As the summer winds down yet again, the Curatorial staff continues work on collections identification and seasonal cleaning. With the assistance of Andrew and a small crew of Americorps volunteers, Janna has nearly completed snapshot records for everything in the Kramer Dress Shop; simultaneously, the Preservation Crew is also moving in to shore up the east-facing wall. Moving the collections to a safer location within the building was challenging, but accomplished, making room for the continued preservation work. After moving a number of objects in public view, the incredible UV destruction of the wallpaper and once-colorful clothing collections is highly visible. (See the MMIO below).

Our intern, Andrew Miller, completed his 12 weeks on August 11th and has returned to Missoula for his third year of college. We want to thank Andrew for all his hard work and for what he added to our efforts here.

Nearly all staff participated in Nevada City fire training, led by the one and only Jack Frost, which took place on August 10th.

Curatorial volunteer Ron Kunkel has begun his fifth season with us and we so appreciate Ron's help. Ron's contributions were formally recognized August 19th with a Volunteer Service Award at a dinner hosted by the MHC.

Marge had the pleasure of working with researchers from the Mai Wah Society of Butte this month. Janet Sperry, former registrar for the MHS and a Mai Wah member, organized a research trip to VC/NC August 16th-18th with four others. The group included Christopher Chan of New Jersey, great-grandson of Albert Chinn who owned and operated the Mai Wah Noodle Parlor and the Wah Chong Tai Mercantile in Butte's Chinatown. Erik Hammerstrom, now working on his doctorate in Asian Studies and also fluent in Chinese, shared his expertise and gave valuable English interpretations of many items labeled with Chinese characters. Beth Pfaff, a history teacher at Bozeman High School, gathered information to bring back to her students for a history grant project called 'Teach America History'. The overall goal of discovery was initiated: for us with new information about our VC/NC Chinese collections and for the members of the Mai Wah and how our collections relate to them and their history. In May of this year, the Wah Chong Tai nameplate in our VC/NC collections was loaned to the Mai Wah Society for exhibition in their museum. Hopefully continued cooperative efforts between the MHC and the Mai Wah will result in a better understanding of the Chinese objects here in Virginia and Nevada Cities. Thanks also to John Ellingsen for his help those three days.

We will be wishing Janna a safe surgery, quick healing and great results as she takes a few days off at the end of this month for laser eye surgery. When she returns, Janna will not only have new and better vision, but also a new and better position with the MHC. As one of several interviewed for the open position of Curator of Collections, Janna was selected and has accepted the position. Congratulations Janna Hermanson, Curator of Collections for Virginia and Nevada Cities!