It’s time for our second guest post! Take it away, Kim: They’re ALIVE! Bringing the living into Museums By Kim Vandenbroucke Recently I’ve noticed that the face of museums are changing. It’s no longer just about the artifacts housed inside a museum, but the stories they can help tell. Sometimes museums need a little help … Continue reading
Monthly Archives: March 2011
Evolution or Revolution?
I try not to advertise on this blog, instead filling the posts with tidbits of information gleaned from years on the job, but today I wanted to take a minute to promote an upcoming event that’s near and dear to my heart. I received a master’s degree in Historical Administration from Eastern Illinois University. The … Continue reading
Award-Winning Connections
It’s time for another post featuring an article from the Des Moines University Magazine! For my past posts, please see here and here. While my previous posts have focused on DMU’s book collection, today I want to highlight a very unique alum and his famous grandson. Originally published in the Spring 2010 issue, “An Early … Continue reading
Historical Costumes
Growing up, I was very fortunate to have a mom who A. could sew and B. always offered to sew me an amazing Halloween costume. I don’t have any childhood photos of me online (boo), but rest assured, the costumes were pretty amazing – and I still have them! My mom actually wanted to get … Continue reading
Extreme Inspiration
A colleague recently sent me this link, which is from a show called Incredible Basements. (Hosted by, I might add, Mike Rowe, who has made quite a name for himself by hosting Dirty Jobs.) Anyhow, the owner of this, er, basement, was inspired by the Museum of Science and Industry‘s Yesterday’s Main Street exhibit, which … Continue reading
Volunteers: All Ages
I was looking through my photos to get inspiration for a different post and I stumbled across this gem. I didn’t even put it through the polaroid-generator thingy, because I wanted you to be able to read it: A five-year-old’s catalog sheet Adorable, right? Now, I realize that when it comes to cataloging museum collections, … Continue reading
Get Your Groupon
Do you Groupon? Groupon is the next big thing happening online. As they explain it, Groupon negotiates huge discounts—usually 50-90% off—with popular businesses. We send the deals to thousands of subscribers in our free daily email, and we send the businesses a ton of new customers. That’s the Groupon magic. In addition, each deal must … Continue reading
Using Tape: A PSA
Today’s post is a Preservation Public Service Announcement. Please don’t use tape (scotch, duct, masking, packing, or any other kind) when working with your stuff! Tape can be very tempting, especially the nice, clear kind. Taping over a tear can make a document seem much more stable. Tape can stop a tear from getting worse, … Continue reading
Deaccessioning and Ethics
Ah, ethics. I just emailed a client regarding an upcoming auction. They have a lot of items in their collection with no provenance (prizes from past dumpster dives), are in very poor condition, and/or are duplicates. While I helped sort through these potential auction items and feel confident about our decisions, I did want to … Continue reading
Beautiful Reproductions
As a museum person / historian, I’m interested in preserving and interpreting historic items of all types. The “old stuff”, is, after all, an actual piece of the past that we can’t replace. If we lose an artifact, we can’t get it back. People want to experience something real, and historic artifacts are, in fact, … Continue reading
Museum Minute 