To continue this week, I made a pile of items to go over to the Clark House. Due to the large quantity of these types of items, Jonathan and I decided it was best to group these items, research them, then catalogue them -- so they can be taken over to the Clark House to be put in their rightful place. In order to find information on these items, I have to use a variety of research skills that I have learned throughout my history courses at IUP. I start by using the library database to try to find primary and secondary sources that look reputable/reliable. In addition to this, I also looked through old Indiana Gazette articles to further frame the history of these items. You want to use good sources (and good searching methods!) otherwise you get some interesting results -- such as Pinterest pages, current events that are not relevant,or unrelated objects. And these types of results will not typically aid in your research. Some of these items I was working with included: a blue smoking jacket from Moorhead's, some black gloves, a t-shirt for the Ironwood restaurant, some hats (from Brody's), a handbag, and a weird bird ornament for a hat. Many of these items are related to the history of Indiana and it's people. Many of the items are either donated by people who are from this area or are related to businesses that are/were in Indiana.
By the middle of the week, I had sufficiently researched the items, learning about their origins and. Some items had interesting backgrounds, while others were from specific places, which had interesting histories in themselves.
The bird ornament had belonged to the donor's grandmother -- who arrived in the United States in 1910. Albeit a little creepy, the bird is an old and interesting item with a lot of history involved in it.
Some of the clothing items led me to their stores that were once located in Indiana. While not necessary, I continued to dive deeper into these stores' histories, to create a better narrative for myself, even if it was not necessary for inputting the item into the Past Perfect system.
By the end of the week, I had successfully found accession numbers for these items and put them into the system -- and they were now ready to move on to their rightful homes in the Clark House! As you can see many of the items go into Room 2, which seems very busy. (shown below)
While everything is very organized, I found it hard to remember where things were at. After going over two days in a row, it got a little easier. I had a lot of clothing items, which ended up on Unit T, in varying boxes on different shelves. The bird was placed on Unit W, in the box it came in, due to its odd and delicate nature. After successfully placing the items, I logged their locations into the Past Perfect system, making it easier for any future researchers to locate the item with ease. After I was finished, my mother stopped up with my friend for a surprise visit. I ended up giving them a tour of the museum, explaining the exhibits and pointing out the items I previously worked on that had made their way out into those exhibits. Before leaving, Jonathan and I discussed options and details for my upcoming exhibit -- my end of the semester project. While nothing has been finalized yet, I have begun sketches and a sort of proposal to show him when I finally decide on something.
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