Someday I'm going to write a book about working in museums and have an entire chapter dedicated to the weird things people have said to or have asked me. On second thought maybe I’ll make that the whole book.

Heh, museum work.

Ways in which museum visitors have blown my mind lately:

A woman kept reminding her young son not to touch any of the exhibits, and then touched one herself.

A man asked me if everything was for sale.

A woman grabbed hold of an object right in front of me while telling me, "I know I'm not supposed to touch it."

we are sorting the mannequins! it has started me so many times!

the museum is currently littered with mannequin parts and bodies as we work to sort our exhibit mannequins - which is exciting!! but also extraordinarily unnerving as I keep running into mannequins that are not where I expect them to be

here are some of the less scary (newer) ones next to my archive entrance

unfortunately I can't post the torsos and heads on the first floor (the ones being decommissioned) for privacy reasons. I wish I could though, because it is hard to put into words how genuinely unnerving these figures are.

immediately upon entering the museum each day I am greeted by a distant hoard of torsos, limbs, and heads decorated in obscenely dramatic makeup - the mannequins having been taken apart for ease of transport down the stairs. This is actually my first time seeing the faces of many of these figures, during the exhibit season they were covered with stockings as the makeup did not suit the clothing displayed. Which was frankly also pretty terrifying, seeing just the clear ghost of a hidden face underneath the fabric

a part of me feels bad for the ones we are disposing of?? they have spent their career in this institution, helping us display history, and now their future is wholly unknown

-- but also they are the type of model that do pose a threat to delicate historical clothing (damn you articulated arms that can pinch and tear), so I am glad we have found the means to upgrade --

ANYWHO - despite my terror the museum is once again filled with life! we are preparing for our opening, building exhibits, and diving back in to in-person projects! :)

As a white museum professional, I think it's important to NOT apply for positions that I have NO business applying to. For example, positions which have to do with minority or marginalized groups (e.g. museums that focus on African Art, Chinese Culture, Native American History, etc.). I see it time and time again, white museum professionals continue to get these jobs because those hiring usually are at the whim of racist institutions. 100 percent there were qualified black, Asian, Native American, etc., applicants. I see arguments surrounding hiring the "most qualified" as a way to justify overlooking minority applicants. Well, I think us white assholes need to stop applying to these postings. Someone shared with me a position that dealt with location specific history and culture of where I live, however it was one of these listings that I described above. Not only did they hire a white person for this position, but someone who does not seem to have the correct background (as I actually looked at the listing and I don't even think they qualified) nor were they even living in this city/state and had no major ties to the area. It's pretty gross, TBH.

why does my museum have a bootleg copy of Costume in Detail in a three-ring binder in the office

like I’m overjoyed about this to be clear. I’m just also confused

Been spending some time at my local historical society, helping them with their collections. They need a lot of help and dont have a lot to work with supplies and work space wise. The society has been focused on the working farm for decades while the museum aspect has fallen to the wayside. Those in charge have been working to fix things so I've started to volunteer here in order to help out while also getting to use my degrees.

They have some very cool objects and my work has taken me longer than planned because I keep coming across cool things to geek over. Most recently we ventured into a building that has been closed off for a few years due to roof issues and OH MY GOD! It's a treasure trove!! Christmas ornaments from the 1940s to the 1980s, newspapers from 1907 through the 1970s, a mandolin and violin from the early 1900s according to their accession number, textiles, skiing equipment, record books, dolls, photographs. So many objects!!!

I don't have a lot of room to work nor do I have a lot of storage to work with but I'm doing my best to get things cataloged, cleaned up, and stored as safely as I can. Luckily I've basically been given free rein to do whatever I want lol.

So yeah I'm having fun even if I don't get paid for it.

the idea that Orym has a death wish has led to some of the most laughable meta I've seen. Orym tells his closest friend - who has a penchant for delightfully wild impulses, is possibly important to the enemy's plot, and is about to see her biological father, about whom she has all kinds of complicated feelings - to not take unnecessary risks and people are handing out pamphlets on "a Treatise on Orym's Belief in Doom; Being an Account of His Deep-seated Hypocritical Actions Regarding The Pact With Morrigan, Hag and Fatestitcher" and it's like. idk man maybe they're going to be separated in a very clearly dangerous scenario and she specifically is in an emotionally charged and tricky one and he is saying "be careful", a normal thing friends might say to each other.

this is going to sound pretentious and i acknowledge this but i do think people's media comprehension would be much stronger if more people would read classic plays... and i don't just mean shakespeare (though his plays have inspired so many modern stories that being able to understand them and their references does a lot on its own) but roman plays that established character tropes that are used now, plays from ancient greece and india and china that have influenced storytelling to this day, stories from every culture around the world — traces of them can be found in everything and being able to recognize those influences will enrich your understanding of them and deepen your enjoyment. and it's soo deeply touching to read stories written thousands and years ago and to still feel as deeply impacted by it as the people it was written for would have... humanity at its core has always loved storytelling and to connect to stories written by our predecessors is to connect to the people around us past and present

Musings of A Museum Professional

I need everyone to repeat after me: "The people of the past were just as intelligent as people are today. Just because they didn't have our modern technology doesn't mean they weren't capable of building or making incredible things. "

Behind every great museum is a disheveled historian who can't sustain a normal conversation for more than 5 minutes eating pizza at their computer desk at 2 in the morning blasting Nightcore remixes in their headphones because they have too many projects and all of them are nearing their deadline for completion

Today's very weird museum visitor: the guy asked (via his daughter, as it appeared his English was limited) if they were allowed to take photos. I said yes. Turns out he didn't want photos of the exhibitions - he wanted a photo of himself with ME. No idea why.

PLEASE stop mailing your local historical society antique photos of babies with NO ADDITIONAL CONTEXT

signed, a very confused curator

Mine below the cut...

Wouldn’t want him getting lost now, would we (Patreon)