Check out my new Museum Photography page!
Once upon a time I took a ceramic course in undergrad and LOVED IT. I was completely out of my element, but found it relaxing and a great way to take my mind off the stresses of school.
I graduated from the University of Tulsa with a Master's in Museum Science and Management! The past two years flew by! I could go on and on about everything I learned and the amazing people I meet, but I'll keep it simple and say that it was all worth it. I've moved back to Kansas City and am working part time at the Mulvane Art Museum in Topeka, KS. Photos by Caitlin Shepard+ Photos by me
Over the Fall 2018 semester I took a museum conservation course. Each student was given an object to study throughout the semester, mine being a silver medal that was donated to Gilcrease Museum in May of 2017. It was created by medalist John Kirk to commemorate the marriage of King George III and Princess Charlotte in 1761.
At the end of the semester I created a long-term, storage enclosure of the medal. My object was donated with three other medals and coins, so my enclosure housed all the objects. I measured and folded acid-free, archival-quality "blue board" to create a box and and lid. I then lined the box with non-abrasive packing materials (Ethafoam) to provide the objects with adequate support and protection. Small strips of archival-safe paper were cut to identify the coins, while also creating way to safely remove them if necessary. A few weeks ago I checked an item off my bucket list! The Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma is famous for their garden cats and I was lucky enough to see two of the three cats while enjoying a walk through their gardens.
This summer, I met Charles M. Russell, one of America’s most important artists through his writing. I was a Digitization Assistant at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, OK. Last semester, I successfully wrote a grant to the Charles and Marion Weber Foundation in the Grant Writing for Museum Course (MSM-7063) to hire a graduate student to transcribe documents from the Charles M. Russell Research Collection (Britzman). Since I wrote the proposal, worked in the Digitization department, and knew the most about the project, I was hired for the job!
I transcribed 270 letters, stories, newspaper clippings, notes on envelopes, and text found on note cards in the collection. The 20th century American artist, Charles Marion Russell, was known for his paintings and sculptures that depict a Western American lifestyle and his quirky sense of humor. I became very familiar with his personality while transcribing his letters and stories. He wrote using a cowboy slang and purposefully used misspellings to capture conversations as they sounded. This became a challenge. My brain wanted to correct the spellings, but a true transcription records exactly what Russell wrote – misspellings included! This project used the Distance Cataloguing Interface (DCI). This is a new software that the museum is developing. It allows outside experts and volunteers to give their own input and help catalog the museum’s collections. My specific project helped test the transcription input field, so future transcription projects could potentially be outsourced from the museum. I learned a lot from working at Gilcrease and with the Digitization team. Before this project I was not familiar with writing styles of the late 19th and early 20th century. I learned what it takes to transcribe historical documents and make them available for public access. There is a lot more that goes into it than one would think! |
AuthorPhotographer. Artist. Equestrian. M.A. in Museum Science and Management. B.F.A. in 2D Studio Art and Photography. Archives
October 2020
Categories |