Day 9

I started out today downstairs in the back painting a case white. I then went upstairs and applied mounting adhesive strips to a bunch of WWI posters. After I got back I painted a base for an artifact Museum White (off white). I then continued to apply the mounting strips to the posters and went home after I finished.

Day 8

Today was a half day since I have class on Wednesday mornings. When I arrived, I helped Dennis and Trevor assemble a large case near one of the entrances to the exhibit. It is going to be red, white, and blue themed and I think I heard that its going to hold some manicans. The rest of the afternoon was spent adhering WWI posters to the sides of a kiosk. The easiest method used was to stick large sheets of double sided tape and post it up. I will probably be doing the same thing tomorrow, but with posters on the walls around the exhibit.

Day 7

More painting. I was downstairs in the back this time painting the display fixtures for the exhibit. I did that for pretty much the entire morning until I had to leave for class. When I returned I continued what I was doing for a little bit, but Trevor had already put the finishing touches on it and I went to find him, but Dennis said he left early due to the winter storm and advised me to do the same.

Day 6

Today I finished up painting much of the WWI exhibit. It was a little better since this was mostly touch up work and everything I did made the exhibit look a little better, although I couldn't avoid those damn roller streaks. I got a tray of "Museum White" paint and touched up all the spackle around the room and it looks much better.

Trevor has this great idea for the exhibit and I did the preliminary stuff for him so he can finish it another time. He ordered different colored beads from Oriental Trading Co. and each color represents a country that fought in WWI. In addition, each bead represents 220 soldiers who were killed. He had me pour all the beads from a nation into a long clear plastic tube and measure, so he can cut them to size later on and place them in the exhibit for comparison. A few of them such as the Russians, Germans, and I think the French needed two tubes. For many of them there were over 4000 beads. The civilians alone had 40,000 beads.

Day 5

Today was pretty productive, but a little boring. From the morning until when I left, I was painting the house for the WWI exhibit. It wasn't anything backbreaking, but it was repetetive work. It also grew a little frustrated because I kept making little streaks with the roller and couldn't seem to avoid it. This WWI exhibit seems to be coming right along and I can't wait to see it when its finished.

Day 4

Today I spent the entire time back in Collections. I assisted Louise in cataloging all of the Prange figurines and wrapping them in Polyester bags and hauling them up on tall steel shelves until next year. I think she really enjoyed having someone who is tall help her out, because I didnt even need the ladder unless I was putting something on the top shelf near the ceiling. She also had me go a little out of order and store away all the figurines that belong on the top shelf before I left for my classes and I continued when I returned.

I saw something which was really cool, although unrelated to what I was doing. I am a huge fan of the Godfather trilogy and there was a scene in the first one where Michael is about to "whack" a Police Captain and a wiseguy from the Tattalia Family. Clemensa has Michael in his basement and shows him the gun he will use and has the revolver handle and trigger wrapped in a special tape which prevents fingerprinting, so when Michael drops the gun at the scene (since he wont have it on him if captured by Police) they can't link him to it. Anyway, there was a revolver on the shelf with the same style of tape job.....weird.

Day 3

Today was a little more relaxed and less busy as the other two, at least it was by the time I arrived after my last class. Most of my day consisted of spackling much of the WWI exhibit. Nothing too interesting, but it wasn't anything I minded doing.

Day 2

Today was a relatively short shift compared to yesterday since today was my first day of classes. By the time I arrived, Trevor had left for the day, but I was still able to put in about an hour and a half helping Dennis and John construct a house for an upcoming exhibit. I am not sure the significance of the house and I forgot to ask. All that aside, it looks really good and I'm excited to see the finished exhibit.

Day 1

Baptism by fire indeed. Trevor was right when he said it would be a busy day. The day mostly consisted of the teardown and removal of the Prange exhibit. This was largely Christmas themed and showcased many motorized christmas-like dolls. They also offered "Bruce the Spruce" which was apparently an attraction done at all Prange stores a while back and it was a large false Christmas tree where someone would sit inside and talk to little kids giving the illusion that the tree was speaking to them. I am glad that I was the one to remove it and not be the one to sit inside it.

Everything else went smoothly. It was nice to keep busy all day as it made the time go by faster. The guys I was working with today were a lot of fun and it was nice to be surrounded by people who knew so much about what needed to be done. I didn't really feel out of place and everyone was very relaxed.