I started my first day by wandering through the museum on my own, reading all the available information for patrons and spending time with the interactive exhibits before anything official got started. I happened to start on a day when almost the entire staff was in the building, which made it easy to meet everyone. I also had an intern orientation alongside another intern working toward a bachelor’s degree in art history (if I’m not mistaken); once work was underway, you could tell her workspace was going to be noticeably neater than mine.

The administrative side of the day involved signing paperwork, adding dates and times I would be working to a shared calendar, and setting up my PastPerfect account, the museum’s collections management software. My supervisor, who serves as the curator, walked me through how to use the scanner and how to enter object information into the system. The collection I’m working on is the Belford Lumber Company permanent collection; each object already includes a semi-completed cataloging worksheet (done by a long-time volunteer), and my job is to enter that information into PastPerfect. I am adding a title and location to all worksheets. Some of the information I am inputting into PastPerfect is below-