Curatorial team monthly report for April 2004

Tim and Janna installed an exhibit of objects from the Gilbert Brewery in the McFarland Curatorial Center gallery. They also continued cataloging, data entry, and preparing objects for storage. Marge continued to work on cataloging material from the Music Hall—the machines and many other smaller items hidden behind the machines. Marge and Janna created a list of music rolls from the Music Hall. John Ellingsen will work from this list when needing to change rolls on the machines; in between we will be able to better monitor condition and location of the rolls from the Curatorial Center.

Tim will now be working with the inventory project until it is finished, and we will miss his input, knowledge and skill with the collections. Marge has begun, with the help of two Americorps students, the annual cleaning of our historic building exhibits. This process will go on through the summer. Janna has also been paired with an Americorps student, and they have begun sorting and cataloging collections in the Village Pump.

Pat is continuing work on the Long-term Preservation Plan, the final phase of the IMLS grant project. As noted before, the recommendations and the Long-term Preservation Plan will guide us in our work for years to come. A new computer resulted in some lost information, and Pat has been re-building those aspects of our collections database, as well as regular record-keeping and other duties.

Wood conservator John Kjelland, of Missoula and Hall, spent two weeks in Virginia City working on the 3 large casks and one of the smaller ones in the Gilbert Brewery. He has also been conducting research to prepare a detailed conservation proposal for the Gypsy Fortune Teller. Each of the curatorial staff has been working with him in various aspects of these projects.

Robert Baker was hired as the 2004 curatorial intern, and will begin June first. Robert is a graduate student in history at University of Montana.

The "Most Interesting Object" of the month is interesting not because it is unusual, but rather because of the process developed to, well, clean it. Cane-wrapped glass jugs are numerous throughout the Virginia City and Nevada City collections. Used throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries for wine, spirits, or just about any liquid, the split and woven cane protected the glass, provided a handle for carrying, and helped to keep the contents cool. They were also used, both intentionally and inadvertently, as mousetraps. While we will never know what the original contents of the jug pictured were, it was found containing the remains of three mice. Because of the narrow neck of the jug, we had to devise a method of removing the mice and keeping the jug intact. Janna had the unpleasant task of final removal of the mice, pictured below. We are certain to make use of this specialized process many times to clean the many jugs in our collection.