It's been over a week since I wrote anything. Sorry everyone! I still want to tell all about last week at the historical society. Let's start with Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Barry gave me a mini research project for an outdoor sign that will be at the newly re-designed campus. There will be several of these stone signs outside describing many different events and places. He gave me the task of writing a small blurb about Clockmaking and Watchmaking in Lancaster County. WOW, that was hard! It's very difficult to keep anything to less than 200 words. Not only that, but I was having difficulty wading through the mounds of technical information about clock and watch-making. I'll just be honest. I don't understand how case clocks work. Or even battery-operated clocks. I just don't. All I can tell you is that the Hoff family made a lot of tall case clocks (the clocks, not the cases) and that everyone in the family was named some variation of John. I also waded through a lot of information about the Hamilton Watch Company. Before they ever became Hamilton Watch, they passed through so many hands and bankruptcies that I was quickly becoming confused. And I know that they invented the first LED digital watch, but it was apparently not a huge success. The watch required so much power that batteries died altogether way too fast. Today we have the LCD watch which requires much less battery power. Anyway, I'm not so sure that I produced anything very useful, but overall I learned that Lancaster County was once pretty successful when it came to clock and watch-making.
On Thursday, I was given another difficult task: brainstorming ideas for a children's exhibit. The new gallery will have a small carpeted space to pique children's interests. I gladly accepted the task thinking it would be a lot of fun. Little did I know just how hard it would be! I have a new appreciation for museum education directors and exhibit designers. Sometime soon I will be meeting with the Director of Education to discuss ideas and hopefully put something creative together. I also witnessed something very interesting Thursday afternoon. A committee meeting took place to discuss plans for the new gallery and Barry invited myself and another intern to observe. I even bravely offered a suggestion (yikes!). I saw sparks flying and ideas discussed and shot down (especially regarding the children's exhibit). I witnessed discussion about technology and a program called Joomla! that went straight over my head. It was intense. Yet I just kept thinking, "This is what I want to do!!" Hopefully someday...
So there you have it! The most difficult week yet, I think. I'm grateful that I can try out all of these different projects, even though I don't always know what I'm doing. Barry is very patient and I'm so glad he takes the time to allow me to try things out.
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