Percy and Small Shipyard

Busy week already. Monday we had a staff meeting, which it seems happens every two or three weeks. It was a bit like the board of directors meeting last week but covered all things museum related, not just curatorial/archival issues. However, the "Heavy Metal" exhibit is kind of the big thing right now so Chris, the exhibit curator, had quite a bit to say about his plans for the exhibit, what needs to happen before hand, help needed, etc etc. Other museum related stuff is covered too. How the museum is doing with guest numbers compared to last month, this time last year, etc, how the gift shop's sales are, upcoming special events, what needs to change, new staff members, etc etc.

This morning, Wednesday, was Nathan's weekly volunteer workshop. This week the title was "Percy and Small Shipyard." P&S was a shipyard located on the grounds that MMM currently is at. Most of the ships they built were 3, 4, or 5 masted schooners, and they did build the Wyoming, which is said to have been the largest wooden boat ever built. We viewed some interesting maps of the shipyard too, which extended down the street. The house I am living in right now was part of the shipyard and was labeled as the "Stinson" lot. Not sure if Stinson was the building name, the person that owned it or just named after. Regardless, pretty cool to be living in a house that was built 150 years ago and was part of the shipyard that was in place.

Maine Island Trail Association

Normally on Wednesdays, Nathan, the senior curator, has some sort of informational workshop for the volunteers to educate them on things associated to maritime life, the shipyard, etc. Well, this week a representative from the Maine Island Trail Association (www.mita.org) came to talk to us. Essentially he was attempting to sell people on a membership to his organization but this truly is a great organization.

Heres what these people do... There are something like over 100 islands in this association. Some are public lands, some are private owners. Members of the organization are allowed to camp, hike, boat and kayak on any of these islands. Kayaking is the best way to get to most of them and some are much busier than others. In addition to access to the islands, the organization reguarly goes to these islands and their shores and cleans them up. Lots of stuff washes up: lobster traps, buoys, pieces of wood, even refrigerators, etc and they remove them. The membership was very affordable (under $75 a year, I think?) and you get discounts at various places, L.L. Bean, etc. So if you spend any money at all at these places, the membership pays for itself. Pretty cool of them and a great organization worth mentioning.

Thursday and Friday I had a little more copying to do with the Diazit machine. The boat shop here at MMM needed some plans done up and I was all for working with the machine again. The "Heavy Metal" exhibit that is going up in July is coming along. Its amazing how much goes into one of these exhibits and the things you never think about. The speaker boxes that are on a rotation of banging and clanking in the background even have to be assembled, painted to match, etc, and that was one of my tasks the last two days. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Making copies is fun!

The last two days have been fairly busy with both the BIW plans and some other things. The BIW project is slowing down because of the exhibit going up in a few weeks and I've been asked to help out here and there.

Something interesting that has taken place though... Ok, so I'm an intern. Interns get coffee and make copies right? Well, I don't get coffee for anyone but myself but I was asked to make copies today. Copies of plans though. BIG plans. And not in a paper material like we are used to and a very different sort of copy machine. Its called a Diazit machine (people call it a "diazo" machine- short or slang, I dunno?) and its pretty neat. This machine is an older model but "new" to the museum compared to their last one apparently.

Hopefully I can explain how it works, as I'm not a scientist or an engineer... It has rollers in it, you slide the plan and it shoots light through the paper. So the plan you are using has to be somewhat transparent. There is ammonia or some sort of chemical that smells the whole basement up something awful that prints on the copy, it is slid through another roller and the light and chemicals do something and it copies it. The ink on the copy is blue, not black. Besides nearly being overtaken by the chemical fumes, it was pretty cool.

Board of Directors

Well, today we had a board of directors meeting. The board appears to be split up into several different committees and I attended the one designated for archival and curatorial departments (of which I work for). Some things that were discussed, I had no idea what they were talking about. Other things were fairly interesting... Bouncing off exhibit ideas, ways to draw the public in and get them more interested more often, the upcoming exhibit and its progress, etc. MMM has consumed another museum out of Portland, ME, the Portland Harbor Museum and with that, has increased the museum's archives. Finding space to house these things or if they are even worth holding on to is obviously an issue and was talked about quite about as well.

The museum is moving to the usage of a archival software called "Past Perfect" sometime in the near future as well. When working at the National Archives, we did have some programs that were utilized for the archives and finding aids but it was more or less excel spreadsheets. I find it interesting that software has been specifically developed for this sort of work.

He's hungry!

You gotta steer clear of the seagulls here in Maine. They are like wolves!

Wait, divers use this stuff?!?!

Well, its been quite a week. My brother came up and is now gone, art packaging, moving massive engine pieces, and gettin’ educated on the trade history of Maine all while cramming BIW records into the mix. I haven’t mentioned much about the BIW project this week so I will attempt to play catch up. First off, we got more shelving units in the storage space I work in. That took up some time to set up but it was really needed. And guess who got to set them up? Well, the intern of course! I’m just playing, it was actually kind of fun. I can’t complain when I mention “the intern doing certain jobs.” I’m certainly not running to starbucks for employees or anything and the folks at MMM have all been more than I’d could ask for as far as coworkers/mentors.

So yeah, we got more shelving to house the ongoing BIW project. This week I’ve made some decent progress considering how many other things I was tasked with. BIW Hull #1-25 are done and I’ve made a dent on the high 20’s/low 30’s Hull numbers. I did come across a box stashed away that had a bunch of records from BIW Hull #2 and #3 (‘Machias’ and ‘Castian’ I believe off the top of my head). I had to go through those, enter them into the finding aid and file them with the plans I had already gone through.

I asked around why these were in their own box, and it is just what I wanted to hear! Apparently a few years back when these records were acquired, the word got out that MMM had possession of them. A guy that was planning on diving on the ‘Machias’ contacted the museum and wanted plans for the ship to help out with the dive. Personally, I think this is really cool and something that didn’t cross my mind when utilizing these records and plans. Obviously exhibits and shipbuilders needing the records but not diving on the actually sunken ship! Very cool.

In other personal news, my fiancé (Charlene) and I have set our wedding date for October 8^th of this year right on Lake Ontario in NY. We are both extremely excited and ready to start our lives together. Just an update; :)

Enjoy your weekend all, I will keep you updated next week. Cheers.

Wheelin' out art.

Today Kelly, the registrar, needed a bit of help packaging up a ship “wheel cover” from the mid 19^th century. It was headed off to another museum on loan and as you can imagine, something this old (are apparently rare) needs quite a bit of care for transport. I suppose I can now add “preparing historic material and artifacts for transport” to my resume now. Its one thing to wrap a cup up in newspaper and put it in a box but this thing was HUGE. I would guesstimate it to be 6 ft by 6 ft, only completely round. Maintenance helped make a crude shipping box but it worked like a dream. Nice and snug in there.

It was headed off to an art gallery I believe and some “art handlers” came to get it in a big box. I love art museums but I hope I can say this without offending anyone… A large majority of the people I have encountered in the past (and in this instance) are relatively smug and arrogant. They act as if they have a certain entitlement to them and it just kind of rubs me the wrong way. Did we have a run in with these individuals? No. They were just people of few words and the words they did mutter got under my skin. That is all, I will no longer rant. Note to self: If museum work is my calling, stick to the historical ones and not those who house large amounts of “art.”

Another realization I had today… If you didn’t already know, I’m in the Air National Guard and am a C-130 Loadmaster, which essentially means I am an enlisted aircrewman on a large cargo airplane. I have been in the military for 10 years and am quite familiar with airplane/airframe terminology, etc. Obviously, nautical terms came well before aviation ones and going through these plans, listening to lectures, or just speaking with individuals that are well educated on things of the sea, I am blown away by how many terms aviators have borrowed from seaman. I suppose it makes sense though. Those who put airplanes in the air and continued to develop them probably worked with mariners and naval engineers to some degree and utilized some of these terms. Simply an observation.