I am so excited to start sharing all of my amazing experiences
at the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center! This past week we had
some visitors come in from OHC (Ohio History Connection) to look through our
collection. OHC is currently working on an exhibit featuring pop culture in the
1950’s (Coming soon!) Because the NAAMCC has such a rich collection of
artifacts from the 1950’s, the fellow museum professionals came to look at
artifact that they may want to include in the upcoming displays. It was really
cool to be able to see how museums help each other through research and
collection loans. This is such a wonderful resource that I think often times
goes overlooked.
One of the artifacts that OHC members were looking for was a
Nat King Cole record. This allowed me to access our Library to look for the
artifact. While I was able to find the record, I came across some other gems I couldn't
help but share with all of you!
The next day I was able to help Linda with putting the
accession number on a few of our incoming artifacts. This includes putting a
protective layer on each artifact in the smallest spot possible. You always
want to make sure that anything that we add to an artifact is not visible when
on display, and will also be easily removed if necessary. The following are a
few images from this process.
This is a picture of the lab where Linda taught me how to add accession numbers to artifacts so we are better able to locate and care for artifacts once they are moved to a permanent storage location. Pictured are the artifact that we needed to ass numbers to.
The first step is to put a thin layer of B-72 that will protect the artifact. We have to wait at least 2 hours between step to ensure that everything drys properly. The we write the accession number with a fine point marker and add a top coat of B-67 to prevent smudging.
You can see how small the number is on each of the artifacts.
Sometimes it is hard to fit the numbers in such small spaces. But somehow we manage to pull it off!
Above is an example of when we would have to add a fourth step of a white coat to see can see the marker on the dark surface of the artifact.
If you are working with cloth material, you will need to sew the number on the artifact using as little stitching as possible. We always want to cause the least amount of harm to the artifacts. This includes leaving no permanent markings or holes.
