In the past I was already aware of the jobs regarding jobs like curator, collections, director, educator, preparator, and docent, I was surprised to hear of more jobs in the museum I was not aware of previously.
Although I have already mentioned in a previous discussion that I currently work in visitor services, which improved my people skills greatly, there are other jobs in the museum I have had an interest in before I started at the front desk. Doing volunteer work at the small museum in Anchorage sparked my interest in collections and education. I enjoyed cataloging the collection portions I was assigned and seeing one of the collections I helped in relabeling be put on display (it was a donated butterfly collection). I also enjoy teaching others about things that I have learned, and I enjoy learning new information any way I can. The amount of work that goes into museums and the upkeep of their collections would not be possible without the staff that takes care of them.
What collection did you enjoy the most in the past?
Your work at the Anchorage museum sounds like a dream come true, to be honest. I visited the Anchorage Museum at a time when they had an exhibit on the HMS Terror and the HMS Erebus, and it was absolutely fascinating. The exhibit designer had transformed a once blank space into a replica of the HMS Terror, meaning that people were able to put themselves in the crew’s shoes, so to speak. There were artifacts from the ship itself, which had only recently been found at the time, and a section that detailed the crew deaths that had occurred before the ships sank, along with life sized photos of the excavated remains. (They had stayed remarkably intact and hadn’t decomposed much. I remember one unfortunate man had died from tuberculosis, and his eyes were still as blue as they were in life.)
I would like to clarify that I volunteered at a small museum in Anchorage, not the Anchorage Museum itself. Though I would like to work there someday.
I love how you described HMS Terror and Erebus exhibit, I wish I was able to see it when they had it set up. I heard a lot of good things about it when it was ongoing.
I’m glad you’ve had the opportunity to work in both a small and now a medium-sized museum in Alaska. In my experience, folks in small museums really have to know ALL the jobs and have a really holistic view of how the museum runs. Those of us in larger institutions sometimes have a hard time understanding the demands others face in their individual departments, and therefore might not readily see how our efforts impact others. I think it’s essential for museum employees to have a good sense of how they fit into the system that is the museum. There are great things about being specialized and being able to get really involved in your own department and the specific role you play, but you must be able to empathize with the staff across the organization to see how your demands impact them!