Humm's HIS5067 Blog

 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...