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, both of us have lived through a pandemic. Witnessing Charles and Helen in their uniforms for the YMCA, I quickly question if these people had to deal with the Spanish flu pandemic in Maitland or were they spared the dreadful boredom that comes with the limited contact days and masks wearing. From my studies, I learned that when comparing the Spanish flu with Covid, people were asked to wear masks, and some protested the use of telling people to wear masks. Based on what I had seen, the photos and documents provide no evidence that the family was affected by the pandemic of the time. Now, this idea is not concrete enough as maybe the family did not want to discuss and keep track of the pandemic, but so far, no evidence shows that the pandemic of their time even existed. The question of how severe the pandemic in Maitland was back then is something that has now interested me to potently explore the history of Maitland during the Spanish flu pandemic.

Overall this experience working with Maitland has been one that has been memorial. I am looking forward to Katie’s return, so I can continue on the push of scanning documents for Maitland and hopefully try and get at least half of the box done before I end my internship for Maitland. 


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