Museum Studies in MotionAutumn 2011 * Be at the center of things. * Volume 4, Issue 1

Season of ServiceWe asked students to share their summer 2011 internship experiences.

NEWSLETTER OF THE MUSEUM STUDIES PROGRAM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE

In this issue...

JESSE GAGNON (History, MA Program) For my summer internship, I worked at the New Castle Historical Society (NCHA) in New Castle, DE to research, write, and record an audio walking tour of the town. Established in 1934, NCHA has preserved New Castle’s history for over 75 years. This internship offered a chance for NCHA to reach new audiences. How could a small historical society use technology to further its mission? I learned over the course of eight weeks that I had more history than I knew what to do with. Logistics, such as planning a walking route and creating directions, became one of the most important components. At the conclusion of my internship, I had completed a full test version of my audio walking tour. The final recording process is about to start, and I am excited about participating in the creation of the final product.

CHRIS CHENIER (History, PhD Program) I interned at the Hagley Museum & Library compiling a digital collection of materials related to the maritime painter Xanthus Smith. In addition to serving under Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont in the Civil War, Smith produced paintings and drawings for the Du Ponts on commission. It was my job to digitize Hagley’s Smith-related materials and create an online exhibit.

Summer Internships, pg. 1

Director’s Message, pg. 2

Sustaining Places Grant, pg. 2

AASLH Annual Meeting, pg. 2

Tabitha Pryor Profile, pg. 3

www.udel.edu/museumstudies

1. The Rosenbach Museum & Library. 2. Abbey Chamberlain worked in Julia Child’s kitchen at the National Museum of American History. 3. Artist Xanthus Smith, whose materials Chris Chenier digitized (Smithsonian image). 4. Jesse Gagnon’s audio tour equipment.

ABBEY CHAMBERLAIN (History, MA Program) I spent my summer in Washington, D.C. preoccupied with food and wine. While interning at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (NMAH), I had the pleasure of working on the upcoming exhibit Food: Transforming the American Table, 1950-2000. The exhibition will consider the radical changes in how and what Americans eat that took place in the last half of the twentieth century. My research focused heavily on American wine production and consumption, documenting its dramatic growth from 1950, with 758 wineries in 24 states, to 2000, with 2,904 wineries in all 50 states. I also researched objects for the show, looking at production equipment used by prominent Napa winemaker Adré Tchelistcheff and unique microwaves from the NMAH collection, such as the 1955 Tappan RL-1, which was the first microwave oven designed for home use. When I was not working on specific research projects, I took part in the Food & Wine Team meetings, cleaned Julia Child’s kitchen, toured culinary-camp kids and even presented my fall 2010 research on early domestic garages during a Tuesday NMAH Colloquium. It was an amazing summer in D.C. that wouldn’t have been complete without personally experiencing the 21st century food phenomenon—a $16 lobster roll, fresh off the food truck. (con’t, pg. 3)

As I write this, the fall semester is well underway, and I am enjoying my work with 17 students in the introductory museum studies seminar. The syllabus offers a whirlwind tour of historical, ethical, legal, and professional frameworks for understanding the operations of museums, historical organizations, and public gardens. This year, the final session will be a workshop on resumés, cover letters, job interviews, and professional networking with volunteers from the Museum Studies faculty and the local museum community. Encouraging students to think of themselves as professionals, and to prepare themselves for employment throughout their graduate training, is always important, but the tight job market gives this effort extra weight. Finally, we just learned that Museum Studies and its partner the Tri-State Coalition of Historic

Director’s MessageKATHERINE GRIER, PHDkcgrier@udel.edu

Museum Studies at UD has received $325,286 from the 21st Century Museum Professionals Program of the Institute of Museum & Library Services (IMLS) to support our Sustaining Places project. With our partner, the Tri-State Coalition of Historic Places, we will carry out this three-year initiative (December 2011-December 2014) to provide innovative training opportunities for the staff of small historical organizations in the Mid-Atlantic region and graduate students in the Museum Studies Program. Participants will develop new skills in three areas: collections, digital media, and volunteer programs.

The IMLS grant will fund four major activities: (1) hands-on, participatory workshops for graduate students and historical organization staff; (2) three January graduate student service projects at small historic organizations; (3) a Sustaining Places resource center, including a lending library of equipment for collections care and media projects as well as a multimedia web site; and (4) assistantships and other project-related job opportunities for graduate students. Sustaining Places will benefit all participants and the public at large as we collaborate to enhance cultural capacity in the Mid-Atlantic.

Museum Studies Awarded Grant

Places (TSCHP) have been awarded funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services for Sustaining Places, a three-year project that includes training opportunities for both students and the paid and unpaid staff of historical organizations in our region. Details on the grant are below. I was anticipating supportive-but-critical comments from the panel and meetings with the TSCHP board to plan our rewrite of the proposal – so the only thing I can say is “WOW!”

With his mini-burgers, Longwood Fellow Nate Tschaenn took the prize for “Best Miniature Food” at a recent Museum Studies happy hour event.

In September the Annual Meeting for the American Association of State and Local History was held in Richmond, VA. I had the pleasure of presenting at this conference thanks to Museum Studies at UD and its association with the IMLS-funded Connecting to Collections Program. The conference included a special track for organizations participating in Connecting to Collections. This program aids libraries and museums with collections assessment and care. While many of the participating organizations were still in the assessment stage, the Delaware institutional partners were invited to speak about implementation already underway. During the winter terms, Dr. Kasey Grier has coordinated fieldwork opportunities for Museum Studies graduate students, including a two-week collections inventory at the Laurel (DE) Historical Society in January 2011. Dr. Grier, Kevin Impellizeri and I presented on this work, which we and eight

other graudate students participated in. We were able to share some of the project’s successes and challenges with other organizations. While in Richmond, I attended a variety of conference sessions, including an (con’t, pg. 4)

Report from the AASLH Conferenceby ABBEY CHAMBERLAIN

2 Museum Studies in Motion - University of Delaware - Autumn 2011

Sustaining Places will provide training opportunities.

Abbey toured Maymont House. Photo by rmanoske (Flickr/Creative Commons).

RETZFELLAH MONROE (History, PhD Program) I received a great opportunity to intern at Auburn Heights Preserve, a Delaware State Park. Recently, Auburn Heights expanded to include a portion of the adjacent National Vulcanized Fibre (NVF) mill site. I worked primarily at this site to help archive a collection of NVF records. One of my responsibilities was to appraise the collection to determine which records the repository would keep and which records it would discard. While doing this, I catalogued the folders, documents, and other materials. I also identified items to be scanned, pulling out ledgers, minute books, and blueprints. Throughout the summer, I experienced much excitement. Outside, I saw deer frolicking and a flock of geese crossing the street. I catalogued files to the sound of torrential rain cascading on the roof of the old mill. While monitoring the temperature and humidity of the collection space, I was plunged

several times into darkness due to power outages. Since the Marshall Steam Museum is at Auburn Heights, I had the unique opportunity to ride in a 1913 Model 76 Stanley steam car. These events ensured that I had great adventures in the world of archives.

Alumnae ProfileTabitha Pryor ‘09

Tabitha holds an MA in History and a certficate in Museum Studies. She is now Curator of Collections at the Banneker-Douglass Museum in Annapolis, MD.

Museum Studies in Motion - University of Delaware - Autumn 2011 3

Internships, continued from pg. 1

Retz Monroe worked in these archives.

LAURA MUSKAVITCH (History, MA Program) I completed my summer internship at the Hagley Museum & Library, where I worked in the Manuscripts and Archives department processing some of the Bingham Estate collection. The rich records in this collection document the estate’s land office in northern Pennsylvania. They date from the early nineteenth century through the 1960s. I rehoused and inventoried a number of the maps used by the office as well as many of the agents’ correspondence files. The internship was a valuable experience that gave me the opportunity to participate in multiple stages of arranging and describing the collection. Also, I was fascinated by the materials themselves, which reveal not only the operations of the Bingham Estate, but also the history of settlement and development in the region.

STEPHANIE CORRIGAN (History, MA Program) This summer I interned with three cultural institutions in the Philadelphia area. At the American Revolution Center I researched and inventoried a variety of objects that formally belonged to the Valley Forge Historical Society. With the VFHS material as the heart of its collection, the American Revolution Center will open a museum dedicated (con’t, pg. 4)

What led you to embark on a career in museums? When I was in college, I was working on a degree in history and political science as well as my teaching certificate. Growing up, I was always under the impression that if you went to school for history, you were supposed to teach. The problem was, the classroom wasn’t for me. I didn’t like the idea of teaching to state-specific standards or being restricted in my creativity. I’m also a hands-on person. I like to build stuff and use power tools, neither of which you typically find in a history classroom. So I started thinking about the things I like and how they could be incorporated into a career. I spent a lot of time talking with my advisor. Together, we realized that museums were my calling. They would allow me to teach history, but also give me the freedom a classroom wouldn’t provide. I would be completely hands-on, actually working with historical artifacts, and I would most certainly have an outlet for my creativity. Is there anything about your job that surprised you? A job at a small museum can give you the opportunity to take on challenges that aren’t in your job description. I was hired as the Curator of Collections, so I just assumed I’d be dealing with the collection all the time. But I’m always doing something different, and a lot of the time it’s nothing to do with the collection at all. I’ve taken on a lot of the exhibition responsibilities.

I’ve curated an exhibit based on a traveling art exhibition, and I’ve also been dubbed staff photographer. At the end of the day, the collection is my priority, and I’m excited to be working on procuring custom-built storage units and art hanging systems for the galleries. (con’t, pg. 4)

I’m a hands-on person. I like to build stuff and use power tools.

Tabitha with artist Loring Cornish. Tabitha curated an exhibition of his work. Photo by Anne Reilly.

Internships, continued from pg. 3

Museum Studies at the University of Delaware77 East Main Street | Newark, DE 19711

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museumstudies@udel.edu

Katherine (Kasey) Grier, DirectorTracy Jentzsch, Staff Assistant Kate Duffy, Graduate Assistant

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4 Museum Studies in Motion - University of Delaware - Autumn 2011

especially thought-provoking panel on “Interpreting Divergent Voices and Challenging Narratives.” The presenters shared specific examples from their sites and provided insightful suggestions for building community support and researching difficult topics. Maymont, a Richmond Gilded-Age estate, was one of the sites discussed, and I was able to visit the house and tour their exhibition on domestic service. It proved an amazing example of the growing trend toward “upstairs-downstairs” narratives. The only sight in Richmond that might have wowed me more than this exhibit was a 1905 Tiffany & Co. silver and narwhal tusk dressing table, which is also at Maymont and situated next to Mrs. Dooley’s swan-shaped bed. In many ways, this awe-inspiring opulence only reinforces the importance of telling the divergent stories, like that of the domestic servants, so that the history we remember is rich with tensions, challenges and diversity and not just gilded representations of society’s elite.

AASLH Annual Meeting, continued from pg. 2

to the entire story of the American Revolution in 2015. This internship was an exciting opportunity to be part of the creation of a new museum. I also served as summer Internship Coordinator for the Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks, where I recruited and hired eleven summer interns to docent at two Old City historic houses owned by Landmarks. Finally, I worked at the Awbury Arboretum in Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood. My primary responsibility was to create a walking tour of the Arboretum to teach visitors about the nature and history of this preserved nineteenth century landscape. These three diverse experiences provided a wonderful opportunity to expand my knowledge of the museum profession.

KEVIN IMPELLIZERI (History, PhD Program) Over the summer I had the opportunity to intern as a research assistant for the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, PA. For three months I worked with exhibits department staff as they prepared an NEH implementation grant for their upcoming exhibit on Prohibition. The exhibit, scheduled to open in October 2012, attempts to dispel popular mythology of the Prohibition era (reinforced in such media as Boardwalk Empire and The Untouchables) to explore the realities behind life in America during the 13 dry years. While Prohibition is typically viewed as a failure, it had a profound impact on what and how Americans drank. Working with the exhibit coordinator and registrar, I researched, identified and investigated potential artifacts for display. As NCC only has a limited core collection, the vast majority of the artifacts for the Prohibition exhibit will be loaned from other institutions. I contacted numerous museums, historical societies, and private collectors from the across the country in an attempt to secure objects. I also assisted in a number of tasks related to content development for the exhibit, including crafting a timeline of the Temperance movement, drafting a map of Prohibition-era crime, and assembling a compilation of music from the period. Overall the project was an exciting experience, one in which I was proud to participate.

KATE DUFFY (History, MA Program) I worked as a Collections Intern at the Rosenbach Museum & Library, a small, innovative Philadelphia institution best known for its rare books and manuscripts. I catalogued book illustrations, digitized verses from 17th century British commonplace books for an online database, helped with exhibit installations/deinstallations, wrote two exhibit labels (including

one for an 1846 letter by Charlotte Brontë regarding a toothache she had), and conducted historical research on Daniel Defoe’s political pamphlets. All in all, an excellent summer!

Tabitha Pryor Profile, continued from pg. 3

What advice do you have for alumni who are now on the job market? Keep applying. I can’t tell you how many times I just wanted to give up, but I stuck with it, sending out countless applications. After interviews, I would rehash everything that was said with my friends and family to refine my answers. This was also a great opportunity to chuckle at the eccentricities in my field. If I didn’t laugh, I’d probably have gone crazy. Also, if you can, find a way to stay involved in the field after graduation – whether that means volunteering or interning again. You will be surprised what you may learn and how it will come in handy one day.