on foam blocks. In the exhibit, I will have them slanted slightly forward for better visibility.

After finishing my mock up of that case, I photographed it so that I would remember the layout and then removed everything from the case so I could mock up the "Poaching and Army Scouts" case.

In that case, I used a platform on the right side of the case to display smaller objects, including a small trap, camera and diary belonging to Army scout Peter Holt, and book of rules and regulations for soldiers and scouts. Between the diary and camera I put a small photograph of Peter Holt, which will be propped up at an angle. The camera opens up, so it will be displayed open if possible (we have to figure out how to open it).

The left side of the case is empty in the mock up, but in the exhibit it will contain a stuffed baby black bear that is standing on its hind legs. Beside it (if there is room) will be a large metal bear trap. Behind it, leaning against the back of the case in the center, will be a rifle confiscated from a poacher. The photos and labels discuss the Army scouts who policed the backcountry against poachers.

The photos in the mock ups are not the size that they will be in the final exhibit. Most will be 5x7 inches or 8x10 inches. The mock up also helped us decide to print the group labels larger than the object labels so that they stand out from them. Originally, the group and object labels were 26 point font, so we will increase the size of the group labels.

All in all, I am very happy with the way my mock ups came out, and am hoping I will have time to install them before I leave next Thursday.

Making a Mannequin

2009-07-30T17:11:00.004-06:00

I spent most of today constructing a mannequin for the early ranger uniform that I will be using in the "Creation of the National Park Service" case. The HRC does not have any mannequins, but will be getting some in a few weeks, so this one will be temporary.

I began by attaching a padded coat hanger to a large, torso sized piece of block ethafoam wrapped with batting. I attached them by tying them together with twill tape. Then, I covered the whole thing with muslin, which I pinned into the block ethafoam.

To hold the pants onto the bottom of the ethafoam, I made a makeshift belt out of a strip of muslin. Then, I made "suspenders" out of twill tape to hold the pants up. I rolled pieces of sheet ethafoam and tied them into tubes, which I used to "fill" the legs, and later, the arms. Next, I placed the coat on the hanger and used a little batting to fill the extra space between the jacket and the hanger and block ethafoam. I "filled" the arms the same way I did the legs.

The finished product will hang from a pole across the top of the exhibit case. Making the mannequin was definitely a process of trial and error, and I had to be creative to make it work. In the future, I will certainly appreciate the convenience of using a mannequin!

Label Writing for Creation of NPS Case

2009-07-29T17:03:00.009-06:00

Today I concentrated on label writing for the "Creation of the National Park Service" exhibit case. I also picked out a few new objects for that case. Here are some of the objects and labels I worked on today:

Group Label for case:

In the first decade of the twentieth century, internal and external forces pushed Congress to transfer power in Yellowstone from military to civilian administration:

Poor discipline and morale among the ranks at Fort Yellowstone
Soldiers’ general lack of park knowledge due to frequent transfers
Numerous government agencies were responsible for separate areas of park management, which was expensive and unwieldy
As WWI approached, it became hard to justify a military presence in the park when soldiers would be needed overseas
The problem of poaching was being replaced with the need to guide and police tourists

On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the National Park Service Organic Act into law. This began the two-year transfer of power from military to civilian governance under the newly formed National Park Service. The Army and the park service administered Yellowstone together until the last soldiers left in 1918.

Object Labels:

Ranger Boots, Circa 1925
YELL 106496

Revolver, Circa 1915
Smith and Wesson .38 – Special
YELL 134032a

Two Automobiles with Rangers and Visitors, Circa 1920
M.P. Skinner, Photographer
YELL 87186 (Reproduction)

Beginning in 1915, the new popularity of the automobile brought record numbers of visitors into Yellowstone. Updating the park’s infrastructure would be a major challenge during the early years of National Park Service administration.

Vehicle Decal, 1923

YELL 129070 (Reproduction)

Megaphone, Circa 1920
YELL 14124

Early park rangers in Yellowstone used megaphones to speak to large audiences during interpretive programs.

Ranger Petting Deer, Circa 1920
M.P. Skinner, Photographer
YELL 87091-1 (Reproduction)

Stephen Mather, Circa 1920
Photographer Unknown
YELL 7713 (Reproduction)

Working as assistant to the secretary of the interior beginning in 1915, Stephen Mather led a campaign to establish a federal agency to manage all of the national parks. When the National Park Service was established in 1916, Mather became the agency’s first director.

Horace Albright, 1925
Photographer Unknown
YELL 7634 (Reproduction)

As Stephen Mather’s secretary, Horace Albright attended meetings and discussions throughout the summer of 1916 about the National Park Service bill until its enactment in August. Named assistant director when the National Park Service was created, Albright served as acting director when Mather fell ill later that year. In that role, from 1917 to 1919, Albright set up the organizational structure and procedures for the National Park Service and urged Congress to appropriate money to run the new agency. Albright later served as superintendent of Yellowstone National Park (and of Yosemite briefly) from 1919-1929 and as director of the National Park Service from 1929-1933.

Rangers on Horseback, Early 1920’s
Photographer Unknown
YELL 10116 (Reproduction)

“I am convinced that with a properly organized civil guard the administration of this park could be brought to a higher and better standard, in two or three years, than could ever be attained by the successive changes of troops detailed by the roster from the Army... Cost of protection by a civil guard would be less than one-third of the cost by the present method.”
–Superintendent Young, Superintendent’s Annual Report for Yellowstone National Park, 1907

Label Writing for Poaching Case

2009-07-28T17:08:00.005-06:00

This morning, I met with Bob Flather, a retired park ranger and historian who has spent years researching army scouts and snowshoe cabins. He was able to provide me with a lot of useful information and clarify some important details for me. Bob recommend that I concentrate on the difficulty, hardship, and danger of being an army scout.

After meeting with Bob, I concentrated on object labels for the case on poaching and army scouts. I was able to come very close to finishing my labels for that case. The only label I have left to write will summarize the case as a whole. Here are some examples of labels I wrote today:

Skis, Date Unknown
YELL 1956
YELL 1957

Army scouts patrolled Yellowstone’s backcountry on cross country skis, called “snowshoes.”

Mud Volcano Cabin in Winter, 1913
F.J. Haynes, Photographer
Courtesy Haynes Foundation Collection, Montana Historical Society, Helena, MT
YELL 127295 (Reproduction)

Before the first snowshoe cabins were built in 1890, army scouts slept outside with no shelter from the elements. Equipped with stoves and mats for sleeping, the tiny cabins provided limited comfort and protection from the weather. On occasion, unfortunate scouts would arrive, shivering and exhausted, to find their cabin burned by poachers or the roof caved in from the weight of the snow.

Scouts on Patrol Trip to Fall River, 1897
Photographer Unknown
YELL 7147 (Reproduction)

“I never knew until I had seen the Park itself in all its immensity, its impenetrableness, its forbidding and awful regions of forest, precipice and crag, until I had traversed with weary feet some of those endless miles of bottomless snow; until I learned how utterly small, lonely and insignificant a man looks and feels in the midst of solitude so vast, so boundless, so tremendous and so appalling.”

-- Emerson Hough, reporter for Forest and Stream magazine

Capture of Poacher Ed Howell, 1915
Photographer Unknown
YELL 1659 (Reproduction)

“When I saw him he was about 400 yards away from the cover of the timber. I knew I had to cross that open space before I could get him sure. I had no rifle, but only an army revolver, .38 cal. the new model… Howell’s rifle was leaning against a dead buffalo, about fifteen feet away from him… I thought I could maybe get across without Howell seeing or hearing me, for the wind was blowing very hard. So I started over from the cover, going as fast as I could travel. Right square across the way I found a ditch about ten feet wide, and you know how hard it is to make a jump with snowshoes (skis) on level ground. I had to try it, anyhow and somehow I got over. I ran up within fifteen feet of Howell between him and his gun before I called to him to throw up his hands, and that was the first he knew of anyone but him being anywhere in that country.”

--Army Scout Felix Burgess on his capture of poacher Ed Howell

Army Officers with Buffalo Confiscated from Poacher, circa 1900
Photographer Unknown
YELL 7757 (Reproduction)

A cache of eight buffalo heads was discovered by Army scouts at Ed Howell’s campsite just before capturing the notorious poacher.

Camera, 1895
The Blair Camera Co., Model 2367
Used by Army Scout Peter Holt
YELL 7148

“an old camera that I carried for many years in my pack on snowshoe trips…”
--Peter Holt, Letter to Chester Allinson Lindsley, December 1925

I know some of the labels are a little long, but the exhibit is very small so I am hoping people will take the time to read them. The rest of the labels will be very short or "tombstone" labels only to make up for the length of the text in some of these. I think the first person accounts will make the exhibit a lot more engaging, especially Felix Burgess' account of capturing the famous poacher, Ed Howell.

Exhibit Research and Label Writing

2009-07-27T17:08:00.003-06:00

Today I continued my exhibit research, concentrating on the "Creation of the National Park Service" case. I identifed the reasons the Army administration of the park prior to 1916 was inadequate and took notes to use later in writing exhibit labels. After researching most of the morning, I was able to begin drafting exhibit labels for that case in the afternoon. Here is what I have so far (that I am satisfied with). It may be a little long, but it is still in draft form:

Unique challenges during military management of Yellowstone made the creation of a civilian administration desirable for park administrators and members of Congress. Poor discipline, lack of park knowledge, and frequent transfers in and out of Yellowstone made soldiers ineffective. Several government agencies – the Army Corps of Engineers, the Secretary of War, and the Department of Interior – were all responsible for separate areas of park management, resulting in expensive and unwieldy park administration. After thirty-two years of military management in Yellowstone, President Woodrow Wilson signed the National Park Service Organic Act into law in August 1916, creating the National Park Service.

I also spent considerable time looking for copies of the original Lacey Act of 1894 and National Park Service Organic Act of 1916 for my cases. The Lacey Act allowed for prosecution of poachers in the park, while the Organic Act created the civilian-run National Park Service. I found related documents, as well as the text of the documents I was looking for, but was unable to find scans of the original documents.

The museum interns met this afternoon to discuss our progress on our cases and to determine where our topics (and objects) overlap. We want to make sure our cases compliment each other and are not overly repetitive.

Object Selection and Scanning

2009-07-23T17:35:00.005-06:00

Today I continued working on the new exhibit. I pulled all of the objects that I have chosen so far for the cases. The three dimensional objects I have chosen for the poaching/civilian and army scout case include a bear trap, a small game trap, wooden cross country skiis, a camera used by a scout, a leather bound pamphlet of rules and regulations for Army soldiers and civilian scouts, a rifle confiscated from a poacher, and a pistol found in a cache which likely belonged to a poacher. I have also chosen several photos portraying scouts and the snoeshoe cabins they used in the winter. After pulling the objects from storage, I scanned the photographs so they will be ready to print and mount for the exhibit.

Mud Volcano Snoeshoe Cabin

Dead Buffalo, killed by poachers

Soldiers from the Soda Butte Soldier Station

Army Scouts

I am having a little trouble finding three dimensional objects for the "Creation of the National Park Service" case. So far, all I have an early NPS ranger uniform (including hat, boots, shirt, and pants). I have selected a few photographs for this case as well: portraits of Stephen Mather and Chester Lindsley, who were both very important figures during the transition from Army to civilian control of the park. I still need to select a portrait of Horace Albright, an early superintendent of Yellowstone and later, the director of the National Park Service.

Chester A. Lindsley

Stephen Mather

After scanning the photographs, I made identification, or "tombstone" labels for the objects I have already selected. Then, I went to the library to do some additional research for the exhibit text labels. I found some transcripts of scout diaries and a few articles, and proceeded to read them and some history books for the remainder of the day. At 5:00 pm, my brother (who is visiting) came by for an insider's tour of the collection and storage area. He was really excited to see all the objects and what I have been working on all summer.

Exhibit Work

2009-07-21T17:13:00.003-06:00

I worked on the exhibit almost all day today. In the morning, I continued researching for my cases and looked for objects that would be appropriate for the topics I am covering. In the morning, I met with Chris, who I will be working on the "Creation of the National Park Service" case with. Chris is an intern at the archives here at the HRC. We spent about an hour looking for photos and documents in the archives and discussing our game plan for the exhibit. At first, we had different ideas about what the case should cover. Chris wanted to focus on animal management issues because he had uncovered some really great photos and documents from the early years of the National Park Service related to this topic. Some photos even showed President Coolidge feeding bears during a park visit in the late 1920's. I had a different idea of what the case should be about after reading through the book on the history of park management in Yellowstone. We discussed our viewpoints and decided to focus more on the administrative history, especially since another case will likely cover animal and tourist management during the Army years.

After lunch, I met with Maeve, an intern from the library who I will be working on my Army years case with. Maeve and I went into the museum storage area and examined all the objects I had found in ANCS+ that might work in our case. Yesterday, we had thought the case would cover both Army responses to poaching and animal management. Now another group will cover animal management and our case will cover how both the Army and civilian scouts fought poaching in the park. Some of the objects we will be using include skiis (used by Army and civilian scouts to patrol the park in the winter), bear and beaver traps, a gun confiscated from a poacher, a leather book of rules and regulations for army and civilian scouts, and photos of scouts, army officers, and poachers with their kills.

Because the library and archive interns have only a few hours every week to meet with us about the exhibit, today Bridgette gave the museum interns the okay to take the lead on the exhibit cases as we will be working exclusively on the exhibits from here on out. We will be consulting our partners for their opinions about things, to edit labels, and things like that, but we are now able to start making executive decisions and choosing objects to put in the cases and scanning photos for the exhibit. This will definitely allow us to make more progress on the exhibit and I am excited to get to work!

Exhibit Research

2009-07-20T17:17:00.000-06:00

This morning I began doing research for the two cases I will be working on for the new exhibit about early park administration in Yellowstone. The two cases I will be responsible for are on the Army years (one of three cases on this topic) and on the creation of the National Park Service. I started by reading a chapter in "Managing the 'Matchless Wonders': A History of Administrative Development in Yellowstone National Park, 1872-1965." From that resource, I learned about the Army years, and the main issues the Army dealt with when they ran the park.

After reading a while, I took a break to rehouse a sign from the previous exhibit, which the other interns deinstalled on Thursday (I had the day off because my brother was visiting). The previous exhibit was about the fires of 1988, which burned one third of Yellowstone National Park. The sign I rehoused was a trail sign that was burned in the fire, but is still readable. I made a box to fit the sign and lined it with ethafoam. I secured the sign in the box with twine tape.

The rehoused sign from the '88 fires

After rehousing the sign, the three museum interns working on Army cases (me, Erica, Jake) had a meeting to determine the topics for the three cases. Since I had just read about that era, I suggested that one of the cases be about poaching and vandalism and another be about army management of tourists and animals. Jake and Erica liked the idea, and we decided that the third case should be about Fort Yellowstone, the army base in Mammoth that remains to this day.

Specifically, I will be working on the Army case about poaching and vandalism in the park. I started looking for objects from the collection that would be appropriate for that case, and came up with a list of objects and photos that might work by searching in ANCS+. I am going to wait to look at the objects until Maeve, the library intern who I will be working on the case with, will be available to look at them with me (she has the day off today).

I spent the remainder of the day reading and continuing my research for my exhibit cases. The exhibit is our priority for the rest of the summer.

Finishing the Black Albums

2009-07-15T17:15:00.000-06:00

First thing this morning, I photographed each page of my second black album for the catalog record. After uploading all of the photos onto the computer, I continued cropping and rotating them one by one (between the two albums, about 320 photos). As you will recall from yesterday's post, I also had to save each photo in a high resolution TIFF file and as a much smaller file for the ANCS+ record. I finished that process in the early afternoon.

Photographing one of the black albums

After finishing with the photos, I was finally able to begin my catalog records in ANCS+. I pasted my catalog entry from Microsoft Word into the description field and uploaded photos of each page into the database for each of my two albums. When I finished the catalog records, the only thing left to do was interleave every page in the albums with sheets of acid-free paper. Upon completing this, I put the albums in their boxes and back into storage. The HRC was required to finish cataloging 10 albums by the end of the fiscal year (in September), and we completed 8 of them during these past two weeks. One of the interns will probably be cataloging one more because he will be here a few weeks longer than the rest of us, so the staff is confident (and extatic!) that they will meet their goal.

Interleaving an album with acid-free paper

After finishing the album, I tied up a few loose ends before discussing the exhibit with Bridget and the other museum interns. Now that the albums are completed, we are going to be focusing on the exhibit for the rest of the summer. First we will take down the current exhibit (which they may be doing tomorrow, but I have the day off because my brother is coming for a visit). Then, we will be choosing objects for our new cases (on early park administration), writing labels, etc.

More Black Album Work

2009-07-14T18:02:00.002-06:00

Today I finished cataloging my second black album in Microsoft Word. I completed this work at around 2PM. I wanted to jump right into photographing the album, but some of my coworkers were already using the camera, so I rehoused some glasses until they were done. I photographed all 191 pages of my album, which went pretty quickly despite having to upload photos frequently to make room in the camera's memory card. After, photographing and uploading all the photos, I worked on editing the photos and re-saving them both as TIFF files and as small files to be uploaded into ANCS+ when I make my catalog entry. The TIFF files will be kept in a folder on the shared drive, where people will have access to them in perpetuity (TIFF files do not pixelate over time). Tomorrow I plan to photograph my other album and work on cropping and resaving all my images so that I will be ready to create my catalog records next week.

Another Black Album Day

2009-07-13T17:52:00.000-06:00

Today I continued labeling all of the uncataloged photos in my second black album. The labeling is a long and tedious process, which took all day until 3PM. I ended up labeling 502 photos in this album that had not yet been cataloged. When I finished labeling the photos, I began the catalog record in Microsoft Word, just as I did on the last black album. I was pleased to get through about one quarter of the album, and am hopeful that I will complete the catalog record by the end of the day tomorrow.

Here is a sample of what the catalog record looks like in Word. The photo IDs are other numbers used by others (usually the photographer's own cataloging system). As you will see, completing one of these entries for each of 191 pages is also a very long and tedious process. The point of these records is to make these photographs searchable by subject in ANCS+.

PAGE 54

SECTION TITLE: MONUMENT GEYSER BASIN;

EIGHT PHOTOS; YELL 40865; YELL 185320-171; YELL 40871; YELL 185320-172; YELL 185320-173; YELL 185320-174; YELL 40872-1; YELL 40872-2;

PHOTO IDS: 8039-2; 9497; 15106-6; 15174-18; 15174-19; 15174-20; 48-56; 48-57;

SUBJECT: MONUMENT GEYSER BASIN;

DATE: 1929;

PAGE 55

TITLE: NORRIS GEYSER BASIN;

EIGHT PHOTOS; YELL 185320-175; YELL 185320-176; YELL 185320-177; YELL 185320-178; YELL 35883; YELL 185320-179; YELL 185320-180; YELL 40874;

PHOTO IDS: 8047-3; 8038-2; 8001-2; 8049-5; 8047-6; 8038-1; 8001-3; 8048-3;

SUBJECT: NORRIS GEYSER BASIN; BLACK GROWLER STEAM VENT; SULPHER POOL;

DATE: 1929;

Cataloging All Day

2009-07-10T20:17:00.003-06:00

I spent this morning finishing the catalog record for my black album in Microsoft Word. Then, I finally cataloged the blessing wand and an American flag with a picture of a Native American on it that were left as offerings in 2005 at the sight of the 1999 Buffalo Walk. An NPS employee removed the objects from the sight because of concern they might be stolen or tampered with by park guests. After cataloging those objects, I started in on another black album (I still need to photograph every page of the first one, but need help from the other interns who have already done that (apparently it is complicated). So I grabbed another black album (this one is even longer at 191 pages) and started labeling the uncataloged photos. I got about 20pages in before the end of the day, and will continue working on that Monday.

The flag I cataloged and the flag-shaped box I made for it

Black Album, Tour, and Library Issue

2009-07-09T17:52:00.008-06:00

This morning I finished labeling all the photos in my black album with their catalog numbers. After I finished, I was ready to continue writing my catalog record in Microsoft Word.

A page from my black album

A picture of Fishing Cone from my black album

At 10 AM I took a break from cataloging my album to give my first public tour of the HRC. I was responsible for the museum portion of the tour, which also covers the library and archives. The museum section of the tour starts out with an overview of the collection, what we are working on (cataloging and rehousing) and a quick talk about the dangers to museum collections (light, temperature, humidity)and how the HRC works to prevent them (temperature and humidity controls, and motion sensor lights in storage turn off if no one is in storage).

After that, I showed the group a few interesting objects and gave them a brief background about them. Because some people on the tour were NPS employees from the GIS lab, I pulled an interesting map to show them. The map showed the park from a non traditional perspective: from north looking south at an angle so as to show terrain. Then, I showed them a drum that I just recently cataloged that was used by Native Americans in 1996 in a ceremony for the reintroduction of the wolves into the park.

From there, I showed the group the museum's collection of wolf skulls, which are collected by the wolf project. These skulls belong to the first generation of wolves that were introduced to the park, as well as some of their offspring. The museum keeps the wolf skulls in storage and makes them available to researchers from the wolf project whenever asked to do so.

The final part of the tour, I showed the tour group our collection of 22 original Thomas Moran field sketches made when Moran accompanied the Hayden expedition into Yellowstone territory in 1871. These field sketches were brought to Congress later that year, and helped convince Congress to set Yellowstone aside as the world's first national park.

The tour went really well - everyone seemed really interested. I am sure my tour experience in the Art and Art History department at UF prepared me for the task.

After the tour, I went up to the library to discuss a certain movie with the librarians. In the process of researching the blessing wand, I discovered that two documentaries were made about the 1999 Buffalo Walk. Although the tribal participants requested that all cameras be turned off during the flesh offering ceremony, one film crew secretly filmed the event for a major cable documentary (I will not name the movie or channel because I do not want to publicize their video). The Native Americans involved have every right to be upset about this surreptitious filming of their sacred ceremony. Another documentary, called The Buffalo War, was produced by Matthew Testa, who got permission from the participants to recreate the ceremony for the movie.

I went to talk to the librarians, Jessie and Jackie, to see if there was any way they could remove the offensive movie from the shelves, to make it special request only, to include a disclaimer on the box, or recommend The Buffalo War instead to interested patrons. Jessie and Jackie agreed that something should be done, but hadn't encountered a similar situation. They are now in the process of contacting the University of Montana library to see if they have a precedent that could be followed here. Both movies are currently in VHS in the library, and they thought maybe they should purchase the Testa documentary of DVD so that people would more likely borrow that one.

After speaking with the librarians, I worked on cataloging my album for the remainder of the day. I got to page 73 out of 131, and I hope to finish that portion of the project tomorrow.

Black Album Day One

2009-07-08T17:50:00.006-06:00

Today I started working on cataloging a black album. For the black albums, we are all creating our catalog record on Microsoft Word, which we will cut and paste into ANCS+ when we are finished. The records are not typical catalog records, because if we included careful details about each photo, we would never finish them. Basically, we are making it possible for people to search ANCS+ for which page to look at to see photos by topic. As I mentioned in Monday’s post, many of the photos are already cataloged. These catalog numbers refer to the negatives rather than the photos themselves. The negatives are considered the objects, because they are the originals. Many of the photos, however, do not have catalog numbers. I am responsible for cataloging these photos. Also, many have other catalog numbers, such as those used by the individual photographers.

Black Album (all 131 pages!)

An example of a page in the album

A volunteer, Bob, spent a great deal of time filling out worksheets that detailed the information about each of the photos in the black albums. The worksheets list the photos on each page of each album, which are cataloged, other catalog numbers used to identify the photos, which photographs do not have assigned catalog numbers, a short description of what each photo portrays, and the dates the photos were taken when known. These sheets are very helpful when typing the information into the word documents that will be come the catalog records.

One of the sheets Bob prepared

There were lots of sheets to enter into the catalog record!

After a while, I realized it would be helpful to label each of the photos in the album before typing in the catalog record. At the same time as I did this, I updated Bob’s worksheets (he had left the catalog number section blank in those that weren’t cataloged). These worksheets will be kept in folders along with printouts of our catalog records to be used as finding aids for the black books.

Numbered Photo (I used white pencil to make the numbers on the black paper)

Labeling the photos took much longer than I expected and it became a little frustrating. First, I went through the worksheets and labeled each of the blank catalog number areas with catalog numbers in numerical order (YELL 185319-1, YELL 185319-2, etc). A few small errors in the sheets, as well as missing photos in the albums that I had given catalog numbers to on the worksheets resulted in my having to renumber the sheets over and over again before I labeled the photos. It was a very time consuming process and I worked on that up until the end of the workday. I hope to finish labeling the photos and to complete the catalog record in Word tomorrow so that I can begin photographing the pages next week.

A Little More Cataloging Before I Start my Black Album

2009-07-07T17:46:00.001-06:00

This morning the library, museum, and archive seasonals and interns met with the entire staff about starting work on the exhibit in the lobby of the HRC. Colleen went over the plan and schedule and let us all sign up for cases. The exhibit will be about early exploration in the Yellowstone region and the process though which it became the first national park. I will be working on a case about the years the park was run by the US Army and a case about the creation of Yellowstone Park.

Today I worked primarily on making special boxes to house a pipe and a drum used by Native Americans in ceremonies during the reintroduction of the wolves back in 1996. The men who owned these objects and used them during the wolf reintroduction donated them to the HRC in 2003.

The drum I cataloged in its new box

I finished cataloging the drum, but could not catalog or finish housing the pipe without additional information. There was a large piece of red cloth with pipe and pipe accessories and right now we aren’t sure whether the cloth was used in everyday storage or ceremony or whether it was used to wrap the pipe when it was donated to the museum. The answer to this question will determine whether we keep the cloth and how we house it. For example, there might be a stipulation that the pipe be stored in the cloth. Therefore, I will need to contact the giver in order to continue housing and cataloging the pipe.

I also emailed Katie from the Ethnology department to see if she knew any background information about a blessing wand left during a 2005 offering ceremony at the Roosevelt Arch in which Native Americans commemorated the 1999 Buffalo Walk. Currently, that is all we know about the wand, and we would like to uncover more information before cataloging it so that the catalog record will have background information and give the object context.

We got good news today about the black album project: instead of scanning each page (which takes 20-30 minutes per page), we can photograph each page with our digital camera. One of the interns, Jake, experimented with this today and determined that the resolution will be high enough in photographs. This process should save us a great deal of time. Tomorrow, I hope to start work on my black album.

Black Album Project

2009-07-06T19:31:00.002-06:00

This morning until lunch I rehoused several objects. As it turns out, this may be one of the last days I will be rehousing. After lunch, Bridgette showed us our next project - cataloging the "black albums." These large photo albums were likely put together sometime in the 1950's. They hold photos of the park that span the decades. The photos are held in the albums by photo corners, and most photos have short labels and captions glued underneath. The albums are arranged by subject. Topics include rivers, geysers, park employees, and roads. Each of the seasonals and interns will be responsible for cataloging one of these albums, which are about 140 pages each.

Like many projects here at the HRC, things are not as straightforward as they seem. We have to catalog each photo in our respective albums as part of the larger catalog entry for each album. So, if my album had the overarching catalog number YELL 133867, I would label it YELL 133867-1, and each photo in the album would follow in consecutive order (YELL 133867-2, YELL 133867-3, etc.). However, many of the individual photos within each album have already been catalogued with their own individual catalog numbers.

Therefore, we are to skip these photos in the numbering process, but still need to include their catalog numbers in ANCS+. We have to go through our album page by page and describe each page in ANCS+. We don't need to go into excruciating detail but do need to say what the page of photos is about, any famous figures in them, how many are on each page, and list the catalog numbers on each page (those already cataloged as well as those we are numbering).

We also have to interleave each page with acid free paper and scan each page into the computer. We will link these scanned images into the catalog record as smaller files, and also keep a separate folder on the shared drive for the scans from each album. The larger files will be non-compressible to ensure their detail and quality lasts as long as possible. Unfortunately, there is only one scanner that four of us will be sharing for this project. Therefore, we will each have one day a week where we are solely responsible for scanning our albums. Each page takes 20+ minutes to scan, not to mention saving it in ANCS+, changing the orientation to portrait so they will be right side up, and saving them under their new file names.

Bridgette told us these albums will from here on out be one of our primary focuses, but doesn't expect us to finish them by the end of the summer. She just wants us to get as far into them as possible. Our other focus will be working on a new exhibit for the lobby, which we will find out more about tomorrow.

Inventory and More Cataloging

2009-07-01T20:50:00.001-06:00

This morning all the museum technicians and interns went to the Albright Visitor Center in Mammoth to inventory the objects there, which were part of the controlled property inventory list. When we got there, we couldn’t read the catalog numbers on many of the objects. Because the cases there are very difficult to get into and there were a lot of visitors there, we decided to go back to the HRC and print out a list of descriptions for each of the objects on the inventory list so that we wouldn’t get in the way of the visitors there.

With the list of object descriptions in hand, we headed back to the visitor center in Mammoth and easily completed the inventory. Thankfully, the object descriptions were detailed enough that we could identify each object beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Afterwards, I cataloged a photograph, pamphlet, and a hand-drawn, framed map of the park. The map had a lot of stains on it, which made me thankful for Dixie’s collections management seminar when we completed condition reports, because I had to describe the damage in detail. After the cataloguing, I had about an hour left, which I used to rehouse a couple of plates.

Inventory

2009-06-30T20:49:00.005-06:00

Erica and I spent most of today working on the HRC’s yearly inventory. The museum has to complete two inventories each year. One is a controlled property inventory of objects worth over $2,000 and the other is a random sample of objects in the museum collection, regardless of value. Erica and I were responsible for the random sample inventory.

There were over two hundred items on the inventory, so it took quite some time to complete the inventory. Basically, we had to locate each object in storage, determine if it was where it said it was located in ANCS+ and indicate whether or not it was damaged. Most objects were easy to find, but the HRC has some recurring problems with inventory because of a lack of museum training and care by previous museum staff.

To explain the complex problem, the previous staff set aside catalog numbers in blocks to assign to objects according to their topic, rather than assigning them in numerical order as they were needed. Because of this, many of the numbers originally set aside are not yet assigned to objects. For inventory, ANCS+ creates a random sample of 200 plus objects. Many of these are catalog numbers that come up on the inventory are those that were set aside but not assigned to objects. Further, these numbers are not even entered into the database, so we have to look them up in handwritten catalog books, many of which are out of numerical order and are accompanied by cryptic notes. Needless to say, this is a big mess, one which the registrar Bridgette is constantly dealing with. Her goal at the HRC is to reassign all the blocks of numbers that were set aside years ago but are not in use. Bridgette tells us that this is why registrars need to be meticulous, detail oriented people so that messes like this aren’t made for others to fix.

Despite these issues, I enjoyed doing inventory because it was fun to see all the objects we had to find. I really liked looking at the photos and postcards we had to find.

Late in the afternoon, we went to see and inventory the vehicle storage in Gardiner. The HRC is not big enough to house all the historic vehicles, so they are stored off site at the transportation building. The vehicle collection encompasses an entire warehouse and includes a great variety of objects from Yellowstone's history. They have everything from cars, trucks, carriages, the park's famous yellow buses, snowmobiles, and mopeds.

Cataloging Textiles

2009-06-29T20:47:00.007-06:00

Today I cataloged and housed articles of clothing for the first time. The two pieces I cataloged were a jacket and a snowsuit belonging to a former park geologist. To get information about the articles of clothing for ANCS+, I looked in the accession file for details about their significance. There, I found a few notes about each piece, which I included in their catalog records.

To label the clothing, I wrote their catalog numbers with acid free pen on twine tape, which I sewed onto the tags of each. I made cushioned hangers to store them by wrapping coat hangers with batting. Then, I hand sewed muslin cloth over the batting in the shape of the hangers. When the hangers were finished, I was ready to hang the two pieces in hanging textile storage cabinets.

One of the pieces I cataloged and housed

Sewn-on label

Coat hanger wrapped in batting

Finished coat hanger with batting and muslin

Today I also finished the metal rehousing project. I had finished putting all the objects in the collection with tarnish into corrosion intercept bags last week. I changed the location of each object in the database and put them away in their new storage location. Because the corrosion intercept bags turn black when they need to be changed, I made signs for the outside of the boxes that explained what was stored inside and that the bags need to be checked every six months to make sure they are still working. I also put notes to that effect in ANCS+ for each object .

Rehoused metal objects in their new location

Signs on the outside reminding that the corrosion intercept bags need to be checked

For the remainder of the day, I read about the 1999 buffalo walk performed by Native Americans. The walkers traveled 507 miles from South Dakota all the way to the Roosevelt Arch in Gardiner for a ceremony to protest the park’s bison management plan. I started reading a binder prepared about the ceremony that included interviews, articles, and park documents that tried to give the full picture of this complex issue. I will discuss this issue in more detail in a later post.

Short Day at the Office

2009-06-25T20:46:00.002-06:00

This morning, I worked on various smaller projects until the tour at 10 AM. My boyfriend, Colin, is up for a visit, so he came to the tour of the facility to see what I have been up to this summer. He had told me he was interested in seeing some older objects from the hotels, so I pulled some old dishware from the Mammoth Hotel to point out on the tour. After the tour, I showed Colin the historic furniture collection, which we do not bring the tour groups to see. He really enjoyed the behind the scenes look at a neat part of the HRC collection. I think he especially appreciated it because he (and I) used to work in an historic hotel in Glacier National Park, so it was interesting to see the history of similar hotels here in Yellowstone. Afterwards, Colleen was nice enough to let me out of work an hour early at noon (I took comp time and had planned on leaving at 1) so I could show Colin more of the park.

A Very Busy Day at the HRC

2009-06-24T20:33:00.007-06:00

This morning, a very large group came to the HRC for a tour of the facility. Because the group was so big, we had to split them into two smaller groups and bring them through the museum separately. Alicia gave the tour, but asked that the seasonals and interns join the group to make sure no one touched anything or wandered away from the tour into the other areas of storage. Unlike many tour groups we have had, this group was very inquisitive and that made the tour take much longer than usual. By the time both groups had toured the museum, half the morning was over!

After the tour and into the afternoon, I catalogued four hand-tinted and two black and white Haynes large format panoramic prints. Describing all six landscape scenes in the database was tedious, but the prints themselves were really neat. Hand-tinting was a popular process before the advent of color processing, and the result looks a lot like watercolors.

One of the black and white Haynes Prints

One of the hand-tinted Haynes prints

I housed the prints in large acid free map folders, which I labeled on the outside corner and placed in a map drawer for storage. One of the two black and white prints were scenes of Mammoth at the turn of the century. I was able to date the print because of context clues within the picture. Basically, I looked at the buildings in the print and then looked up the dates that they were built and torn down when applicable. This allowed me to narrow down the date the picture was taken to a narrow range of years.

I used a similar process for the other black and white photo of the Old Faithful Inn. The inn has changed over the years due to additions and renovations. One of the most noticeable changes is the number of finials (flagpoles) on top of the inn. When it was built, there were eight finials, but today there are only four remaining because of structural changes to the hotel. In the photo, there were eight finials, so I was able to determine that the photo was taken before the first renovation. I think it’s really fun to find the clues within the objects to date them!

Because me and Bridgette have the same birthday, we all went out to lunch on Wednesday to celebrate. Colleen was nice enough to treat me and Bridgette and it was fun to hang out with the library and archives people during the workday (usually, we don’t see each other because we work on different floors).

Then, I continued working on the metal rehousing project for the rest of the afternoon. I finished putting all the pieces into corrosion intercept bags, labeling the bags, and putting them into boxes. All I have left to do is change the location of all the objects in ANCS+ and put the boxes into upright shelving.

Curatorial Park Tour

2009-06-23T19:06:00.004-06:00

Today was an amazing day! Colleen, the museum curator, took all of the interns and museum techs on a curatorial tour of Yellowstone. We started in Mammoth at the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, where Colleen discussed the other hotels that had been located on and near the site of the current hotel. She also discussed some preservation issues that the museum and park must deal with. The first has to do with the park's historic furniture, much of which is in use in the hotels. This constant use of cataloged museum collections brings about several preservation and other issues. For example, the furniture is constantly moved by the hotel, which makes it hard to keep track of.

The concessionaire, Xanterra, also runs a wood shop where they are constantly repairing, reupholstering, and repainting the furniture. The repainting especially caused problems in the past, because the museum's catalog numbers were being covered up with paint, making them impossible to keep track of. Xanterra and the museum came up with a solution - they put electronic chips in the furniture so they can be scanned during inventory.

Another issue is one of light - the hotels have lots of windows and that means lots of sunlight, which has damaged a considerable number of irreplaceable objects. One example is a wooden map designed by Robert Reamer, an architect who designed many of the hotels in the park. The map now hangs in the Mammoth Hot Springs hotel. It has considerable sun damage, and has faded a great deal over the years.

Our next stop was the Museum of the National Park Ranger in Norris. The museum is quite small and is located in an old Army building. The exhibits document the roles of park rangers over the years and the museum is staffed by volunteer park rangers who have retired. Colleen explained that the HRC has to take all the objects out the museum for the winters because the museum has a mouse and bug problem that they do not want to compromise the objects.

After leaving the Museum of the National Park Ranger, we went to the site of a hotel that was built in Norris, but burned down before it ever opened when someone started a fire in an unfinished fireplace. We were able to see where a chimney once stood and there were ceramic sherds scattered around the site. Colleen showed us a picture of the hotel before it burned down.

The fireplace of the ill-fated hotel in Norris

From there, we headed to the Norris Museum in the Norris Geyser Basin. Interestingly, this museum was built with funding by one of the Rockefellers to the American Association of Museums, who used the money to build this and three other rustic museums in Yellowstone in the 1930's. This museum has exhibits on the geothermic features in the park.

Norris Museum

From Norris, we went to the Fishing Bridge Museum, in the Yellowstone Lake area. This museum was built with the same funding as the Norris Museum, and the exhibits focus on lake ecology. I had already been to this museum to fix the bird exhibits (see post from June 12). Colleen explained that this museum looks almost exactly as it did when it was built, with the same exhibits and same cases.

Fishing Bridge Museum

Exhibits in Fishing Bridge Museum

From Fishing Bridge, we went to the Lake Hotel, the oldest hotel in the park. After having lunch in the dining room (which was awesome!) Colleen described the history of the hotel and its changes over the years. She showed us historic photos and also showed us how they use the scanner to inventory the furniture with the embedded computer chips, which was really interesting. Outside the hotel, Colleen pointed out a yellow bus, a historic vehicle that was tracked down after being sold, restored, and is now used as it once was - as a tour bus. The HRC has three of these yellow buses in its collection, and eight others are used by Xanterra for tours.

Lake Hotel

Sunroom of Lake Hotel

Yellow Bus

Our last stop was the Old Faithful Inn, where we learned the history of the Inn, got ice cream, and watched Old Faithful erupt. From there, we headed back to Mammoth having learned much more about the park and its history than when we started.

Old Faithful from the deck of Old Faithful Inn

Upcoming Projects and Furniture Cataloging

2009-06-22T18:31:00.003-06:00

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

Rehousing all day

2009-06-18T19:42:00.004-06:00

This morning, I worked on rehousing a bunch of small objects. I learned a lot from rehousing three souvenir makeup compacts. One of the compacts still had a powder puff inside, which was filthy from powder. I used a vacuum to suck up excess powder from inside the compact while I gently loosened the powder with a brush. I removed the powder puff from the inside and housed it in a small ziploc baggie, into which I placed a piece of acid free paper with the catalog number.

Another one of the compacts had a small compartment that still contained what appeared to be either bright red lipstick or rouge. Bridgette and I weighed the pros and cons of leaving the makeup or removing it from the compact. Pros of leaving the makeup: it makes the compact more interesting and it doesn't seem to be damaging the compact (yet). Disadvantage of leaving the makeup: it could damage the metal in the compact.

The compact with the makeup inside

Bridgette suggested I consult Colleen, the curator, about what to do. She said I should remove the makeup by scraping the bulk of it with a special tool and then rubbing the rest out with a q-tip. This suggestion worked really well, and soon the makeup was removed. As I removed the makeup, I discovered writing underneath, which read "For a refill, send 25 cents to Elmira, 2355 Fifth Ave., New York City." We all thought that was a pretty interesting discovery.

The newly clean compact

The writing underneath the makeup

I rehoused the cleaned compacts in a custom made rectangular box lined with a thin sheet of ethafoam. Into another sheet of ethafoam, I cut out the shapes of the compacts so they would not shift when storage drawers open and close.

The newly housed compacts

I was also given several pieces of silver to rehouse. Because they were very tarnished, I decided to house them in special bags that prevent further tarnishing. I knew that we have several pieces of silver in the collection which would be well served by these special bags. I decided to rehouse them all into Hollinger boxes in upright shelving, a better location for them once they were in the bags. The regular storage areas are visual storage - the bags prevent the objects from being seen, so placing them in upright storage is a better use of the space. I made a floating tray for a Hollinger box and began housing the silver in the special bags. I tied a tag around each bag with the catalog number on it so that the bags would not need to be opened to identify each object. I placed the bigger pieces on the bottom of the box and the smaller ones in the floating tray. I still need to pull a lot of pieces from storage and rehouse them in this way, but the following pictures show what I have done so far:

Some of the tarnished silver I rehoused

The bottom of the box holding larger objects

The floating tray holding smaller pieces

Glass Rehousing (Continued)

2009-06-17T19:08:00.007-06:00

Erica and I spent almost the entire day finishing the glass rehousing project we started yesterday. We made trays with handles to fit inside of Hollinger boxes. We set one tray at the bottom of each Hollinger box and then made "legs" out of blue board so that a second tray could float over the one on the bottom. To make the legs, we cut two identical rectangular pieces of blue board, folded them, and glued the folded sections onto the bottom of the tray. The legs slide into the area between the bottom tray and the Hollinger box and hold the second tray in place.

Whenever possible, we reused the trays that had already been made for the glass we were rehousing. Sometimes, though, the boxes were inadequate and we had to redo them. Here is an example of one of the six boxes we made. This one housed smaller objects.

Bottom tray of one box

Top tray of the box

Notice the lovely floating tray!

Below is an example from another box. This one housed larger glass bottles that were too tall to stand upright as they ideally should have. We wrapped them carefully in acid free tissue and placed them in the top and bottom trays of the box. We labeled the tissue with the catalog number for each bottle so they will not have to be opened to identify each bottle. For this and every other box, we listed the catalog numbers of the objects inside on the outside of each Hollinger box.

Four of the six boxes we made to rehouse glass bottles (and a few ceramics)

We decided not to pack a few of the objects we initially pulled for rehousing into the Hollinger boxes because they were more visually interesting than the plain glass bottles were were packing away. I was especially happy with my rehousing of these three Yellowstone Whiskey bottles that had previously been housed separately. I made this box to house them together and display their labels. I supported each bottle with ethafoam blocks on the sides and under the necks and attached catalog numbers to the ethafoam blocks so the bottles would not need to be handled to be identified.

As we rehoused the glass, we photographed everything because none of the pieces had photographs in ANCS+. After we finished the housing, we changed the location in the database, uploaded the photos, and put the boxes into upright shelving. This rehousing project, along with the spoon rehousing on Monday, has opened up a significant amount of space for the objects we will be cataloging and rehousing all summer. It has also made me really appreciate the value of doing things right the first time so that people will not have to go back in a few years and rehouse objects I have cataloged!

Glass Rehousing

2009-06-16T18:35:00.009-06:00

This morning, Erica and I started a new rehousing project – this time, we rehoused several dozen glass bottles and other glass objects that were taking up a lot of space in the drawers. Just as rehousing the spoons yesterday opened up a lot of space, rehousing these glass objects today will provide us with several drawers of space to rehouse objects this summer.

Glass objects were taking up an inordinate amount of room in the storage area and are scattered rather than housed together. With Bridgette's help, we decided to rehouse them into Hollinger boxes in the upright shelving area. In this area, objects are carefully packed into Hollinger boxes, which are stored on shelves. Bridgette made us a list of glass objects in the general storage area that needed rehousing into Hollinger boxes. We began by pulling the objects from the list onto carts, which we brought down to the work area. We looked up the bottles in ANCS+ and saw that none of them had photographs, so we added that to our rehousing assignment.

One of two carts of glass bottles we rehoused

Some of the bottles in their original cases. We were able to reuse many of these housings, but some had to be redone because they posed danger to the objects.

In the afternoon, everyone from the Heritage and Research Center had to go up to Mammoth for mandatory radio training, a two-hour class where we learned how to use the park’s radios. For my job, I will likely never need to use a park radio, but it was interesting to learn how the radio system in the park works and how the radios work. After the radio training, the HRC interns all attended a seminar by John Vucetich, head of an ongoing study about the predator-prey relationship between wolves and moose in Isle Royale National Park in Michigan.

The lecture discussed the changing perceptions in the last fifty years about the predator-prey relationship between wolves and moose at Isle Royale National Park. At first, the relationship seemed to be top-down – that is, wolves were the dominant predators and moose the prey in the relationship. However, fifty plus years of research has proven that disease among wolves, climate change, fluctuations in availability of certain moss that moose rely on for food, and the population of ticks on the island all play important roles in the predator-prey relationship. For example, ticks are currently thriving at Grand Isle, and are preying largely on moose, therefore weakening them and making them easy targets for wolves.

After the lecture, we returned to the HRC and worked on the glass bottle rehousing for the last hour of work. With such a big break in the middle of the day, we didn’t get as much done as we would have liked, and will have a lot more to do tomorrow before we are finished with this project.

Spoon Rehousing

2009-06-15T18:04:00.001-06:00

Today, Erica and I worked on rehousing several dozen decorative spoons that had been stored in a number of separate drawers. A new drawer had recently been dedicated to spoon housing, and we were responsible for moving the rest of the spoons into the newly dedicated spoon drawer to open up more space to put away objects we will be cataloging and rehousing throughout the summer. This would have been relatively easy if the spoons had been labeled clearly when they were originally cataloged. However, many of the labels were illegible so we had to either decipher them and re-label them appropriately.

Deciphering the catalog numbers was a matter of trail and error in ANCS+, filling in the numbers around the legible numbers on the unreadable spoons until the correct object came up on the screen. Thankfully, the spoons had been photographed when they were originally catalogued, so we were able to match photos with the objects we were looking up. This exercise made me really appreciate all the object photos we have been taking as we catalog. Without them in this instance it would have been incredibly difficult to uncover the catalog numbers for these spoons.

We finished the spoon rehousing project in the early afternoon. Afterwards, I worked on cataloging objects from my shelf of items to be cataloged. One interesting object I worked on was a wooden pipe with a carved buffalo attached to the top of it. I think the buffalo shaped area served some function, but I can’t say for sure. I housed the flute on a flat piece of blue board, poked holes in the board on either side of the flute in three places, threaded twill tape through the holes, and tied the flute onto the board with the tape. I also glued blocks of ethafoam to the blue board to secure the two ends of the flute and made handles for the blue board out of cotton tape to make it easy to pick up the tray.

Flute housing

Working in the Park

2009-06-11T20:50:00.004-06:00

Today Erica and I went with Allie and Carolyn, the museum technicians, to do some work inside the park. First, we went to West Yellowstone to meet a courier at the visitor center and pick up one of Thomas Moran's journals that had been sent out for conservation. Moran accompanied the Hayden expedition and painted pictures of the Yellowstone area, which were used to convince Congress to establish Yellowstone as the first national park in the world. The HRC has twenty one of Moran's watercolor field sketches - a vital piece of Yellowstone history.

We left West Yellowstone and headed to the Fishing Bridge visitor center, where we corrected some small mistakes in the taxidermied bird exhibit. We removed the glass pieces in the front of the two cases that needed fixing and moved a couple of labels and specimens to their correct locations and then replaced the glass to front of the cases. This exhibit is a prime example of hazardous museum collections, as these birds were taxidermied with dangerous chemicals, including arsenic. When we opened the case, the smell was very strong, and it made me a little nervous. Luckily, we finished our work quickly and probably weren't exposed to too much of the chemical.

One of the cases we modified

The other case we modified

Hitting the Ground Running

2009-06-10T19:59:00.003-06:00

After two days of training, today Bridgette set us loose to work on cataloging and rehousing on our own. In the storage area, each of the museum technicians are assigned two shelves. One shelf contains objects for cataloging and the other contains objects for rehousing. Bridgette keeps the shelves stocked with objects to work on. Today, I worked on objects from my cataloging shelf and made a pretty good dent in what was there. Here is a sample of some of the objects I worked on and how I housed them:

Circa 1920 Haynes souvenir playing cards, which each feature individual photos of the park. The Haynes family is a Yellowstone legacy who published thousands of photographic postcards and prints during the early years of the park. I housed these cards in an acid free box, which I lined with ethafoam. I placed ethafoam blocks at each end to keep the cards from moving when its storage drawer is opened and closed.

This is a stack of 50 identical Yellowstone Park Hotels stickers. The photo of the bear in the center was taken by one of the Haynes family members. The bear was rummaging in one of the many garbage dumps that were scattered across the park in the late 19th century. Bleachers were erected at many of the dumps for park visitors to get close up views of bears, who would arrive at the dumps every evening for dinner. These dumps (and other early park management practices) made many Yellowstone bears reliant on this human food source instead of hunting and gathering their own food as nature intended.

This insignia was used by many Yellowstone companies over the years, including the Yellowstone Park Company (YPCo.), Yellowstone Park Hotel Company (YPHCo.), and Yellowstone Park Transportation Company (YPTCo.). When cataloging items with this insignia, it can get rather confusing to date these objects, as each of these companies were constantly changing their name and many used the insignia at the same time. Luckily, this one reads "Yellowstone Park Hotels" so I was able to determine a date range of 1906 - 1936 for these stickers.

I housed these stickers in a custom made blue board box lined with thin ethafoam. I secured the stickers in a stack (as they were made) with loosely tied acid-free twill tape and stored them in a drawer with like objects.

Here are two examples of stickers that I housed in acid-free mylar sheets for protection. I stored them in an archival box with other historic park stickers. I wrote the catalog number in pencil on the back of each sticker and also slid a section of acid-free paper into each sheet that also contains the catalog number.

Second Day of Training

2009-06-09T19:41:00.003-06:00

Today, our collections management training continued with an early morning lesson on cavity packing, which is used to protect objects that need extra support. Cavity packing entails creating a space within ethafoam that fits the object snugly. We use a special tool that melts the ethafoam and allows us to dig pieces out in the shape we need.

After the lesson on cavity packing, all of the new seasonal staff members shadowed a tour of the museum, library, and archive areas of the HRC. Later this summer, we will be responsible for the museum section of the tours, which take place on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and last from 45 minutes to an hour.

After the tour, Bridgette showed us how to upload object photos into the appropriate catalog files in the ANCS+ database. When we catalogue/rehouse objects we will be uploading photos of them into the database. These photos will help when staff is searching for objects, as this is primarily a research facility – a photo will save valuable time if the object is not what the researcher is looking for. Photos also serve as valuable visual records of objects in the collection.

In the afternoon, I cataloged, photographed, and rehoused several objects, including a teacup and saucer, dinner plate, and small platter.

Collections Management Training

2009-06-08T18:59:00.008-06:00

All day Monday, the museum interns trained with Bridgette, the museum registrar. The first part of the training consisted of an in-depth tour of the HRC museum storage area, during which we learned how to navigate the collections area, open different types of locking cabinets, and find specific objects in storage. After the training, we did a storage area scavenger hunt. The museum keeps objects in several different kinds of storage cabinets, including shelfs, drawers, pull down doors, and more. We were given a list of object locations and we had to figure out which cabinet, drawer, shelf, box, etc. the objects listed were located at. The scavenger hunt was helpful, because it allowed us to find things on our own, and I always learn the best by doing.

After the scavenger hunt, Bridgette gave us an overview of proper object handling techniques, which made me realize just how much I learned in Dixie’s registration class. I was pleased that I already knew everything she told us. Even so, it was great to have a review before handling objects myself.

After the object handling review, we moved on to a box building lesson, in which Bridgette taught us the basics of building storage boxes out of archival quality materials, including blue board, ethafoam, and acid free hot glue. The museum has several shapes and sizes of pre-made acid free storage boxes, so we learned how to determine when to make a storage box or container and when to use one that is pre-assembled. Basically, we learned to keep things simple and use a pre-made box whenever the objects will fit in them without too much excess space. Space is at a premium in the HRC storage area, so conserving space for growth of the collection is extremely important. When pre-made storage boxes are too big or too small for objects, it is best to make a box from scratch using by cutting blue board with a razor, hot gluing it together, and creating custom padding with ethafoam and other acid-free materials. During this lesson, I also learned different ways to mark objects with their catalog number in a way that is both safe for the object and inconspicuous.

After the lesson, we got to put our new knowledge to the test by making boxes to store objects in need of rehousing. I made a container for a set of syrup pitchers with depictions of Old Faithful on the front. I made a long, rectangular box that separates the two pitchers with blocks of ethafoam glued to the inside the box. After gluing the box together, I lined it with ethafoam and then glued in ethafoam blocks to separate and protect them. It is best to keep similar objects or pieces of sets together, and this box accomplished that.

One of the syrup pitchers I made housing for

The housing for the syrup pitchers

(it may not be beautiful, but this was the first time I have done this!)

The syrup pitchers resting safely in their new housing

After lunch, Bridgette trained us on the ANCS+ database, the NPS wide collections management software. In the database, we have to enter lots of information, including object descriptions, condition reports, measurements, materials, time period, accession number, catalog number, housing location, and more. After watching Bridgette show us how to enter objects into the database on a projector, we returned to our desks for hands on use of the program, where we had the opportunity to enter new accessions into ANCS+, make boxes for them, label them with clear varnish and acid free pens, and photograph them (these photos will be linked to the objects in ANCS+). The object I worked on was a 1950’s era souvenir – a small leather case with three dice inside that is engraved with “Yellowstone Park”.

The dominos and case

New housing for dominos

I separated the dominos from their case because early plastics like the ones the dominos are made of were made of unstable materials which may damage the leather case over time.

Today, we also learned about re-housing (this will be one of our big projects for the summer. There is a large backlog of objects that are already accessioned and cataloged but have not yet been put in containers or been put into museum storage. Our responsibility will be to make custom storage containers, find and place them in appropriate storage locations, and update the object locations in ANCS+. We will also be housing and cataloging newly accessioned objects and entering them into ANCS+, which includes creating photographic records (and linking them to ANCS+), making custom storage containers for them, marking them with their catalog numbers, and putting them into appropriate storage locations.

Week One

2009-06-04T19:35:00.003-06:00

My fingerprints finally cleared with the FBI on Tuesday so I was able to start work. I attended a Mammoth employee orientation meeting all day on Tuesday, at which different department heads talked about NPS history, rules and regulations, and safety on the job. My favorite speaker was Lee Whittlesley, the park historian, who spoke about the Grand Tour of Yellowstone, in which early park visitors traveled from hotel to hotel in horse drawn carriages over the course of a week or so. I loved hearing the visitors' descriptions of the park - people don't write like that anymore!

On Wednesday, I arrived at work at 7 AM and headed out with Colleen, the museum curator, to get signed in with the Human Resources department and get my ID card, which provides access to the restricted areas of the museum. Right after we arrived at the Human Resources department, the power went out and showed no signs of coming back on, so we headed back to the HRC. The power was still out when we got back to the museum, but it came on right before we left for our second full day of meetings.

The meeting on Wednesday was for the Center for Resources, the NPS department that the Heritage and Research Center falls under. There were presentations from all the branches of the department, including Environmental Quality, Research, Acquatic Resources and Wildlife, GIS, Resource Management, and last but not least, the HRC.

Thursday morning Colleen brought me to get my ID card. On the way, we dropped off a fascimile of a poster that has hung over the fireplace at the hotel in Tower-Roosevelt for years. The original was filthy so the museum had it conserved and provided the hotel with a copy to replace it so that the original would no longer be compromised.

After we returned to the HRC, I did some readings out of my orientation binder, a reference that includes information on the National Park Service, Yellowstone, the HRC, and NPS museum standards.

Orientation Binder

From 10 AM until around 2:30 PM, all of the HRC employees attended an archives seminar taught by Nancy Merz of the Rocky Mountain Office of the National Archives & Records Administration (NARA). The seminar was a great introduction to archives practices and procedures and I really learned a lot.

For the remainder of the afternoon, I set up my NPS email account and took the internet security training, which taught me the rules and regulations for working on a government computer. Now that I am able to work and have finished attending all the orientation meetings, I am really looking forward to doing actual museum work next week!

Still waiting to get started...

2009-05-27T18:05:00.003-06:00

This afternoon, I found out that my security check still hasn't passed. I had today off because of this, and will also have tomorrow off. I guess they are just waiting for my fingerprints to clear from the FBI. Let's hope this is figured out by the end of the week so I can get started!

First day (kind of)

2009-05-26T18:03:00.000-06:00

Today, all of the interns arrived at the Yellowstone Heritage and Research Center (HRC) at 8:00 AM for orientation. This was supposed to be our first day of work, but only one of the interns’ security background check had passed, so we were given our intern handbooks, a tour of the facility, and brought to get decals for our vehicles so we can enter the park after work every day.

I was really impressed with the HRC facility. The museum storage space is amazing and the collection is really wonderful. I am really excited to work with it and I know I am going to learn a lot. I am most excited about the variety of objects in the museum collection. They have a lot of artwork, including over 20 original Thomas Moran watercolors of the park, early photographs and posters of the park, and a large postcard collection. There is also a sizeable collection of natural history specimens, including taxidermied animals, animal skeletons, and wet specimens. They have a fantastic collection of furniture from the park’s historic hotels, many of which no longer exist. I am especially excited to work with their collection of Native American objects.

The interns will be working collaboratively to create a new exhibit for the lobby of the HRC, a project I am really excited about. There is a large backlog of objects that need to be accessioned, and a postcard collection that needs to be digitized. I know I am going to have a great experience here this summer, and can’t wait to begin!

Spark!

2009-05-07T07:56:00.002-06:00

This inspiring film pretty well sums up the reasons I am entering the museum field. Museums really do matter. In the midst of tough economic times, this video is an important reminder of the inherent value of museums to society.

"Spark" was created by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance in cooperation with the American Association of Museums.

Welcome!

2009-05-06T19:09:00.001-06:00

As part of my academic requirements, this blog will follow my activities and experiences as a museum intern at the NPS Yellowstone Heritage and Research Center in Gardiner, Montana from May through August of 2009. The HRC is an 32,000 square foot collection management facility that houses the 5.3 million items in Yellowstone's enormous archives, library, and museum collection and features a small rotating exhibit space.

This will be my first museum internship, so I am looking forward to learning a lot this summer. I will be working closely with the supervisory museum curator, Colleen Curry. My responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

Cataloging objects
Scanning historic photographs and logging them into the ANCS+ collections database
Interpreting exhibits and giving tours of the storage areas
Working on rotating exhibits for the museum space
Performing collections management work for the museums in the park's interior
Meeting with other branch staff (historian, archivist, librarian, anthropologist, historic architect, archaeologist, wildlife biologist, fisheries staff, biologist)
Working with five other interns (one museum intern, two library interns, and two archival interns)

I am a graduate student in the Museum Studies program at the University of Florida. This spring I finished the first of three years in the program. My interdisciplary focus is history, specifically the history of the American West and I will also pursue a certificate in historic preservation. My dream job is a position with the National Park Service, so this internship is a step in the right direction. I hope you enjoy my blog!