Humm's HIS5067 Blog

 The final stretch is here, the second to last week. This week was the week that I wore multiple hats. When I arrived at Maitland A&H, Katty directed me to help the other interns working on making a permanent exhibit. From this, I had to take off my Archivist hat and put on my curator hat, and the difference was night and day. Instead of just working on protecting the artifacts, I was now in charge of trying to use them to use the artifacts and make an exhibit for guests to see them view them. I was excited because my focus in building the permanent exhibition was to focus on the cold war.   While this is technically a secret, and the public is not supposed to know right now, Maitland's plan for their cold war exhibit is to make the room an underground bunker theme. The group of interns and I were tasked to figure out what the room would look like and what would be in the room. When we visited the room, the room was a perfect fit for a space that is supposed to feel c...

 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,...

 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 ...

  This week was sadly another let down on my end. Due to having Covid-19, I was still not able to attend to complete my internship. The good news is that as I’m writing about my blog post     I have now tested negative. As mentioned before Covid is no joke and we should all do our part to stay safe even if that means not attending events. One person sacrifice by staying home and being bored is much better then spreading a disease that could potentially harm others. It took me 10 days to recover. However, I will be reaching out to Katie to see if there are days in which I can make up over the next few weeks.

 At this point, everyone who reads this should know the great saying of Semper Gumby, as once again, I could not attend my internship at Maitland. Ironically this time, it was on my end of why I could not participate as I had finally caught Covid-19. Since the start of the pandemic, I was cautious and thought I would not get sick, but someone who was inconsiderate was fortunate enough to pass it on to me. Since having covid, I have been lucky not to have bad symptoms for most of it and should be back to normal soon. Even though my sick time has not been as bad, I still hope that no one gets Covid.  Next week I will be able to attend my internship and finish the first Waterhouse box.

 This week has been an interesting week. Six weeks in, the motto "Semper Gumby" still rings true. This week, the interns and I could not show up immediately as the Museum had a critical guest come. The announcement was last minute, and I was told to wait and come later in the day. For those who have never worked in a museum setting, being flexible with time management is crucial as anything can be happy.   Once we were able to attend the Museum, we were only able to spend a few hours working. I could only work for just 2 hours before going for the day. My time there meant I could not finish the Waterhouse box, but I will complete it next week. In this week's blog post, I will discuss the Waterhouse family, who they were, and why they are an essential part of Maitland. The starting point for the Waterhouse family history starts during the Civil War. Where William H. Waterhouse would fight in the New York Cavalry and be wounded and captured by the Confederates and sent to A...

     This week's work has been a typical day for working at Maitland A&H. The only difference between last week and this week was that I had to change to a new office. As mentioned, my task is to scan documents for the organization. Since my first day working at Maitland A&H, I have been constantly focused on one box to get done; I am glad to say that the first Waterhouse box I worked on will complete by next week. With such a completion, I will post photos of my workstation next week and the Waterhouse home.      Once my task of scanning is finished, my job will not be complete as there is still the fact that the scans have to be labeled and metadata be created to go with the scans. If someone else were to make the metadata, it would most likely be a difficult task as they would have to go through each pdf file, read what the document was about, and write out the metadata. If I were to complete the task, it would most likely be not as challenging a...

 I returned and interned this week, and it was such a relief to return. One might find it interesting to be in a room all day to only scan and record papers for Maitland A&H. I find it quite relaxing. Kate was eager to have her interns return. Being back, I could look over the vast history of Maitland contained in one box. Also, returning to Maitland has allowed me to work with other class members who are also interning. These class members are reliant on me to complete their tasks. It was nice to be able to work with them as my task was to also scan necessary documents for their project. While working at Maitland A&H, their objective is to create a new permanent exhibit for Maitland A&H. To help them succeed in their job, and they are reliant on my end to have items ready to be available when they need them.  Even though the task is not as demanding on my end as working on their project, I intend to show that the job of an archivist and the job of a curator are tw...

 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 mos...

 This week at Maitland A&H has sadly been a bust when attending Maitland A&H. The Exhibit Manager Katie Benson is out of town. Even though I was not able to participate in the museum, it shows the difficulty it is to work in one as the best schedule to have is flexible as anything can happen that can prevent work. Without a flexible mindset being an archivist can be a tricky job. Besides not being able to work on certain days due to random events, there will be times that requests to do other jobs will come up. Knowing the archives will most likely mean that you will have to do research when requested. I have had the task of doing research for the public and answering questions. One task that I was given was to find records for one founding family of the area. With my knowledge of what we had, I quickly located documents and provided them to the lady who had requested them.   Knowing what is in the archives means that you will most likely have first-hand knowledge of t...

     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...

             It has been a journey during my time at Maitland A&H. My overall experience has been fantastic. Starting, I thought sitting at a desk filling out a paper and scanning would be something I would not be interested in doing, but it turned out to be the opposite. Working on this project has allowed me to learn valuable skills that I will be continuing soon. These skills will be used in the summer as I will continue this project as an intern, and I will be working at an Osceola County welcome and history center as an archivist. If I could not work on the project, I would have never learned the difficulties and rewards of working on such a task. Due to this being my final time at Maitland for this semester, I am making my last message to discuss the pro and cons of working as an archivist. The worst part of working is that new archivists may see the work as long and tedious work early on. To think that all the person is...

     When working at any job, there tends to be a part of the job where experience is the only way to learn. While working at the archive, Murphy's law has kicked and made the task more difficult than it should have been. When working, I realized that weather and archives tend not to work together. Trying to preserve items and controlling the temperature and humidity is essential. Changing one element could ruin objects quickly. While there, I had to work in a thunderstorm and worry about getting the things wet and transporting them from one building to another. I also had to work with power outages caused by the storm, which caused technical failures.      While the weather is a mundane part of life, weather means everything to preserve objects for archival work. Sun damage is one of the most common problems that can damage a thing. Most archival rooms are windowless. Having any sun hit the object could fade the color or dry it out and make it brittle or s...

       While interning at Maitland A&H, I have questioned my importance while working there. I have concluded that my time working has been one of the best experiences I have done. I have learned the importance of my job by discussing with other students working on different projects. From talking to them, I have learned that my time and dedication while working have allowed other students to use my work for their own gain and accomplish their projects. From their response, I feel rejoiced knowing that people use what I posted for their research.      In my first post, I discussed how people who are the ones who put documents and pictures on the internet had benefited the historical field greatly. Learning so quickly that people use my work has allowed me to be more open to the scanning process. As mentioned last time, the task is tedious, but personally, being thanked by those who need it has allowed me to appreciate an online source even more. Th...

       Since the last time, a lot has happened when working with the Maitland Art and History Museum. My idea of understanding what the job was about was semi-correct. My job is to scan documents with a scanner, so the museum has a digital copy of the object, but there is more to it than just a simple scan. The things that I deal with must be documented before they can be scanned. Such a document describes the object with a descriptive title, the author, the date of production, the object's size, and if the thing has an already identification number. Most of the time, I can fill out all form sections except for the author and the identification number. Once I fill out the form, I can scan the object. Most of my objects tend to be written works, but sometimes I have scanned photos. It is clumsy of me to have not taken a photo of the process, but in the next blog, images will be added to show the reader what the process looks like and see the quantity of how much one-f...

   The Art and History Museums in Maitland are an excellent opportunity for Floridians as well as tourists to get an exciting aspect of the creative side of Central Florida. Attendees will get a chance to visit a museum that displays famous works of artists who had the opportunity to get involved with the Art Center, explore the historical importance of Maitland and its role in Central Florida, and attend the Phone Museum and learn the evolution of phones. Each section provides an opportunity for attendees to develop new perspectives provided by museums. However, what is not mentioned in the educational opportunities that A&H is providing for the local university students. Students such as I can connect and work with the museum and learn valuable skills that are only taught by internships. With the provided opportunity, I can work with the museum and help develop the museums. While working at will be to work with a fellow partner student to scan documents and photos for th...

 Test post for  HIS5067