The second month of my internship with the Holocaust Museum was more of an eye opening experience about what it is like to work at a museum in the collections management division. I finished up my first project which dealt with using the nine database to update the records and conditions of a pending collection. This month I started a new project where I had to take a collection, this one in particular had 114 three dimensional objects along with a manuscript collection, and I needed to enter all of the data from the condition report into the database and take sure all of the measurements matched up. Once I made sure all the measurements, condition reports, and people involved were properly entered into the database I then had to rehouse all of the objects into different boxes and bags that were better fit for preservation. I also learned how to check and make sure if an object is ready for the accessioning process so that it can be assigned a number. I learned the rules and regulations when it comes to making a proper check on the deed of gift description and I learned how to properly identify if there is an issue with the copy right of a donation. If there was a problem I had to email someone who works as a curator and get the proper description or papers to complete the process, overall the entire accessioning process is very specific and requires a lot of work from a variety of people. If an object did pass and received an accession number I learned how to properly record and enter the number in the museum database. This is an exciting project because of all of the history involved and I find it exhilarating to learn how to properly manage and organize all of it. On a side note I also spent a day learning how to properly construct the boxes that the objects go to when they are shipped off to another museum for a loan or for when we return an object, it was fun and interesting to learn everything from the photo process for condition reports to actually putting a box together to ship the object.
While the amount of work and people involved for every part of the collections management process is certainly an eyeopener the most revealing aspect of museum and collections management life revealed itself to me when we visited the National Capital Radio and Television Museum in Bowie Maryland. This museum was founded by people who just loved to collect and restore old radio and television sets. While I did learn an extraordinary amount of information about the history of television and radio and its impact on our country the management of the museum and its means of collection management really showed me the contrasting nature of how museums all run differently. At the Radio and Television museum almost all of the staff were volunteers who took their own time to make the place run, they have one paid staff member on hand with a budget that is almost made up entirely of donations. Their collections division consisted of an offsite facility that was much smaller and less sophisticated than the one I have been interning at there was no climate controlled multi-floored environment but they still found ways to make their preservation methods work. This experience showed me just how different the collections management division can be at another institution, these men and women were able to make an incredibly place to work and properly preserve and manage their objects even though they had a lack of resources, it was truly astounding to see just how different this place was. It was also a fantastic place to visit and I highly recommended it to anyone remotely interested in Radio and Television.
Next moth will bring more challenges as I am beginning a new project on incoming collections which will encompass all of the skill I have learned so far while adding new ones. It is an exciting place to intern at and really has me interested in looking into a career in collections management.
Matthew Wilson
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