One of the major projects I’m tasked with at work is preparation for
the move of all artifacts. And since I’m in charge of documenting which
box every single object ends up in, I’ve been going through all the
catalog records to put together a database to track everything for the
move. In normal museums, stuff would already be catalogued in a
database. Here in the alterna-universe in which I work, that never
happened. Why? Probably because it makes sense to do it that way. By
best guesstimates, there are about 25,000 objects in the museum’s
collections. But nobody knows for sure because there are only 300
entries in the database. Everything else is recorded only on paper in a
file cabinet, making any research awfully time consuming if I’m looking
for any specific object. I have to trawl through every single piece of
paper in a four-drawer file cabinet until I stumble upon one that may or
may not be the exact item I seek. So far, I’ve been hunting for three
whole days for one specific artifact in our collection and I still have
no idea where it is. Only once I find the paper catalog record will I be
able to track it down in the collections storage room.
And oh how informative those records are. I thought I’d share with
you some of the catalog cards for the more significant items in our
collection.
- unknown metal object, heavily corroded
- electric fan
- lid for pot, has metal handle
- white cotton tote bag, “Tis a Mark of Distinction to be a Reader of the Reader’s Digest”
- keychain given to new bank customers, Wells Fargo bank
I’m glad the museum is a repository for such
historically significant artifacts
junk. It’s as if the museum served as an alternative Goodwill all these
years, taking the crap that people wanted to get rid of. God forbid
someone actually throw out a precious “trash can lid, broken handle.”
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