Project 5: What's in the Box?

Project #5: Inventory at HCF

April 30, 2009
10AM - 3PM

On April 30th volunteers returned to Historic Columbia Foundation for their second project with the organization, and under the supervision of Collections Manager Alexis Thompson. From mid-morning to late afternoon the Collections Volunteer Group inventoried boxes from the Woodrow Wilson House that were moved recently into the Hampton-Preston Mansion of HCF. Members in attendance: Halie Brazier, Nate Johnson, Amanda Roddy,
and Sarah Scripps.

Alexis began by showing us some of the storage areas, where we discussed some issues that historic houses deal with, as well as some innovative measures HCF has taken. She showed us the new period room they are developing, wherein they will recreate a girl's dormitory from Chicora College which was housed in the mansion. Afterwards, we dove into the boxes, which contained lace table runners, women's clothing, purses, even natural history specimens (???) among other things. To assist in our inventory, Alexis demonstrated the PastPerfect (collections management) database for Nate and Sarah, who had never used it before. Using the computer and our paper materials, we worked in pairs to inventory the objects and make note of their condition. After a pizza lunch provided by Alexis, we finished up our inventory around 3pm. Thank you to all who were involved!

I want to echo Jan's congrats in the last post -- we have two new student coordinators for the '09-'10 school year and they have some great ideas for this group! Amanda Roddy and Sarah Scripps, both Public History/Museum Studies students -- I wish you the best of luck!

For more images from this project, click here

Post by Halie Nowell, 08-09 Student Project Coordinator

Project 4: The Lexington County Museum

Project #4: Condition Reporting Edgefield Pottery at the Lexington County Museum

November 22, 2008, 12-4:30pm

Lexington County Museum director J.R. Fennell provided a pizza lunch for the group when we arrived at noon. Afterward, he took us on an informative tour of some of the 36 structures that belong to the museum. Although it was cold, the tour was worth it because the museum has some really interesting houses and collections. We also discussed some problems with the storage, protection, and presentation of some of the artifacts, and what special considerations a small museum has with these issues. Afterward, we worked in groups of two to condition report the museum's Edgefield pottery collection, which included a storage jar by the famous Dave. Alexis Thompson taught us how to condition report ceramics, and we learned some terminology to describe the jugs and other objects.

Project 3: South Carolina Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum

Project 3: Condition Reporting & Re-housing Framed Objects at the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum

Saturday, May 10, 2008, 9:00am-4:30pm

We met at the Relic Room early Saturday morning to condition report and re-house over 100 framed objects, including many of the framed flags in the collection. Sarah Wooten (Chief Curator ofCollections and Exhibitions) and Rachel Cockrell (Registrar) were both on hand to supervise the project.Sarah kicked off the project by providing volunteers with an overview of the the museum's history, the scope of the project at hand, and how the work of our volunteers would contribute to an upcoming conservation assessment by AASLH. Rachel provided us with an overviewof the day's tasks, a tour of storage, and was on hand the entire daywalking between volunteer teams to answer questions and provide helpful tips for handling & assessing the framed objects.Our group learned how to assess the condition of a framed object, discerning whether or not a frame was causing damage and if the object should be transferred to the archives. We worked in teams of two toremove excess wrapping, attach identification tags (where needed) and to place the framed works in protective ethafoam. We had a great pizzalunch, good conversation, and put in a lot of hard work! Thanks to everyone who volunteered -- the day was a great success.

Project 2: Historic Columbia Foundation

Condition Reporting at Historic Columbia Foundation

Saturday, March 29, 2008, 11:00am - 4:00pm

Alexis Thompson the Collections Manager of the Historic Columbia Foundation is currently working on a collection-wide inventory of nearly 6,000 objects, which include furniture, ceramics, paintings, photographs (you name it, HCF has it) -- a project that is anticipated to conclude in the Spring of 2009. Our group was asked to help with this inventory by condition reporting a group of ceramics & metals from the collection. We began the morning with a quick greeting from John Sherrer, Director of Collections, followed by a quick recap of suggested readings and instructions on how to condition report. We worked as individuals, each tackling a box of objects in need of routine condition reporting & photographing. Alexis was on hand for the duration of our project, walking between tables to answer any questions. At the end of the afternoon, volunteers were given a quick tutorial on HCF's collections database, Past Perfect, and had the opportunity to enter a few of their paper reports into the system. This project instructed volunteers in how to handle/what to look for when condition reporting ceramic and metal objects, photographing objects, and entering information into a collections database.

Project Recaps

Since we've started this blog a little late in the game, the next few posts will give recaps of the projects carried out thus far...starting with our first project in February 2008!

Project 1: Inventory at McKissick Museum

Saturday, February 2, 2008, 9:00am - 1:30pm

In the coming months, McKissick will loan out thirty baskets from their collection of nearly 300 to a touring exhibit on African basket weaving traditions organized by independent curator Dale Rosengarten. Jill Koverman, McKissick's Curator of Collections, asked our group to help in conducting an inventory of the entire basket collection as a means of getting more organized for the loan process ahead. Before beginning the inventory, Jill will gave a quick talk on the upcoming exhibit, the necessity of regular inventories, and provided instructions for the day's tasks (ex.how to handle the objects, what to look for when noting the object's condition.) We broke into four teams of two, with one person handling the objects and the other recording the information. After a few hours of work we were able to finish the tasks and take a quick tour of the museum's textile storage. Everyone had a good time and got to see McKissick's amazing collection of baskets up close.