Coming Home . . . Part 1  

After my travels, it was time to come home to Edmonton, Alberta, and figure out my next steps in the museum working world. Of course wanted to find a paying job, and started by walking my resume around town and joining the provincial museum organization. I also continued on with the Air Force Reserve band on a part-time basis, both playing and researching the history of the band (see the article at the end of this post). I was open to volunteer work, and I found opportunities out there at a volunteer action centre. I gave my time to a community organization -- working bingos! -- and made two other commitments: one as a costumed interpreter at Fort Edmonton Park, and the other at the then-Provincial Museum of Alberta, the largest institution in town. 

The interpreter work was intriguing to me. I worked on 1885 Street, a 'pioneer' version of life on the prairies, and was given a costume to wear and a general script to work from. I could be in-character or not, as my job was to interpret life as it would / could have been in a farmhouse with a fire stove. I met visitors and worked on my cross-stitch, sometimes made bread or biscuits with another interpreter. It was a very interesting way to spend a few hours every week for the spring and summer months. (I do wish I had a photo of me from that time!)

My adventure at the Provincial Museum, however, was career-making. I remember wondering why I had to be interviewed - I was working for free, after all. It didn't really occur to me that they wanted ME to find my right fit as well. I went in, open to suggestions, but again, they wanted to hear from me and find out my interests and ensure I found the right spot, likely so I would keep coming back. I told them about my degree and my travels and my interests, which was primarily (at that time) around military history and why people serve. The museum's volunteer coordinator took everything into consideration and thought I might be a good fit for work 'behind the scenes' in collections, which I had never really thought of, or even knew much about. She set me up to connect with a collections person so I could be trained to work directly with the military history department. I didn't know it then, but this changed everything about what I wanted to do with my degree and also with my career. 

I was provided very solid training on how to inventory collections items, and walked through how to describe, measure and document objects. I don't quite recall how much time they took to train me but I do remember my first assignment: it was to fully document a soldier's kit box. It contained uniforms, medals, photographs, letters and other documents - a whole time of service. I remember his name as Johnathan Cave, and even confirmed it when I found my daytime from way-back-when, which said "Met Mr. Cave today!" (I know! I am my own best archivist and historian!)

I also applied for jobs throughout that year or so but it was through this volunteer work and training that I was offered a position to inventory a collection at a historic site. I was on a team of four people, and we learned together best practices, which have stayed with me to today (and were part of the creation of my most popular blog post,  An Inventory Project in a Small Museum). It even got a couple of pages in a scrapbook I put together a year or so later . . .

Doesn't look like much has changed in
museum storage, eh!

I will forever be indebted to the volunteer coordinator who took the time to talk with me about what I wanted out of my experience, and for the attention that the collections people made to show me carefully (and with confidence) how to document and handle objects in a museum setting. This experience truly made all the difference in what I thought I was capable of doing in museums . . . and how I would dedicate my working life to caring for collections. 💖

The Air Force Reserve article...