curatorsday

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Friday, August 22, 2025

Back in the spring, we received a handmade wool patchwork coverlet embroidered with "WCTU Elmira." WCTU is the Women's Christian Temperance Union. Not only was the WCTU anti-booze, it was also pro-women's suffrage. At the time I took the donation, I knew our Voices and Votes response exhibit would include the local women's suffrage movement and this coverlet would go nicely in it. Today, I installed it in a wall case for display.

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Thursday, August 21, 2025

I formatted exhibit panels today. So. Many. Panels.

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Wednesday, August 20, 2025

I was looking for a photograph of Elmira police officer Wilbur Reid today when I came across this picture of J.S. Reid taken November 11, 1918. Though she's not who I was looking for (perhaps she's a relative?), I'm glad I found her.

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Tuesday, August 19, 2025

Since we got our large-format printer years ago, we have offered printing service to the smaller historical organizations in the county for the cost of materials plus a bit for my time. It's a lot less expensive for those little non-profits than if they went to a commercial printer and I enjoy doing it. Win-win! It's been quite a while since I've had a printing request, but today I had one to work on. I'm turning the 8 1/2" x 11" printouts given to me by a town historian into 17" x 30" signs for a rural cemetery.

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Monday, August 18, 2025

Today I worked on our Voices and Votes response exhibit. One section is about the local women’s suffrage movement. It’ll include both pro- and anti-suffrage materials.

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Friday, August 15, 2025

Some exciting possibilities are churning in the background at the moment. If they go through, it will mean shrinking the Milestones exhibit currently on display in our Barn Gallery. So, today, in anticipation that this will happen, I redesigned the layout of Milestones.

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Thursday, August 14, 2025

I worked a shift at the admissions desk today. With the road construction closing off the front entrance to our parking lot, we didn't see many visitors. I did, however, get a lot done on our response exhibit to the Voices and Votes traveling exhibit we will host this fall. Most importantly, I found a wheat penny while counting the cash register. I think it's neat that a 72-year-old coin is still in circulation.

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Wednesday, August 13, 2025

I went to the Horseheads Historical Society today and provided them with some PastPerfect training. I forgot to take a photo, so here’s a pic of the road construction in front of our museum.

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Tuesday, August 12, 2025

I went on a field trip today. I drove down to Wellsboro, PA to deliver two trunks to the historical society there. We deaccessioned the trunks in May because they didn't fit into the geographic scope of our mission. They are from a town that no longer exists in Tioga County, Pennsylvania and the Historical Society was happy to add them to its collection.

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Friday, August 8, 2025

I spent the day making padded hangers. I gathered and organized all the materials yesterday and got started sewing first thing this morning. I finished the first six by noon. They were the tricky ones for uniforms that needed padding for both the pants and jackets. I worked on the "easy" ones this afternoon but there are still many more to do.

[curatorsday]

Thursday, August 7, 2025

Today, I inventoried and organized the rolling rack in textile storage. We got the rack back in 2021. Since then, it has become somewhat of a catch-all. It's time I put it into order. I also started making padded hangers.

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Wednesday, August 6, 2025

I actually had some time to work in collections today. I put away the objects I switched out from In the Valley of the Big Horn.

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Tuesday, August 5, 2025

Several months ago, I purchased an air purifier for my office. I run it daily on the lowest fan setting to fight the old building/new old object particulates that are common in the curator's office. Today, I cranked it up to medium speed to help with the wildfire smoke that's making its way into the building. The sun was beautifully orange in the sky when I got to work this morning because of the smoke, though. (One of my favorite hobbies is staring at the sun!)

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Monday, August 4, 2025

It was a long day looking at a computer screen but I did come across this fun photo of a bunch of women in a car. It has nothing to do with what I was actually looking for but it made me smile.

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Friday, August 1, 2025

Our previous curator put together three gallery guides that focused on women's stories, Black history, and science and technology on display in the museum. Today, I resurrected and revamped the guides to bring them up to date with what is currently on display.

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Thursday, July 31, 2025

Today, I wrote a post for our History Blog about embossing seals. It's scheduled to be published on Monday, August 11.

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Wednesday, July 30, 2025

We just fully converted to PastPerfect Web Edition last week and today is the first time I've worked with it a lot. It's quite different from our old version (PP5), as expected. Overall, I'm happy with it. It does have some infuriating quirks, but don't we all?