Adventures in Collections

Resolution Update

2012-01-23T17:18:00.000-06:00

Well, I've been hard at work on my New Year Resolutions!

~~1) Migrate to updated version of collection management database.~~

I spent several days week before last on the phone and online with technical support to migrate my data from the old collection management database to the new version. There are still two modules to migrate, but my tech support person, Vanessa, is hard at work on those! I'm actually working in the new system now. And with any luck (once I get over the current hurdle -- installing another workstation), I'll have a volunteer or two working in it too! I have one volunteer who is willing waiting in the wings. I just need to feel comfortable teaching her how to use the new system.

2) Complete inventory of all collections in storage.

With the help of two volunteers, I've made strides on the inventory of collection storage. There certainly seems to be more questions than answers at the moment, but we should have a comprehensive list of what is in storage soon!

3) Develop & implement plan for moving collections off-site.

This one I've waited on until I know more details about the renovation. The Capital Campaign is making major headway, and this project looks to be taking off!

4) Gain more meaningful followers on the Museum's social media tools (Facebook & Twitter).

With the help of the Marketing and Education Departments, the social media tools are gaining followers. I haven't analyzed the numbers but I think there will be meaningful gains. Be sure to like the Museum on Facebook and Twitter, if you haven't already. We do a lot of different features: Dates in History, Facebook Fridays, and now Science Saturdays and Whatzit Wednesdays! Be in the know...

5) Be an advocate for the Museum while at work and while not at work.

This is much harder to count or measure. However, I was asked this morning to give a presentation about collection management in late February. And I'll be attending the Texas Association of Museums' annual meeting & conference in March.

I can't wait to see what the next few weeks hold ...!

New Year's Resolutions

2012-01-05T16:28:00.000-06:00

I know many of you have created resolutions this New Year in order to start fresh or improve yourself. Your resolution may be to be healthier, by eating right or working out, or it may be to learn a new skill, like learning a foreign language or developing a hobby.

I myself have developed my own personal New Year Resolutions. And I think I need to develop ones for my little corner of The Petroleum Museum.

We at the Museum anticipate 2012 to be interesting, to say the least. We hope to finish our Capital Campaign and to start our $15M renovation of the oil & gas industry exhibits. With those events looming, there is a lot to take care of! Before demolition, we have to move the collections, both what's on display and what's in storage, off-site. So, there's a lot of prep work that I need to complete before the ground-breaking.

Below are my resolutions or goals for the upcoming year. Many of these I started last year, but for whatever reason, never finished or just dropped the ball. Some of them are re-focusing on what my job duties entail and trying to be better in those duties.

1) Migrate to updated version of collection management database.

2) Complete inventory of all collections in storage.

3) Develop & implement plan for moving collections off-site.

4) Gain more meaningful followers on the Museum's social media tools (Facebook & Twitter).

5) Be an advocate for the Museum while at work and while not at work.

Wish me luck in keeping my New Year Resolutions! What are your resolutions?

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

2011-12-19T13:19:00.000-06:00

The Petroleum Museum's Library & Archives Center will be closed for the holiday from Monday, December 26th through Monday, January 2nd. We will re-open Tuesday, January 3rd!

I will be spending the week with family and friends, but I hope your holiday dreams come true!

Charlie dog, dreaming of a white Christmas.

Archival Photography

2011-11-15T17:04:00.000-06:00

A good snapshot stops a moment from running away. ~Eudora Welty

All photos are accurate. None of them is the truth. ~Richard Avedon

The Museum's Library & Archives Center has a large photographic collection, which estimates range from 250,000 to 400,000 images. Most of those are from the 50+ career of professional Midland photographer Randolph Rubin. For more info about the collection, click here.

The Monday morning volunteer, Katelyn Mulder, has been working on an archival collection from the Estate of N. Ford Chapman, which includes hundreds of photographic prints and negatives. Some of the negatives have not been stored in the ideal conditions, wrapped around a piece of styrofoam. So she's had to re-house those negatives in archival materials.

In the Archives Center, we place photographic prints in inert plastic sleeves, which are then housed in archival folders, which are in turn housed in archival boxes. This creates a three-layered protection between the print and the environment to prevent potential damage or harm. Photographic negatives are treated similarly.

Photographic print storage in the Museum's Library & Archives Center.

Blast from the Past

2011-10-12T11:50:00.000-05:00

One neat thing about working in the Archives is you never know what you'll run across.

Karen Shephard, a volunteer in the Archives & Collections Department, has been working on organizing and processing a collection of material from Ed Thompson related to the Permian Basin Petroleum Association. In the material, there was a publication from the Midland Chamber of Commerce, probably dated from 1971, trying to recruit mid-continent oil companies to set up shop in Midland.

Above: Cover of publication.

Above: Aerial view of Midland at time of publication, circa 1971.

One interesting tidbit found in the publication is the statistics about Midland and housing in Midland:

Above: General Information & Housing Costs in Midland circa 1971.

I wonder how that compares to today ...

Barrels, Barrels Everywhere, and Not a Drop to Drink!

2011-09-26T10:31:00.001-05:00

Every six months or so, I get an email from someone who has a metal oil drum wanting more information about the object. Today was the latest. Vicky from Illinois had a metal drum marked "Property of S.O. Co. - IND."

Above: Images from Vicky in Illinois.

Others have also emailed images wanting to know more about what they have.

Above: Images of oil drum from Tyler in May 2010.

Above: Images of kerosene drume from Anonymous in July 2010.

Typically, my response is the same. I tell them I am legally and ethically not allowed to provide any appraisal, i.e. assign a monetary value to the object, but I can provide some general information for them. For Vicky, my response was the following:

The barrel looks to be very similar to others in the Museum’s collections. These metal barrels were used to store and transport oil, often using a hand pump as well. The “S.O. Co. – IND” probably stands for Standard Oil Company of Indiana. After an anti-trust lawsuit in 1911, Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust was divided into different entities, creating Standard Oil of Indiana among others.

Many of the oil drums are from an entity of the Standard Oil Trust after it was dissolved in 1911. Standard Oil of New York (or Socony, later Mobil) was one such entity. The history of Rockefeller's legacy is fascinating, but another topic for another post!

Remember When?

2011-09-23T15:20:00.000-05:00

A patron visit this afternoon turned out to be quite serendipitous!

Clay Barbee of Amarillo, TX, came into the Museum's Library & Archives Center to find a print of a certain panoramic photograph of Texon, his home town. (Texon was a town built in West Texas around the Santa Rita No. 1 and No. 2. The town offered a movie theater, a golf course, and even a baseball field with semi-professional team!)

While reviewing the database for the particular photo, he saw some images of kids he knew while growing up in Texon. He easily identified 15 young men and women from his past! One of them was Mr. Barbee himself as a young lad. It's amazing what the mind remembers after time.

Above: Clay Barbee as a young boy. His shirt was red with horses on it.

While Mr. Barbee left without his photograph, his memory certainly helped the Library & Archives Center! I've updated the catalogue information on those individual photographs with names that were not included before. I promised Mr. Barbee I would do some investigating to find the photograph he wants!

Time Travel

2011-08-29T16:45:00.000-05:00

I am not sure where July and August went. Here we are, August 29th, and I haven't posted anything in two months! While I have been busy with various projects and tasks, I felt that nothing really deserved it's own blog post.

In July, I was busy with webinars on digital tools and social media as well as changing out an exhibit. Mery Codigna Collet's exhibition EXTRA VIRGIN PETRUS OIL closed July 11th. Some of the pieces moved onto Austin where they will be on display at a contemporary gallery there. Other pieces continued onto Italy (where Mery spends some time). Luckily, the Museum was given one piece, BRENT BLEND, by the artist. The six-piece artwork continues to hang in the Davidson gallery, but we're hoping to move it to its permanent home soon.

BRENT BLEND

Mery Codigna Collet

Oil & natural fibers on plastic and canvas

2010

Soon after, Kathy and I installed the new exhibit TAKING STOCK, an exhibition showcasing the beauty and value of stock certificates. The exhibit is on loan from the Western Heritage Museum Complex at New Mexico Junior College. Come check it out! Be sure to pick up one of the activity brochures in the gallery.

I was also busy with potential rentals of the Museum. Many oil & gas companies like to use our large Auditorium for day-time events, like professional development, and for night-time receptions and celebrations. We've instituted an online calendar system to minimize double-booking the Museum's spaces. We can literally see who is using our facilities when on the new system.

August has turned out to be even busier! Kathy, Hal and I traveled to Irving at the beginning of the month for the annual meeting of Texas Association of Museums. While it was a more condensed conference than normal, I still learned quite a bit and got to network like never before. There were sessions on deaccessioning, museum ethics and collection conundrums.

Above: Logo for TAM 2011 Annual Meeting

The past several weeks, I've been focused on the upcoming Permian Basin Petroleum Pioneers' Biennial Reunion. We sent out several pieces of mail to potential sponsors, trustees, and the general membership. The event, scheduled for Friday, September 16th, consists of a full-day of speakers and an awards luncheon. Hopefully, all my hard work will pay off! Keep your fingers crossed!

High Tech & Outreach

2011-06-21T16:19:00.000-05:00

Even though today is the official first day of Summer, the season arrived several weeks ago. Yesterday we set a record for 14 days of triple-digit weather. Today is a "cold" front with a high of 98 degrees! Ha!

In the last few weeks, however, I have stayed busy trying to update the Museum's website. I updated all of the Archives pages, from the Archival Collections to the Photographic Prints and Negatives. I even updated the Links page; take a look! What do you think?

One of my goals this summer is to reach out to similar institutions in the area. To that end, I had a "Tour Swap" with Jenni Opalinski, the Collections & Exhibits Manager at the Museum of the Southwest. I showed her around The Petroleum Museum, and she showed me around the Museum of the Southwest. It was quite fun and interesting to find out what they have and how we might help each other out. This Thursday, I plan on meeting with Pat McDaniel at the Haley Library. I'll let you know how that goes!

Similarly, I also want to reach out to educational institutions, like UTPB, Midland College and Odessa College, to find out how the Library & Archives Center can better serve that audience. While visitorship is up at the Center, I know it is HUGELY underutilized. Why? Do they know we exist? If so, what do the area students want and need from us? These are questions I hope to answer during my discussions with the various professors I've contacted. And I hope to come up with some solutions too!

Change is Good

2011-05-30T15:10:00.000-05:00

As you probably noticed, I've made a few changes to this blog. What's that saying? The only constant is change. Change is inevitable. Not all change is bad, and I hope these changes will be for the better.

After I attended SSA in Little Rock, I headed to Houston for the American Association of Museum's 2011 Annual Meeting and MuseumExpo. The four days of this international conference were packed full of sessions about collection management, registration and technology.

One of the sessions I attended was Blogging Basics 201: How to Keep Your Blog Working for You. I want to do some good with this blog; I want this blog to be a conversation with the Museum's visitors. And I hoped that the session would provide me with tidbits to meet those wants.

I was not disappointed!

The first tidbit was "Focus on the Visitor." In a blog, one should focus on what is useful or enjoyable for the visitor. This blog is meant to be a conversation between Museum staff and visitor. I hope that I've provided valuable content and insight on "behind-the-scenes" of The Petroleum Museum. Please do not be afraid to ask questions or comment on something! We can only improve from that feedback.

The other tidbit I took away was "Network Your Networks." While the Facebook page and the Twitter feed are linked, this blog was left out. So, now, the Facebook page and the blog are linked; whenever I update the blog, those posts are fed into the Facebook page. And today, I added Facebook and Twitter widgits to the blog. If someone finds the blog via a web search, they can directly like The Petroleum Museum on Facebook or follow it on Twitter. Try it!

Networking also works off-line. The Museum will soon establish The Filling Station in our Cafe Area. A physical space, The Filling Station will remind visitors of our social media networks, to like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

Of course, the most noticeable change is the background of the blog. After attending the AAM session, I found the old background and layout to be too formulaic and stiff. I wanted something more open and inviting you, the visitor, to stay a while.

What do you think of these changes?

Nothing to Quack About!

2011-05-27T13:59:00.008-05:00

Last week, I attended the Society of Southwest Archivists' 2011 Annual Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas. The theme this year was "Opportunity and Promises: Advocating Archives."

Above: The cake!

Before I even mention what I learned (lots!), I want to tell you about Little Rock and the Peabody Hotel. Downtown Little Rock is completely charming, lying adjacent to the Arkansas River, lined with gardens, restaurants and shops.

Above: Arkansas capitol in downtown Little Rock.

Above: A gazebo near the hotel, by the river.

Above: View of the Peabody Hotel from a sculpture garden.

What's unusual for the hotel is that they have real-life ducks living in the lobby. The ducks (about 5 of them) spend the majority of the day, from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in a dedicated fountain in the hotel's lobby. At 5:00 p.m., the Duck Master leads the ducks to their own Duck Palace where they spend the night. Check out the legend here.

Above: The male Mallard duck in the hotel's lobby.

Above: The Duck Master leads the ducks to their palace.

The conference offered several sessions relevant to my duties at the Petroleum Museum. In fact, I was even a presenter during one session, "Filling Our Niche: Opportunity and Promise in Subject Repositories," with Mary McLain Saffell from the Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University and Melissa Gottwald from the Aviation Safety and Security Archives at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. We each talked about our respected subject-based repositories, or archives, and about some of the opportunities and challenges we've faced. I found it interesting to learn about archives and what they acquire and do with their holdings.

Other sessions I attended included:
* Keynote -- Listen Up: Voices from the Archives, Elliot West
Dr. West was a very engaging speaker; he spoke about finding "lost" voices within archival holdings and gave many examples of his personal finds.

* If You Love Your Collections, Set Them Free: Using the Web to Facilitate AccessThe Lyndon B. Johnson Presidental Library & Museum, the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, the Texas Archive of Moving Images, and Frazar Memorial Library, McNeese State University in Lousiana, are all doing fabulous and intriguing work using their collections online in a variety of ways. Main nugget: can't just sit there, find ways to be relevant!

* Grant Funding for Library, Archive and Museum Projects
Experts in the field of grantwriting and funding presented this resourceful session. Federal and foundational support is out there. You just have to ask and, if that does not succeed, ask again and again.

* Doing More with DSpace
DSpace is software intended to be a preservation warehouse for digital objects. (We use it for our Train to Share project.) However, there are other software out there, like Omeka and Pacyderm, to provide an interactive interface for users like you! Preservation is one side of the coin, with access the other.

One last thing ... we had a reception at the William Clinton Presidental Library, just a mile away from the hotel. We were able to visit the exhibits and even had the opportunity for a behind-the-scenes tour! Below are some photos from that event.

The museum storage door has a knocker on it!

Do you know ...

2011-05-12T14:21:00.000-05:00

what this is?

I received a telephone call from Sean yesterday. He was in the Colorado City, Texas, area helping with a search and came across the above item. Sean called it a snake catching stick, but I'm at a loss as to what it is and how it is used.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Diaries from the Dungeon

2011-05-11T13:39:00.006-05:00

Above: Me? Just another cartoon character caught up in another d@mn cliche.

This afternoon I was the guest speaker at the Midland/Permian Basin Chapter of ARMA's monthly meeting. ARMA is the international organization of record managers. Check out their website here.

On Thursday, April 28th, I received a call from Lyn Miller. She was looking for the record manager at the Museum and she was very surprised to find me at the other end of the telephone. It just so happens that we know each other from volunteering at Midland Community Theater!

Lyn needed a speaker on Wednesday, May 11th, and wondered if I could talk about what I do at the Museum. I looked at my calendar: I was on vacation from April 30th until May 8th, which just left a mere 4 days to pull something together. Despite the limited time, I agreed!

So I quickly pulled together a presentation (based on a previous one), entitled "Diaries from the Dungeon," which also incorporated little cartoons of dungeons. (One needs a little humor when talking about records and record management, right?) As you may know, the Museum's Library & Archives Center is located in the basement with no natural light. The other employees downstairs are only part-time, so I often find myself the only one down in the dungeon.

Above: It's cold, damp & dark, but I can't complain -- It's perfect for my clarets.

After I returned from vacation, I revised and reviewed the presentation. While I was nervous (I am not the best public speaker), I felt confident about the material -- I knew what I was talking about.

The meeting was on the 6th floor Conference Room of ClayDesta, a rather large office building on the north side of town. I'd never been inside and was not sure where to go. Luckily, I did find it relatively easily, although I ended up walking around the entire floor! The ARMA Midland/Permian Basin meeting consisted of about dozen members, all down to earth; they quickly put me at ease. We first ate a hearty lunch and they conducted a short business meeting. Then it was my turn --- yikes!

The presentation introduced the Museum, touched on what we collect (and what sort of documentation is kept), and talked about the various projects I've implemented and completed: creating a comprehensive accession register & cataloguing all accessions, scanning & cataloguing photographs, and digitizing photos via UNT's Portal to Texas History and the Train to Share project. And it happened how I imagined it: I easily expanded on what I had written and I did not stumble (too much) over my words. It seemed to flow fairly well. The ARMA members also asked questions at the end!

Overall, I am proud of myself. I made a presentation about material near and dear to me and it went really well. And the ARMA members seemed impressed with what I had accomplished and what I was doing at the Museum. I just hope I didn't bore them too much!

Above: Before you're released, would you mind taking our exit survey?

May Day

2011-04-28T11:31:00.003-05:00

May 1st is MayDay in the archives, library and museum world. It's a day dedicated to preparing for disasters. With all the horrible weather, tornados and wildfires around the country and in Texas, I just had to highlight this day.

According to last year's news release from Heritage Preservation,

Sponsored by Heritage Preservation and other members of the Heritage Emergency National Task Force, MayDay encourages organizations to take one simple step to protect the art, artifacts, records, and historic sites they hold in trust.

Check out their website here.

Last year, I drafted an Disaster Preparedness and Recovery Plan to have in place at the Museum. Other ideas include:

■If you have a disaster plan, dust it off and bring it up to date.
■If you don't have a plan, make a timeline for developing one.
■Get to know your local firefighters and police. Invite them to tour your institution and give pointers on safety and preparedness.
■Identify the three biggest risks to your collection or building (such as dust storm, leaking water pipe, heavy snow, or power failure) and outline steps to mitigate them.
■Evaluate your need for a priority contract with a disaster recovery firm.
■Conduct a building evacuation drill and evaluate the results.
■Update your staff contact information and create a wallet-size version of your emergency contact roster.
■Eliminate hazards such as boxes and furniture in hallways, blocked fire exits, or improper storage of paints and solvents.
■Join forces with nearby institutions and develop a protocol for helping each other in case of a disaster.
■Identify and label priority collections and objects for evacuation during emergencies. Which are most important to your mission, irreplaceable, or most fragile?
■Register for a free course to learn how your institution fits into existing emergency response protocols.

What will YOU do for MayDay?

National Volunteer Week: Priscilla Jeffries

2011-04-18T13:57:00.003-05:00

April 10 through 16 is National Volunteer Week. The Library & Archives Center has some great and dedicated volunteers. This is the third in a series of posts about the volunteers here.

Meet Ms. Priscilla Jeffries.
Priscilla Jeffries is the most recent addition to the Library & Archives Center's volunteers. Since starting here in March, she has been cataloguing the photograph collection, creating hard-copy worksheets for the files. Now we have two volunteers working on the same project, so hopefully they will meet in the middle!

Priscilla moved to Midland last May to be closer to family after working for over 25 years teaching World Social Studies in Andrews. Her background is diverse and interesting; she enjoys archeology, traveling, meeting new people, writing and teaching. (She's even broaden her volunteer efforts here at the Museum, being a docent for several school groups recently.) Priscilla is also a world traveler who has been to Spain, Egypt, and elsewhere.

She wants to volunteer at the Library & Archives Center "because of my interest in people, the past, sharing information with others ... and learning from [them]. For me, learning is a pleasure."

National Volunteer Week: Karen Shephard

2011-04-14T09:47:00.006-05:00

April 10 through 16 is National Volunteer Week. The Library & Archives Center has some great and dedicated volunteers. This is the second in a series of posts about the volunteers here.

Meet Mrs. Karen Shephard.
(Photo to follow. Karen is out of town so I am not able to get a photo of her!)

Karen Shephard is a new addition to the Libray & Archives Center, starting last November after being recruited by Karen Lowder, a dedicated Santa Rita Club member (and future SRC President). Karen S. has been processing the more difficult back-log archival collections and has been doing a fabulous job! She is currently working on a medium-sized collection of records related to the Permian Basin Petroleum Association from Ed Thompson.

Karen grew up in upstate New York but moved around the United States as part of the Air Force. She has a background in accounting, having worked for several oil & gas business in the Permian Basin, including Exxon, ARCO, Duke Energy and Pure Resources. Her husband Rick and she enjoy going to the theater (I often see them at Midland Community Theater). Karen also enjoys reading, crochet, puzzles and music. We've become fast colleagues and friends!

National Volunteer Week: Morris Bassham

2011-04-11T15:25:00.004-05:00

April 10 through 16 is National Volunteer Week. The Library & Archives Center has some great and dedicated volunteers. This is the first in a series of posts about the volunteers here.

Meet Mr. Morris Bassham.

Mr. Bassham has been a dedicated volunteer in the Archives Center since October 2008. He has been cataloguing our large photograph collection; he reviews the card catalogue and completes worksheets for each image. (This process creates a hard copy of the catalogue information to include with the object file.) Periodically, I review his work and add it to the growing collection management database.

Personally, Mr. Bassham has an interesting background. Having grown up in Midland, attending Midland High School, Morris became a petroleum engineer with Sinclair Oil & Gas from which he retired when they merged with ARCO. Not only did he attend Texas Tech University, Mr. Bassham also attended art school in Minneapolis and Sul Ross University. He also spent twenty-one months in the military and became active with the Confederate Air Force for twenty-five years, although he is no longer a pilot. His interest in the military does not end there: he is interested in aviation history, from the Wright Brothers to the Enola Gay, as well as the history of the Alamo and the State of Texas.

Morris is also an active volunteer within the community, having devoted time to the research library at the Commemorative Air Force.

Busy, Busy, Busy

2011-04-07T14:26:00.004-05:00

The past month has gone by in a blur!

The Museum is preparing for our fundraiser, the 2011 Hall of Fame gala. This year we are honoring I. Jon Brumley, Dr. Sam Gibbs, William Kleine and the team of Mack Chase and John R. Gray. Invitations are out, thanks to some great and dedicated staff members and volunteers! The event is next Thursday night. Do you have your seat reserved?

The last week of March, I went to Austin for the Outcome Based Evaluation of the Train to Share grant program which I have participated in for the past several years. Team members from all over Texas congregated to discuss individual and organizational successes (and not-so-successes) for the grant as well as offer some reflection and insight into the program itself, with suggestions for the future.

That week also saw the installation of the new exhibit in the Davidson Gallery: Extra Virgin Petrus Oil by Mery Codigna Collet, a Venezuelan artist who uses petroleum and its by-products to highlight serious concerns. Her method is fascinating: she paints on pieces of plastic, then layers them facing the canvas. The result, in my opinion, is a high-gloss painting with depth. You must see them in person! Mery had a successful gallery talk and opening last Tuesday.

Tomorrow, the Archives Center will be undergoing some changes too. With the Train to Share grant, we have been able to purchase a networked server dedicated to the Museum's Library & Archives Center. The server will house the various files and digital objects (photographs) as well as the collection management database which all will be accessed from the computers in the Center.

Among those activities, we have been fielding requests for photographs and research materials. We are definitely staying busy! Of course, May is shaping up to be a busy month too....

Oil in Libya

2011-03-10T15:07:00.004-06:00

The Petroleum Museum's Library & Archives Center has been a hive of activity recently. We now have four faithful volunteers in the Center, working on various projects. One volunteer, Ms. Hunt, took on the task of processing a small collection found on the backlog shelves.

Turns out, the collection from Robert Stine, long-time patron of the Museum, dealt with the building of the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline in the 1970s AND the ESSO (now EXXON) oil industry in Libya in the 1960s.

Finding materials about the oil industry in Libya? How timely, considering the current events happening. I knew that Libya was an "oil-rich" nation in northern Africa. But I did not know much about its political or economic history.

Above: Some of the materials included in the Robert Stine Collection (2011-002).

After a little digging (thanks to Wikipedia and the New York Times online), I discovered that Libya was a kingdom prior to 1969. All of the ESSO materials in this particular collection pertaining to Libya date prior to 1969. Turns out, the Libyan kingdom was pro-Western and friendly with Western countries such as the U.K. and the U.S. According to one of the publications ESSO in Libya 1963:

"The Libyan Petroleum Law became effective in June 1955 and Esso Libya applied for, and was granted, nine concession areas covering about 100,000 sq.kms. The company then began the painstaking search for oil."

"Esso was the first:
* To discover oil in Libya
* to build a crude oil pipeline to the sea
* to build a marine terminal
* to produce and export oil to foreign markets
* to build a refinery in the country to produce processed oil products for local consumption
* and among the first to agree to the Petroleum Law Amendments of 1961."

On 1 September 1969, a small group of military officers led by then 27-year-old army officer Muammar Gaddafi staged a coup d'état against King Idris, launching the Libyan Revolution. After the coup, Gaddafi closed American and British bases and partially nationalized foreign oil and commercial interests in Libya.

An interesting story ...

Art & Alzheimer's

2011-02-10T15:48:00.002-06:00

I am subscribed to numerous professional email lists, from the regular In the Loop email newsletter from the Society of American Archivists (SAA) to the occassional email blasts from the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH). One subscription that I look forward to perusing is the Dispatches from the Future of Museums, a weekly email blast which consolidates news articles and blog posts about museums and the future.

One of this week's highlighted articles is entitled Art and Alzheimer's at the University of Virginia.

My maternal grandfather had that horrible disease and I'm always interested in learning about it and its treatments. It was hard on my grandmother and the rest of the family as my Papa slowly but steadily drifted into the disease.

I have heard of MoMA's program for Alzheimer's patients and I think it's great that other museums, like the University of Virginia Art Museum, are adopting similar programs. According to the article, several of the patients react positively while participating in the program. I just wonder if those positive strives present themselves outside of the museum setting.

What do you think? Do you think art helps Alzheimer's patients? Would you like to see programs like the ones at MoMA and UVa in an art museum near you?

January Wrap-Up & February Preview

2011-02-04T15:57:00.003-06:00

I cannot believe the first month of 2011 has come and gone already! Things have been seemingly low-key at the Museum this month.

One major accomplishment for January: I completed my major project of creating an accession register for the archvies & library donations since 1965. It's nice to know what the Museum actually has! Not only did I create an electronic register (thanks to Excel), I also added most gift/donation information to our collection management database Re:Discovery. With time, and practice, every piece in our collections should be searchable in the database! That will allow us to better serve researchers, visitors and just interested people! Next step? Conducting an inventory to match up actual items (objects, books, manuscripts, etc) with the information. Wish me luck!

Now I can also turn my attention to the Train to Share project I've discussed multiple times here. We are finally ready to start uploading the digital objects and their associated metadata! Hopefully the team will be able to upload our 1000 objects!

Lately, I've also been very busy with researchers and other visitors looking for photographs. In fact, one Friday (typically a quiet day for the Archives Center) I had three appointments and a conference call scheduled. I had to schedule another researcher for the next week because I was so busy! It's great that the Library & Archives Center has had such a demand!

February will be a busy month for the Museum. On the 17th, we'll host our third Family Science Night of the [academic] year: Inventions! Come to the Museum between 6:30 and 8:00 p.m. to learn and explore well-known and not-so-well-known inventions. Lemonade and cookies are provided! Then, a couple of days later, the Museum will host Read-A-Rama on Saturday, the 19th. Come explore the wonderful world of reading and literacy!

Finding the Frame Family

2010-12-13T10:34:00.004-06:00

The upcoming holidays and the usual end-of-the-year festivities always remind me of family. Whether you like them or not, your family shapes who you are. Your ancestors contributed to who you are today. And your great-grandchildren will be influenced by the choices you make today.

With this in mind, I turned to the topic of “family” for this post. Upon researching early families in the Permian Basin, I came across the Frame family.

The Museum’s Library & Archives Center has several photographs of members of this family. In fact, some of them grace the Museum’s photograph murals in the North Wing. However, our records for those photographs do not provide much, if any, substantial information about the family; I knew James Milton Frame worked in Odessa and Monahans for the Texas & Pacific Railway in the early twentieth century. And he had several brothers and a father in the area.

With such little information, I turned to the Museum’s Reference Library. With over 2000 published titles, many of which are out of print, the Library holds a wealth of information on Permian Basin county histories. Sure enough, several Odessa and Ector County books held photographs and brief captions on the Frame family. Yet, it was not until I turned to Ward County, 1887-1977, published by the Ward County Historical Commission, that I found more details. Apparently, Paul Frame, James Milton’s son, provided recollections and reflections about his family for the tome’s comprehensive history.

Mr. and Mrs. S. Frame had four sons: James Milton, Walter L., Jesse L., and Charles Albert. One was a newspaper editor, one was an agent for the Texas & Pacific Railway, and two were telegraph operators. I’m sure Father Frame never realized the parts his sons would play in the shaping of the Permian Basin!

An expert telegrapher, Walter L. Frame or “Sport” came to West Texas from Kimbolton, Ohio, in 1888 to work as a night telegrapher for the Texas & Pacific Railway. “Sport” brought his brother James Milton to Monahans in 1889 and taught him telegraphy.

James Milton, in turn, worked as a telegraph operator in Midland for several years in the 1890s. (He worked in numerous places, including Metz, Allamore, Odessa, and Pecos, over his twenty-seven years with the Texas & Pacific Railway.) While in Metz, James met Catherine Andrews and they married in Midland in 1895. By 1896, he was the depot agent as well as the postmaster in Monahans. As postmaster, he devised a progressive method to sort the mail: he used “pigeon holes” for the patrons’ mail and could lock the whole thing while away. Together, James and Catherine had three children, daughter Thelma (born 1897), son Paul (born 1900) and son James Eugene (born 1903). After working for the Texas & Pacific, James Milton Frame worked an additional twenty-one years for the El Paso and Southwestern Railway, eventually retiring in 1938 to Ruidoso, New Mexico.

Jesse L. Frame was the newspaper man. In 1906, he helped J. H. Rotramel launch the Ector County Democrat. They were assisted by Charles Judkins and Miss Gertie Rabb. Miss Annie Mae Harkey set type by hand for the paper. Jesse owned and operated the newspaper until 1911.

Charles Albert, the fourth brother, was a long-time telegraph operator in Odessa and in Monahans. Charles married Georgia Hogg from Odessa. He was also elected to the first City Council as an alderman for Monahans in 1928. He passed away in 1960 at the age of 77.

James (sitting) and Walter Frame, circa 1890. At the time of this photograph, James was the night telegraph operator for the Texas & Pacific Railway in Midland, Texas. (From the Paul Frame Collection, 84-016.008.)

Old Section House in Metz, Texas, circa 1893. James and Walter Frame stand on the gallery. By this time, James was the station agent in Metz. (From the Betty Orbeck Collection, 76-094.055)

Interior of the Ector County Democrat office, circa 1906. Jesse L. Frame (standing on the left) owned and edited the paper until 1911. (From the Betty Orbeck Collection, 76-094.060)

Charles, Jesse and James M. Frame at the Monahans Texas & Pacific Railway Depot, circa 1909. Jesse sits on a copy press in the center with Charles to the left and James to the right. By this time, James was the station agent. (From the Paul Frame Collection, 84-016.014)

Interior of James M. Frame’s home in Monahans, Texas, circa 1910. (From the Betty Orbeck Collection, 76-094.153)

Interior of Monahans Texas & Pacific Railway Depot, circa 1910. Standing left to right: James M. Frame, agent; Pink Mitchell, rancher; Cleve Brown; Theo Andrews, roadmaster (at telephone). Sitting left to right: Charles Frame, 2nd trip operator, and S. Frame, father of James M. and Charles. (From the Abell-Hanger Foundation Collection, 76-093.470)

If any information is incorrect or if you have additional information, please contact me by leaving a comment!

Preserving Photographs

2010-11-24T09:22:00.002-06:00

With the holidays, particularly Thanksgiving, right around the corner, I cannot help but think of family and tradition at this time of year. Until the New Year, I hope to make posts around this theme. This is just the first of the series.

I came across this post from the Smithsonian Visual Archives blog called "The Bigger Picture" which is updated regularly with images, links and snipets of history. In the post, Nora Lockshin, Paper Conservator at the Smithsonian Institute, describes her mother's project to preserve photographs, those pictorial documents of memories.

Photographs are sensitive objects, especially the older they are, which include daguerreotypes, tintypes, albumen prints, and silver gelatin prints. Typically, the image (created by a variety of materials depending on the kind of print) is suspended in a transparent binder layer (which in turn is made from a choice of materials depending on the process). The image and the binder are both, but individually, sensitive to its environment and each may react differently to it.

Thus, the process to create photographs has changed and developed over time. When photography first became popular in the U.S. in the mid-nineteenth century, daguerreotypes required a light-sensitive silver-plated sheet of copper to be exposed to light and developed over mercury vapor. Nowadays, most photography is digital which requires a whole other set of concerns.

What's important is to know your materials. There is quite a bit of resources out there to aid in preserving photographs. My favorite is Photographs: Archival Care and Management by Mary Lynn Ritzenthaler and Diane Vogt-O'Connor, which appears to be out of print. Check your local public library or museum to see if they have a copy you can review.

Collection Management Policies

2010-11-17T16:00:00.002-06:00

Wednesday afternoon, the Museum's Board of Trustees voted to approve the Collection Management Policy I developed for this institution.

This kind of document is very important to any museum and its collection.

According to The New Museum Registration Methods:

Policies for managing collections provide the framework for decisions that determine the long-term development, care, and management of an institution's collections.

John Simmons writes in his article "Managing Things - Crafting a Collections Policy" from the January/February 2004 edition of MuseumNews:

The collections management policy is the institutional policy that governs everything a museum does to care for and grow its collections and make them available to the public.

And Marie Malaro, in A Legal Primer on Managing Museum Collections, states:

A collection management policy is a detailed written statement that explains why a museum is in operation and how it goes about its business. The policy articulates the museum's professional standards regarding objects left in its care and serves as a guide for the staff and as a source of information for the public.

In other words, the Collection Management Policy (or CMP for short) guides the museum, and in turn its staff, in acquiring, caring for, and (possibly) deaccessioning its collections. It is a hefty document, covering a wide range of topics, from the scope of collections and ethics to acquiring and disposing objects, from providing access to objects (whether by loans or exhibits) to care and maintenance of those objects. By its very nature, the policy is a living document, which needs to be regularly and routinely revised and approved by a governing authority.

From the CMP, an institution can develop a Collection Plan (i.e. long-term plan on what to collect) and procedures on how to do specific tasks. For the last two years, I have been steadily forming the policies and procedures for the Archives & Collections Department here at The Petroleum Museum. However, those documents are only as good as the foundational framework that the CMP provides.

Accessions

2010-11-03T15:58:00.006-05:00

Back in July, I posted about how The Petroleum Museum relies on donors' generosity in building our collections.

So what happens after a donor has offered an object to the Museum and it has been accepted? As with many things in the museum-world, there is a process from offer to acceptance to accession. According to The New Museum Registration Methods, accessioning is the act of recording or processing an addition to the permanent collection.

Offers come in all forms: over the phone, in person, via email or regular mail, etc. As I mentioned in my Donor Generosity post, each offer is considered and weighed in light of the Museum's collection needs as well as the Museum's mission, among other criteria.

Once an offer is accepted, first thing I do is write a Gift Acknowledgement letter and Deed of Gift and send it off to the donor. Depending on the object, I may also include an Object History Form to obtain more information for our records. The key is to collect as much information as possible about the donor and the gift. It's this information that gives the object its value!

Above: Deed of Gift for the Statue of Liberty. Document with watercolor, July 4, 1884. Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. (44) Needless to say, The Petroleum Museum's Deed of Gifts are not watercolored.

Once the Deed of Gift is back in hand, I can fully process and catalogue the object. I use several forms to do so: Accession Checklist, Catalog Sheet, and Condition Report. I also take photos of the object for the file and the database.

Above: Condition Report for cars. A museum's Condition Report is similar.

I can then house the object appropriately. For instance, if the object is a framed painting, I will hang it in the Vault, our framed art storage area. If the gift consists of photographs, I will house them in plastic sleeves and in our photographic cabinets. Sometimes, objects will go directly on display. However, most objects will stay in storage until they are needed for programs or exhibits.

Social Media

2010-10-20T10:08:00.003-05:00

Social Media and Web 2.0 have been gaining a lot of momentum in recent years. While I was not (and still am not) an early adopter, I either have used or do use a variety of Web 2.0 tools, such as Facebook, Flickr, Blogger, and Twitter. For instance, I'm not a regular on Twitter but I do follow quite a number of museums to know what's going on.

These tools are perfect for non-profit organizations to use and to disseminate information about their activities and other events. In fact, The Junior League of Midland, Inc. is launching its own Facebook Fan page in order to announce and advertise upcoming community projects and fundraising events.

Yesterday, I registered for a series of webinars sponsored by IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services) Connecting to Collections. One of the first sessions is called "Using Social Media to Tell Your Collection's Stories." Colleen Dilenschneider, one of the presenters, posted on her blog about museums and social media. Check it out here.

What is your favorite social media or Web 2.0 tool? How could a museum benefit from its use? Do you connect with any museum through social media?

Or is it weird that I'm using a Web 2.0 technology to discuss social media?

Digital Preservation Management

2010-10-18T10:40:00.004-05:00

Last week I was in Austin for a two-day workshop on Digital Preservation Management.

I know what you're thinking ... "But aren't you really concerned with preserving 3D objects?" The short answer is yes and no. Yes, my role here at The Petroleum Museum mostly deals with the 3D objects in the Permanent Collection, as well as the 2D objects (documents, manuscripts, photographs) in the Archives and the books and periodicals in the Library.

However, with this Train to Share grant project well underway, I am increasingly concerned with the digital files created from scanning our photographs. How does an organization deal with all these digital "objects" and their relevant information? The Digital Preservation Management (DPM) workshop attempted to answer that question among others.

The biggest take-away for me from the workshop is the image of the three-legged stool. Digital Preservation relies on three elements equally: technology, organization, and resources; it cannot stand on a single leg.
If any leg is underdeveloped, or overdeveloped, and the stool is whobbly, digital preservation will not last for the long-term. DPM is something one has to carefully plan and invest in.

While The Petroleum Museum is not quite ready for long-term digital preservation, we are on our way, especially thanks to the Train to Share project. The worksthop provided tools so that our institution could invest fully in digital preservation in the future.

Natural History Specimens as Social Media Celebrities

2010-09-24T14:54:00.001-05:00

I stumbled upon this interesting interview that I thought to share. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Natural History Specimens as Social Media Celebrities

Afterward, become friends with The Petroleum Museum's resident iguana, Liz Frizzle on Facebook!

Learn from Mistakes or Words of Caution

2010-09-21T14:29:00.006-05:00

Eek! It's been almost a month since I last posted! My apologies in my failure to be a good blogger. I will try to be better from now on ...

Last week was a very hectic one. Between prepping and installing the new exhibit, The Movement Westward and getting ready for the Museum's Birthday Bash celebrating 35 years (not to mention the West Texas Cruisers Car Show that Saturday and some personal projects I needed to get done), life at the Museum was on full-steam.

AND then I made a HUGE mistake.

On Wednesday, the day before the party itself, the day I worked all-day on proofing, printing and laminating the exhibit labels, I goofed big. While trying to do too many things at once on my computer, namely back-up the files on the Musem's server onto my external hard drive, I accidently deleted several folders on the server. (The folders were highlighted when I tried to delete another folder also highlighted.) They were gone.

Luckily, I save those files on a monthly basis. I had those folders from the last back-up, a month prior. In the end, I only lost about about a month's worth of work, from correspondence to the cataloguing project. I'm not too worried about the correspondence because I save hard copies in object files. I'm more worried about the cataloguing work which was saved as an Excel spreadsheet. Because of the stress of the week, I couldn't let myself worry too much about it!

So now I have to take information from the database and the object files, and recreate the spreadsheets. At least I only am missing three years (1980 - 1982)! It could be worse, a lot worse; I could be missing two decades worth of work. In the words of Monty Python, "Look on the bright side of life!"

Puzzle Pieces

2010-08-31T13:40:00.004-05:00

Several months ago, Fifi, the Museum's Gift Shop Manager, brought two prints down to my office. She said, "These were given to the Museum when Kathy and Cheryl [former Education Director] attended a conference in 2005."

Print #1: Derricks, After the Rain

Print #2: Evening Brea Canyon

"Gee, thanks. That helps a lot," I thought sarcastically. I set them aside to deal with later.

Fast forward several months and I reach a stopping point in my cataloguing project last week. So I turn my focus on the above-mentioned prints. Taking a close look at the prints, I realize they are signed by the artist JoAnn Cowans.

So I google her ... Sure enough, she has a website. And after a few clicks, I find the two prints on there. "Okay," I think. "This is the right artist." Then I click on her email address and write the following missive:

My name is Leslie Meyer and I am currently the Director of Archives & Collections at The Petroleum Museum. We have come across two prints of your paintings in our collections and have no idea who gave them to us. One is “Derricks, After the Rain” and the other is “Evening Brea Canyon”; both numbered #21 out of 400. They both have Certificates of Authenticity attached as well. I’ve attached photographs of each.

I am hoping you can help me. Do you keep records as to which numbers go to whom? If so, do you know who originally obtained these prints? I’m trying to track down who gave these lovely prints to the Museum.

The next day, JoAnn Cowan herself calls me to discuss this message. During our conversation, she indicates that I should contact Bruce Wells, Executive Director of the American Oil & Gas History Society. You see, JoAnn donated several prints to him to hand out as gifts. Ms. Cowan assures me that she would reach out to him about this.

After I didn't hear anything further, I decide to reach out to Bruce Wells myself. I find his email address online and write the following yesterday:

I am hoping you can help me with a puzzle.

I got your name from Jo Ann Cowans regarding two prints of her artwork that the Museum currently has in its possession. From what I understand, the two prints, “Derricks, After the Rain” and “Evening Brea Canyon”, were given to Kathy Shannon, Executive Director, and a fellow colleague while attending a conference in 2005 or so. Both are numbered #21 out of 400 and signed by the artist; and they both have Certificates of Authenticity attached. (Images of both are attached to this email.)

I contacted Ms. Cowans asking if she maintained records on who received which numbers of the limited prints. When she called me, she mentioned that you had obtained several prints of her artwork to hand out as gifts. Would you happen to be the donor of these two prints to The Petroleum Museum? If so, I would need you to complete a Deed of Gift and other necessary paperwork to finalize the transaction. If not, would you happen to know who might be?

And, sure enough, he calls me today. Mr. Wells confirms that he did indeed give those two prints to Kathy and Cheryl while they were attending an oil education conference in Wichita, Kansas, in 2005. What luck!

I absolutely LOVE these kinds of puzzles ... from a seemingly dead-end, I follow the trail to the end! From two prints given 5 years ago, I now have a donor. The Deed of Gift is already in the mail!

Survey

2010-08-25T16:23:00.002-05:00

I know it's been a while since I've last posted anything ...

For one, it's been pretty quiet here at The Petroleum Museum. For the last couple of weeks, I've been pounding away at the cataloguing project of the archives and library acquisitions. Mixed in with that, I've been balancing other regular duties and responsibilities as well as helping elsewhere.

And when I think about this blog, I wonder what to write about in light of what I've been working on ... So I want to ask you (my fair and few readers), what would you like to hear more about?

Here are some ideas:

* Museum Processes
* Photographs
* Identify this Object
* Current Topics in Museum World

Please leave a comment with a suggestion!

Turkish Museums (Part I)

2010-08-03T16:55:00.009-05:00

I apologize for the month-long hiatus; I recently returned from a 2-week vacation in Turkey . . . I hope you missed me as much as I missed you!

During that time, I saw the historical sites of Istanbul and many museums and archeological sites all over the country. Turkey offers a plethora of Greek and Roman city sites (more than Italy, according to the tour guide!) including well-known Ephesus and Troy as well as hidden gems Hierapolis and Aphrodiasis.

With such a wealth of history and a treasure trove of collections, I was confused by the museological choices those museums and sites made.

One museum, the Archeological Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara, had been named the European Museum of the Year in 1997. After seeing that announcement, I was excited to enter the museum building, interested to learn from such a recognized institution. However, upon entering, I was shocked by the display of objects. Cases held numerous objects without any labels or context. Where was the story? How did the objects, the sections, the civilizations relate to each other? I often was unsure what I was looking at!

Above: Views of the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations.

Unfortunately, most of the museums we visited during our tour held similar exhibits. The numerous objects got in the way of learning about the relevant topic. The lack of labels (in English or even Turkish) was very disappointing and often raised the question "What is that?"

Only one exhibit really stood out as "modern" -- the Sacred Objects at Topkapi Palace. Installed in 2007, the exhibit holds the most sacred relics and gifts to the Ottoman Sultans, including Moses' staff and David's sword. I noticed climate controlled cases and fiber optic lighting.

Above: View of the Sacred Objects rooms. Unfortunately, I was unable to take any pictures inside!

So now I'm curious to learn more about museums in Turkey. How is that a country with such a wealth of culture and history sadly lags behind in museum methods?

I put out a call to the email listserv Registrar's Committee of the American Association of Museums (RC-AAM). One person responded stating that they would be returning to the States after August 13th and would be willing to discuss Turkish museums with me. I'll keep you posted as to what I find out!

Do you know ...

2010-07-08T13:59:00.001-05:00

about these photos? Leave a comment if you have anything to add!

Chuck wagon of the Renderbrook Spade Ranch about 1900. Photo from Betty Orbeck Collection.

W. L. Ellwood, owner of the ranch, is shown sitting just to the left of the chuck wagon. Others in the picture are, from left to right: E. "Ching" Enyart, Sid Rowe, unidentified man, U. D. Wulfjen, John Lane (nearest camera), W. L. Ellwood, Perry Bracy (cook, standing at chuck box), Sig Lane and D. N. Arnett, manager of the ranch from 1891 to 1912.

It is interesting to note that Ellwood, the ranch owner, and J. F. Glidden, both of De Kalb, Illinois, were the inventors of barbed wire and manufactured the wire. Ellwood realized the possibilities of the cattle industry in Texas because of the great quantities of wire being shipped to Texas. So it was that he came to look the situation over for himself and bought the Renderbrook Spade Ranch in 1889.

"Come and Get It" -- Chuck time for an unidentified West Texas outfit, no date. Photo from Betty Orbeck Collection.

Spring branding at the Renderbrook Spade Ranch in Mitchell County, Texas about 1900. Photo from Betty Orbeck Collection.

At this time, Colonel Isaac Ellwood of Illinois owned the ranch, which took its name from Renderbrook Springs. Operations had begun on the ranch about 1878 when J. Taylor Barr built a two-room house of chittim poles, with a thatched roof of tules overhead and no floor. Barr sold out to the Snyder brothers in 1882 and in 1889 the ranch was bought by Colonel Ellwood who held part interest in the first patent to manufacture barbed wire in the United States.

Identified in the branding scene are Sam Moreland, Sid Rowe, U. D. Wulfjen, E. "Ching" Enyart (holding the calf's head), Sig Lane (holding the calf's feet), John W. Cathey, George Latty and an unidentified man.

Donor Generosity

2010-07-01T11:37:00.003-05:00

Lately, it seems people are coming out of the woodwork to offer items to the Museum. In the past week, I've gotten calls, emails and in-person visits from people all over the country offering objects ranging from scrapbooks to posters to drilling rigs.

Museums, like The Petroleum Museum, strive on the generosity and thoughtfulness of people like that. While cataloguing the permanent and archival collections, I've quickly realized that The Petroleum Museum would not be the kind of institution it is without the generosity of donors from all over the country. These donors were often repeat-offenders, offering items of all types frequently over several years.

However, not everything can, or even should, be accepted into a museum's collection. If it did, then the collection would be quite large and undefined. A museum is defined by its relationship with its collections, starting with the accumulation and acquisition of things. However, acquisition of objects for the collections should be done carefully and thoughtfully. According to Marie C. Malaro, in her book A Legal Primer on Managing Museum Collections:

Without clear direction, poor decisions are bound to be made, and for a museum, many such "mistakes" have no easy solutions. The best approach is prevention, and today an almost essential preventive measure is the adoption and implementation of a collection management policy.

A Collection Management Policy offers guidelines regarding various aspects from acquisition and accession to security and storage to deaccession. (I've posted about security and deaccesion already.)

Here at The Petroleum Museum, our Collection Management Policy outlines the criteria on which we can accept (or conversely deny) a donation. Any object considered for acquisition will only be accepted if it meets the following criteria:.

* The object must be relevant to the Museum’s mission, purpose and collection scope.
* The object has historical or scientific merit and/or has historical or cultural significance.
* No object shall be acquired for the collections if the Museum cannot give it proper storage, protection and preservation.
* The Museum will not knowingly accept any object acquired by either illegal or unethical means.
* Unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise, the Museum will only accept unrestricted gifts for acquisition wherein free and clear title shall be obtained without restriction as to use or future disposition.
* The Museum should seek to secure copyright license on all acquisitions.
* The Museum will not acquire redundant copies or duplicate objects or collections unless it is deemed necessary by the Board of Trustees.

We at The Petroleum Museum try to be careful and thoughtful in what we do accept into the Museum's collections. The main questions we ask ourselves are: (1) Does this support our mission to share the petroleum and energy story of the Permian Basin? Is the object relevant to the Permian Basin? (2) Does this duplicate other objects in our collection? (3) Does the object have historical, technical and/or cultural significance? Does the object support a story we have to tell through our exhibits?

We truly do appreciate all the offered donations. However, several factors, including those listed above, play into our decision-making process.

If you would like to learn more, feel free to leave a comment. Or check out the above books. Marie Malaro's A Legal Primer is a must have for any museum or museum professional. She touches on every legal aspect related to a museum's collection. John E. Simmons' Things Great and Small is a textbook on Collection Management Policies and a must-have for anyone who needs to draft one. Click on the image to go to Amazon listing of each book.

Stolen Goods

2010-06-25T11:09:00.004-05:00

A couple of days ago, I received an email from a grad school friend, Heather Hope Stephens. (You can read her museum-related blog here. She offers an interesting mixture of legal insight and museum mentality with her posts. I encourage you to check it out!)

The email was essentially a link to the following article. The British Guardian article highlights what could be a serious lack of security at London's cultural institutions during the upcoming 2012 Summer Olympics. The reporter recollects an earlier incident:

During the 1994 winter Olympics in Norway, thieves stole Edvard Munch's painting The Scream from the Oslo National Art Museum and left a note that said: "Thanks for the poor security."

After reading the article, I am shocked that security might not be a priority at these institutions during such a world-wide event. Makes one wonder what "criminal attacks" are happening in South Africa during the World Cup.

Security is a serious issue for museums and other public institutions. Yes, museums are intended for the public. People from the community are encouraged to come inside (or outside) and tour the various spaces to view the numerous objects on display and read the text associated with those objects. In recent years, museums have increasingly become centers for the community.

Yet, museums must maintain security to protect those numerous objects both on display and in storage while keeping visitors safe. Prohibiting visitors from touching and handling objects allow those items to be kept for a long time so that visitors in the future may enjoy them. Also, state and federal laws regarding accessibility (e.g. ADA) regulate building structure as well as exhibit design to a certain extent. So that everyone may enjoy the museum, security deterrents should be low-key but effective. It's a delicate balancing act.

Here at The Petroleum Museum, we have several security deterrents in place. From stanchions to alarms, some work better than others to dissuade visitors from getting too close. Hopefully, though, they do not hinder visitors' enjoyment of their museum-going experience.

What do you think? Leave a comment!

Modern Marvels

2010-06-22T16:53:00.003-05:00

For me, Saturday mornings tend to be relaxing. I may or may not dust and vaccuum and I may or may not watch television. This past Saturday, however, I decided to flip through the channels and happened across the History Channel's Modern Marvels.

I was instantly engrossed with the episode. Instead of investigating food processing or other technology, this particular episode was about the Library of Congress, "The Real National Treasure." The description of the episode says it all:

Where in Washington D.C. is the nation's most incredible treasure chest? It's a library unlike any other in the world--the U.S. Library of Congress. Explode the myth that this 200-year-old institution is simply "where members of Congress borrow books." Viewers are taken beyond the magnificent Jefferson Building Great Hall into the secret vaults where more than 600 miles of shelves hold 130 million items, many of them priceless treasures--from George Washington's hand-written diaries to Galileo's first images of the moon to the original camera film of the movie Frankenstein. See how a staff of 4,000 catalogues protects and preserves these treasures and distributes them globally via a new World Digital Library.

The Library of Congress (LoC) has a HUGE collection containing millions of objects which are individually catalogued, researched and housed. I was slightly jealous (okay, REALLY jealous) of the resources available to the LoC. The govermentally funded institution has thousands of collection specialists, cataloguers, preservation specialists, and copyright specialists on staff. Not to mention the storage facilities available to the growing collection! If only every museum, library and archives had those kinds of resources on hand ...

If you are flipping through television channels, and happen upon this episode, pull up a seat and enjoy the ride. It's not to be missed!

Packing Textiles

2010-06-11T15:00:00.000-05:00

After I removed the wedding dress (see my previous post), I offered to pack the dress to protect it from damage and harm. What follows is a step-by-step of how to pack a textile, such as a dress.

According to The Winterthur Guide to Caring for Your Collection (The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Inc., 2000), "Providing good storage is the best thing that anyone can do to preserve their collection." The text goes on to outline general guidelines:

* Do not store textiles in direct contact with wood. The acid from wood can cause embrittlement.
* Use chemically inert, acid-free materials (boxes, rolls, etc.).
* Never store textiles with sharp folds or creases. As fabric fibers age, they become brittle and will break where folded. Use acid-free tissue to pad the folds and creases.
* Small textiles should be stored flat. If you must stack, place the heavier textiles beneath the lighter fabrics, interlacing acid-free tissue.

Packing textiles is fairly simple and based on common sense. You just need the right materials.

Acid-free boxes, acid-free tissue, and white cotton gloves are a must. I had the pair of scissors to cut the tissue from a large roll that I have.

The spread: acid-free box, dress, slip, shoes and other accessories

Remove the tag with the loan number.

THE SLIP
I went ahead and placed the slip on the bottom layer of the box. (1) After lining the box with tissue paper, I laid the slip's skirt in the bottom of the box. (2) After padding the fold, I laid down the top half. (3) I then placed a layer of tissue paper on top.

THE DRESS
(1) I did the same steps with the dress, padding the folds. (2) I also padded the shoulders and sleeves as well as (3) the fold of the belt.

THE BOX
For the hat, I padded inside the crown (1) and around the brim (2). I then added padding in the rest of the box to protect the layers even more (3). Finally, (4) the box is ready for the lid.

THE SHOES
I packed the shoes in their own box since Kathy's daughter wanted to try them on. Generally, they would be packed at the bottom layer of the dress box. However, in this case, it works better that they are packed separately. The shoes are heavier and more substantial than the slip and dress combined.

(1) I stuffed the toes of the shoes to protect them from being smushed. (2) and (3) I then placed the shoes in the acid-free tissue lined acid-free box, using more tissue paper to pad around and between the shoes. Finally, (4) the box is ready for the lid.

This process is really easy and simple to do. As I said before, it just takes the right materials and a bit of common sense. If you have an heirloom piece of clothing or a wedding dress that you want to protect for the long-run, I highly recommend you properly store it. Storing a fragile garment in the right conditions and environment will protect it for years to come.

The Ole Switcheroo ... Sort Of

2010-06-10T11:06:00.014-05:00

So, you may notice that it's not Friday. In fact it's Thursday ... almost a week AFTER the Friday mentioned in my previous post. Short story is that I misspoke -- I really should confirm everything before I say (or write) things like that on this blog. I hope you will forgive me.

Swtiching out the dresses in the Memorabilia Room in the East Wing was postponed to this past Wednesday. I needed Edward to open the case (which only opens on one narrow side) and I recruited Michelle to help since Whitney was gone all week. Little did I know that the change of plans was an omen of things to come ...

On loan to the Museum since 2002, the wedding dress with shoes belongs to Kathy Shannon, Executive Director, and was worn by her grandmother. Kathy's oldest daughter, recently engaged, wants to wear her great-grandmother's shoes. Kathy asked if I could switch out the dresses in the case and return the wedding dress and shoes. Looking into my records, I discovered that those dresses had been on display since 2002 when Kathy loaned the wedding dress and the black dress was donated to the Museum. Eight years is a little long for clothing to be on display. It was certainly time to switch out dresses!

After removing the glass panel of the case and some of the objects, Edward and Michelle work on removing the mannequin with the wedding dress.

I undress the mannequin. I remove the hat and veil and then I remove the shoes (size 5 1/4!). Michelle and I managed to remove the mannequin arms so that the dress slipped over the head.

I had selected two dresses from the Permanent Collection to replace the wedding dress and black flapper dress.

I unpack the navy organza and satin dress with rust trim.

I attempt to dress the mannequin.

Despite valiant efforts by Michelle and I, we were unable to dress the mannequin. The mannequin was too big for the dress. Plus, the fabric was so fragile that there were rips and tears throughout. The navy dress was not in good condition for display.

I decided to take a look at the red georgette dress. It too was in poor condition.

The dress and jacket are made of georgette. The fabric now is very fragile and torn in places. Notice the white spot on the jacket -- that's a hole.

I look at my list to see of potential replacements.

So what to do? We can't put a naked (pronounced nak-id) mannequin back in the case. And I didn't think I had anything else in the Permanent Collection in good enough condition to be on display.

Our solution? Keep the black flapper dress. Rearrange objects within the case and from the room to fill in the case. Because of the nature of the display case (mainly, one opening at a narrow end), I ended up being a contortionist. The following shots are of me maneuvering the case, moving objects and being a little silly.

"Look at me, I'm a mannequin."

Moving objects so that the case is balanced and aesthetically pleasing.

The final result.

STAY TUNED (this time for real): Tomorrow, I'll show you how I packed the wedding dress. If you want to "heirloom" your own wedding dress, follow these simple steps!

Cleaning

2010-06-02T16:37:00.003-05:00

It's my dream to have the Museum's collections stored in one room ... or at least in a room with a solid ceiling (see my previous post). Whitney and I have slowly been working on cleaning out the old Education Store Room to become the Object Storage area.

When the Education Department moved upstairs to the new Education Hall in 2006, they didn't take half of the stuff that was theirs! We have even come across several items from the Museum's Permanent Collections as well as items for the Archives and Library. This project may bigger than I anticipated!

Regardless, I bring you a few photos of the "DURING" process. We haven't yet been able to completely clear out the room yet -- but that is definitely on the books for the near future!

In an ideal world with unlimited resources, compact selving (like this and this; check out the video here -- it makes me DROOL) would be PERFECT for this space!

STAY TUNED: Tomorrow, Whitney and I will be changing out the dresses in the Memorabilia Room in the East Wing. Come back Friday to find out all about the process!

Deaccessions

2010-05-20T15:59:00.003-05:00

At yesterday's meeting, the Board of Trustees approved to deaccession objects from the Museum's Permanent Collection and transfer them to the National Ranching Heritage Center (NRHC) at Texas Tech University.

While doing some "Spring Cleaning," I came across a file that contained a Loan Agreement, completed by my predecessor in April 2006, loaning several pieces of oil field equipment to the NRHC. I contacted both the NRHC and my predecessor who confirmed that the materials were to be deaccessioned and then given to the NRHC; however, the process was never completed.

What is deaccession, you ask? According to the Museum Registration "bible" (The New Museum Registration Methods, edited by Rebecca Buck and Jean Allman Gilmore), deaccession is the formal change in recorded status of the object. Where accessioning is the process by which objects come into the Museum's collection, deaccessioning is the opposite of that. Once objects are deaccessioned, then they can go through a disposal process.

One should not see deaccessioning as a bad thing or even as controversial. Yes, museums are to preserve and build collections for prosperity. However, museums are living things -- missions, policies and people change which changes the institutions themselves. Objects once thought critical to a museum's mission may no longer be so after time. Or objects may be duplicated multiple times in a museum's collection and other institutions could use those items for their own collections.

According to the Museum's Collection Management Policy, items can be deaccessioned for a number of reasons, such as:

The object is no longer within the Museum’s scope or mission.
The object does not support the collecting policy of the Museum.
The object does not have clear, legal title.
The object does not support the research, education or exhibition purposes of the Museum.
The object unnecessarily duplicates other objects in the Museum’s collections.
The object requires storage or conservation resources that cannot be provided by the Museum.
The object was accessioned in error, such as tools, exhibit cases, exhibit material or cleaning supplies.
The object is a danger and hazard to museum staff, volunteers, and patrons.

The items approved for deaccessioning yesterday were all duplicates in the Museum's Permanent Collection; they are much better utilized at the NRHC.

Questions? Leave a comment!

Do you know ...

2010-05-12T15:39:00.004-05:00

the story behind this photo?

For the past few days, I've been busy cataloguing our large photographic collection and came across this image today. Written on the back of the print is "Texon, Texas, Reagan County ca. 1926 - 1932 Texon Harmonica Band."

Whenever I come across an old image of people, particularly children, I have to stop and really look. I start to wonder about the people in the picture: Who are/were they? What were they like? What did think or do or believed? What do/would they think of now?

The image above brought up the same questions. Who were these kids, in their uniforms and hats, and shiny harmonicas? The two boys in the front hold a trophy. Did the group win a tournament? Who were the women on either side, also in their uniforms and hat, and the man in his pressed suit?

Does anyone know anything about this group? I would love to hear from you! Leave a comment or contact me at the Museum (432-683-4403).

Goodbye and Good Luck!

2010-05-07T15:44:00.003-05:00

Today was Lauren's last day. I've mentioned Lauren in some of my previous posts. She was hired as the Archives Assistant two months after I came on board at The Petroleum Museum.

She has been my right-hand for almost a year and a half, helping with exhibits programming. She has also worked on the seemingly huge undertaking of scanning the Photographic Collection as well as making a dent in the backlog archival materials. Words fail to describe how she will be missed.

Lauren has decided to persue her photography career full-time. We wish her the best in that endeavor! Check out her website here. She even has a blog too!

Good luck, Lauren!

Emergency

2010-05-06T09:26:00.011-05:00

Monday afternoon I was cataloguing some photographs when my boss, Kathy Shannon, the Executive Director, came into my office. "Leslie, I need to talk to you," she said while walking toward object storage in the Pit.

Remember what the Pit looked like?

The Pit houses oil field tools and equipment as well as cultural and historical objects (formerly on display in the West Wing) on a series of metal bookshelves. Also in the Pit was maintenance equipment and defunct exhibit materials. Cleaning out the Pit and moving object storage to another location has been on my list of "To Do" since I started here.

Kathy took me into the Pit that afternoon and told me that the collection objects were being threatened.

Above those bookshelves, you see, is a large piece of canvas which hangs between object storage and the pipeline airplane exhibit in the North Wing above.

The painted backdrop, backed by masonite, behind the airplane had slipped its anchors and was presumably resting precariously against non-load bearing walls.

Needless to say, this news was a shock to me. Should the backdrop fall forward, it would hit the plane. Should the backdrop fall backward, it would crush the exhibit wall behind it, possibly hitting some collection objects in that area. Should the backdrop continue to slide, the canvas floor/celing might cave in on top of the collection objects below in the Pit. None of those scenarios were good.

So, Kathy and I developed a plan: Spend Tuesday cleaning out the maintenance and exhibit materials. Use Wednesday to move the collection away from the canvas ceiling and underneath the concrete one.

Tuesday, I helped the Facilities Supervisor and his assistant clear out some wooden shelves. In the afternoon, Lauren and Whitney showed up to help. We continued to clean -- removing trash, setting aside collection objects, and sweeping. By the end of the afternoon, we were in a good place to start moving boxes and objects.

And no, it's not snowing in the Pit. That's the reflections off the dust in the air after moving, cleaning, and sweeping!

Wednesday morning, most of the Museum's staff helped shuttle boxes of collection boxes to the wooden shelves. We then moved the loose objects to tables. When we ran out of space there, we laid some on foam on the floor and even moved some shelving units to under the concrete for more storage!

Many hands made light work -- we were done in about an hour!

Now, you may see many issues in the images above: wooden shelves, objects on the floor, no gloves, etc. As this was an emergency situation, I was mainly concerned about getting the objects out of immediate harm's way. Most of those objects, such as the oil field tools and equipment, have seen worse conditions than what they are currently under. In the next few weeks, I hope to move those objects to a more permanent storage home in the Museum.

Digitization

2010-04-26T14:41:00.004-05:00

As promised, I bring you the second half of my TLA Digitization Expo presentation, already in progress ...

Shortly after I started at The Petroleum Museum, the Development Director Luanne Thornton forwarded an email to me with an invitation to apply to the Rescuing Texas History grant. UNT's Portal to Texas History would offer mini-grants (ranging from $25 to $2500) to organizations with at-risk local history materials. According to the email announcement:

This project promises immeasurable benefit to cultural heritage institutions by preserving at-risk historical materials. These items are in danger of being lost forever, but with the generous support of the Summerlee Foundation, UNT proposes a solution that will help prevent damage from continued handling, while making these valuable historical materials widely accessible to all Texans.

I have previously mentioned the Portal to Texas History on this blog here.

Through this grant, the Museum received enough funding to digitize 368 images (with UNT responsible for metadata). We sent several small collections of photographic prints and negatives from the Museum's Library & Archives Center, all dealing with Texas from the late 1890s through the 1950s. Peruse the Museum's collection of images at UNT's Portal to Texas History here under the Recent Additions tab.

The purpose of the Portal to Texas History is to make materials available to the public, from academic university researchers to report-writing fourth graders to the amateur history enthusiast. This, in turn, is the purpose of museums, libraries and archives. These organizations are here for the public's benefit.

Soon after receiving the Rescuing Texas History grant, the Museum was recruited to participate in the Train to Share grant program, a project administered by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. Learn more about the project here.

The Petroleum Museum has partnered with the Confederate Reunion Grounds in Mexia, Texas, and the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. As a state-wide team, we will attend a series of 5 workshops to learn how to plan, create and complete a digitization project. Then we'll digitize and make accessible 1000 digital objects. Our project title is "Earth, Wind, and Fire: Texas Energy Resources." The grant covers workshop expenses plus $3000 (over the 3-year timeframe) per team. (I actually just returned from the fourth workshop, Principles of Controlled Vocabulary and Theasurus Design, in Lubbock, Texas.)

This partnership has allowed even further collaboration. You see, the online module of The Petroleum Museum's collection managment database was cost prohibitive. So, the Museum has signed a Memo of Understanding with Texas Tech. The University will provide storage and access to their online module (DSpace) while the Museum will enter data and create the digital objects.

With the fifth workshop around the corner, things are getting in gear to get the project off the ground. As of now, I have identified three small photographic collections to include in the project. Those images have been catalogued and scanned. I will be trained on how to use DSpace in June. After training, I'll start posting those images online. Also, with the grant monies, I plan to purchase a network server for the Library & Archives Center for image storage and database access.

So that encompasses the digitization efforts at The Petroleum Museum. I am very excited about sharing images from the Museum's collections with the public online. Leave a comment to share what you think!

Accomplishments

2010-04-16T15:06:00.025-05:00

Last Wednesday afternoon I found myself at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio in front of a group of library professionals talking about the digitization efforts at The Petroleum Museum. I was at the Texas Library Association's Digitization Expo. For more information about the annual conference, check out the TLA website. I had made the 5+ hour drive (through rain!) from Midland to San Antonio to talk about my experience with the Train to Share project, couched within the context of my other digitization activities at the Museum.

The presentation "Tales from the Trenches" began with an overview of the Museum itself and what I, and Lauren, have accomplished in such a short time. I wanted to share that information with you today.

As Director of Archives & Collections, I am responsible for the Museum's Library & Archives Center ...

Top: Entrance to the Museum's Library & Archives Center
Bottom: Processed Archives Storage

... as well as the permanent collection.

Top: Object Storage in The Vault
Bottom: Object Storage in The Pit

Soon after I started at the Museum, I realized that we needed to get intellectual control over all of the collections. I began with an inventory of the Library - with over 2000 published titles and periodicals, some of which are out of print!

Above: The Reading Room

Lauren came on board soon after I did and started working on the backlog of archival collections. Even though it may not look it, she has certainly made a dent!

Above: Archival Storage

Once the Library was inventoried, I began working on cataloguing the permanent collection into the Museum's collection management database. The database had been, until then, primarily used for the Library Holdings and Archival Collection, but was underused for the Permanent Collection. Over the course of several months, we entered over 3000 object records into the database. While doing so, I also rehoused the object files in acid-free, archival folders, labeling them consistently.

Above: Archives & Library Object Files (what the Museum Object Files looked like)

Above: Museum Object Files after Cataloguing and Rehousing

Now, Lauren and I are working on cataloguing and scanning our large photographic collection. (Estimates for this collection range from 250,000 to 400,000 images.) The photographic prints and negatives in the collection reflect the history and culture of the Permian Basin and includes images of the ranching heritage of the area as well as the petroleum industry. This collection is a wonderful asset to the Museum!

Top: Photograph Print Storage
Bottom: Negative Storage for Rubin Collection

Lauren works on scanning the images, in line with standards we have in place, while I catalogue each image into the database.

Above: Lauren scans a photograph.

Even though Lauren and I have accomplished so much in such a short amount of time, there is still a lot to do! Next week, I'll post about the Train to Share project we are working on.

Curiosity Cabinets

2010-04-07T16:20:00.005-05:00

Mark your calendars now! May 13th is the next Family Science Night at the Petroleum Museum. From 6:30 to 8:00 p.m., hundreds of children will learn about "ologies" of Science.

I will even man a table there about museology -- or the study of museums -- focusing on curiosity cabinets or “Kunst und Wunder-kammer” (literally 'art and wonder rooms'). These rooms of curiosities reflect the times in which they flourished.

Above: Frans Francken the Younger, Art and Curiosity Collection, early 17th century. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Viena.

The Renaissance saw the world expand -- Europeans travelled to the far off lands of Asia, Africa and the Americas, bringing back things no one had ever seen before. These items, whether shells, animals or clothing, became collector items, just like comic books or baseball cards today.

Above: Taken from Lorenzo Legati, Museo Cospiano, 1677. Marchese Ferdinando Cospi (1606-1686) gave his collection to the city of Bologna in 1657 for the use of scholars.

Collectors then stored these items in cabinets or even entire rooms, organizing them in different ways, from artificial versus natural to place of origin to four elements (earth, air, water, fire). Collectors would often publish guides outlining their methods too.

Above: Etching of Ole Worm's Museum. Taken from Ole Worm (1588-1654), Museum Wormianum; seu, Historia rerum rariorum, tam naturalium, quam artificialium, tam domesticarum, quam exoticarum . . . , 1655.

Head over to The Petroleum Museum on Thursday, May 13th to learn more!

Do you know ...

2010-04-01T14:08:00.004-05:00

WHO IS THIS MAN?

Today I received an email from David R. LeMaster, Ed.D. Lt Colonel, USAF Retired who found the above image on the Portal to Texas History at the University of North Texas. (Visit the Portal here. The Petroleum Museum has almost 400 images available on the website.)

Lt. Col. LeMaster writes:

RE: Man with a Guitar (1947 at KECK Radio) Could the man with the guitar be the singer, Rusty Queen? Rusty's daughters (Yvonne and Barbara) went to school with me at East Elementary in Odessa. My father (A.B. Lemaster) was a friend of Ben Neddow, owner of KECK Radio. David R. LeMaster, Ed.D. Lt Colonel, USAF Retired

The Museum's records are a bit sketchy about this collection of photographs, so I am at a loss as to whether or not this is really Rusty Queen. Do you know? Leave a comment!

2010-03-30T15:50:00.003-05:00

Here's a little funny video until my next post. It certainly provides an interesting perspective on museums! What do you think?

We love museums, do museums love us back?

De-installation

2010-03-25T11:49:00.009-05:00

This week, Lauren (the Archives Assistant) and I worked on de-installing the exhibit The Working Drawings of Tom Lovell which has been on display at The Petroleum Museum since September 2009. It was a great exhibit, showing the working process of the artist as well as his relationship with George T. Abell, museum founder who commissioned the fourteen paintings hanging nearby. We were lucky enough to borrow several items from a private collector in Denver, CO, as well as from the Abell-Hanger Foundation. I hope you had a chance to see the exhibit!

De-installation is a museum word that encompasses much more than just taking pictures off the walls. For instance, shipping had to be arranged for those items returning to Denver. I hope this "photo essay" will demonstrate exactly what that word means!

Above: The gallery prior to de-installation. Notice the wooden boxes or crates (we call them coffins) in which most of the drawings are housed.

Above: First, we condition report the items we borrowed. In other words, we compare the drawing's condition now to what it was when we first got it. Luckily, none of the items in this exhibit had any major damage!

Above: For those items we borrowed and then framed, we had to unframe. We carefully took apart the frame, removing the mat. We then removed the object, wrapped in Mylar, from the mat. Then, using white cotton gloves to handle them, we removed the items from their Mylar envelopes. Ta dah!

Most of the objects in the exhibit were from the Museum's permanent collection. They are stored in their frames in the crates.

Above: After condition reporting the drawings, Lauren returns them to their respective crates. Notice the dark gray foam which cushions each frame and protects them from damage.

But we aren't done! After removing the section and object labels, we then have to remove the hardware from the walls.

Above: Lauren works on removing the hardware while I take a moment to catch her in action!

After removing the vinyl lettering from the walls, facilities will prep the galleries for the next exhibit. Hopefully, I'll have a chance to blog about the flip-side of de-installation -- INSTALLATION!

Welcome!

2010-03-22T16:34:00.000-05:00

While attending the annual TAM conference (this year in Bryan/College Station), I was inspired by Nina Simon. Nina spoke at the Opening Luncheon on "Making a Place for Community Engagement" and talked about different ways to make museums such places. During her follow-up session later that afternoon, Nina touched on bridging the online and on-site visits, both technical and non-technical ways visitors could participate with exhibits and museums.

"What are some ways I could encourage others to become involved at The Petroleum Museum?" I thought to myself. Why not start a blog about my role at the Museum? I could have a link on The Petroleum Museum's website and in the blog I could discuss what projects we were working on as well as solicit help in identifying objects and photographs.

So this blog is intended to do just that. I will chronicle various projects in the Archives & Collections Department at The Petroleum Museum, from installation of exhibits to processing new acquisitions. I will also use this platform to ask for suggestions, ideas, and help in identifying unknown objects and photographs in our collections.

I hope you will participate!