Museologist Notes Camel Town supplies
Today my employee is flipping through our copy of the Carr McLean catalogue. This morning she brought me a treasure trove of old photos and photo negatives. In a plastic bag.
That was falling apart.
Aaaaaaahhh
Anyway.
The museum, last year, ordered a bunch of acid free, archival quality photo envelopes. BUT if I put each individual photo from this cash into its own envelop, we'd run out before I was done sorting. So instead I broke them up into 4 envelopes, 1 negatives, and 3 of photos.
Now my head docent is flipping through Carr McLean and marvelling at the cost of all the archive quality things she wants us to have (flat trays, textile boxes, newspaper boxes, film negative cases, slide boxes and more!
I've marked off various things in Carr McLean that I want for the museums... but I haven't worked out a wish list yet. Once I do, I'll send it to the treasurer and hopefully get a few essentials - like cotton gloves.
Its interesting to think about the costs... if this museum had built up its collection of archival tools since the 60s (instead of starting this year), the cost wouldn't seem so bad to get a few essentials... but instead we are starting from bankers boxes, acid free paper, and acid free foam... not even the good foam. And the envelopes.
This is going to be a long journey.
PS: she's a photographer and has been taking notes on the framing tools. it's cute.