Maitland A&H Summer Blog Entry 3

 This week has been another letdown for attending Maitland A&H. The Exhibit Manager Katie Benson is out of town but will finally be back next week. The good news is that since I have worked at Maitland A&H before, I know about some of the difficulties with weather and archives. In the last post, I stated I would discuss this topic.

  Most people may not see weather as a big deal in their career as they can stay inside; weather means almost everything. The simplest change in temperature can ruin an archivist's day. This blog will break down how specific weather affects the objects.

  The most common weather damage is sun damage. Just like the human body, most objects can not be in the sun, or they will deteriorate. Only a few objects can be out in the sun; most of these are metals and rocks. The majority of the things will have sun damage from exposure to UV rays. Objects such as paints and inks will dry and fade away from the sun hitting the items. Even though most museums' rooms are windowless, the same effect of UV lights from lights is still possible to deteriorate objects in the room. There is a reason why people cannot use Camera flashes as the light from the flash also cause items to fade. The best protection for museums to protect their objects is to have UV protection cases over the things.

  While the sun is the most common damage then, water is most likely the most dangerous when it comes to preservation. Water can damage all objects, including the toughest of the lot. Water erosion can cause all things to deteriorate. Weather will eventually whittle objects made out of stone away from decline. Erosion will take a millennium to deteriorate to nothing, but time will tell everything. For paper objects, a simple drop of water can ruin history. While working at Maitland, there were days when we could not work as the rain made it impossible to transfer the archival boxes to the building that we scanned. Oils from the human body can cause the same damage as water. All staff members should be taught the effects of liquids on the museum's items, and gloves should be issued when handling particular objects.

  While sun damage and water damage are some of the most problematic damages, museums still have to worry about the climate. Any room where objects are stored has to have its climate regulated. All things are affected by the environment and can become damaged if the temperature is incorrect or the humidity is off. Because of this, certain museums will have temperature gages in each room to ensure that the temperature is constant.

  I should note that I have still barely scratched the surface when it comes to the effects of weather and what it can do to objects. Next week will finally be the first week back at Maitland A&H after the long break that I was given; with this, I will be able to discuss with Katie if my purpose for Maitland has changed or will I continue with what I did last semester.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Maitland A&H Summer Blog Entry 1

     Good day, my name is Ryan Humm, and I am a graduate student at the University of Central Florida. I am currently taking an internship over the summer. I am currently studying public history, a field of study that focuses on reaching out to the public and getting them interested in history. So far, I have taken the necessary classes dealing with public histories, such as intro to Public History, which provides the essential background knowledge on how to be a public historian. I have also taken classes in Historic Preservation and Oral history, both great classes that focus on Public history.      The internship will allow me to learn about working with the public in a historical environment. My task will be to work at a museum. Those who work at a museum will most likely have a public history background. Curators, archivists, and other museum jobs usually are people who have studied public history. Like them, my task while working in the museum will be...
Read more

Maitland A&H Summer Blog Entry 10

 Another week and another example of why we should be Semper Gumby. This week Katie was out for being sick, so nothing was able to be scanned. Katie being is such a letdown as I wanted to get a great start on the second Waterhouse box. I have already looked in the box. I noticed that it was mostly photos of the family. Hopefully, this will not take as long as the methods that /I use can make it go quickly. The speed of the equipment mainly hinders me as, after a heavy load of scanning, the computer and the scanner will slow down dramatically for those who pursue museum work and have to digitalize pieces. Either try and ask the museum director for the best equipment. If not, a team of people with proper equipment would also work. If not, and the director is stubborn and wishes to go cheap, then show them these posts so they see the challenges I had to go through. What I found interesting while going through a whole box of family memories is that when comparing our lives with theirs,...
Read more

Maitland A&H Summer Blog Entry 9

Image
 This week has been my first time back to Maitland since my devastating time dealing with Covid. It has been an honor to be back, as it means I finally have finished scanning the first Waterhouse box. It was the same box I had been working on since my first time at Maitland A&H. It has been a journey working at Maitland. I had learned so much from one box alone about one of Maitland's founding families. I also learned a decent about the town of Maitland as the family kept outstanding records about Maitland. I learned that Maitland was a booming town in Central Florida during the late 19th century. Many of the residents who came to Maitland were not originally from Florida. The Waterhouses came from New York and New Jersey. With them coming from the North, they brought Northern traditions to Maitland. One of the essential beliefs they brought was respecting the newly freed Black community. The Black community in Maitland was one of the first to set up their community, thanks to ...
Read more