Monday, January 28, 2013

The Fun Side

Sometimes, the fun we have at museums isn't museum-related at all!  This 4-week old shih tzu belongs to the exhibit curator at one of my and I got to hold her today.  Gotta love a workplace that has no problem with doggies (admittedly, we were in the staff kitchen, not the historic house, but still).

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Snowy Scene & Social Media

After the snowstorm last Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, I wanted to see if I could snap a decent shot of one of my museum's 17th century houses for our Facebook page. However, I didn't feel like getting to work, leaving one building, trudging across the street to the 17th century building, and taking a picture with my feet in the cold snow. So I cheated. I pulled my car down the small side road next to the house, hopped out, snapped three images, and called it good enough.

So imagine my surprise when I uploaded the image above to the museum's Facebook page and it went viral!  As of today, 15 comments, 123 likes, and an FB-estimated reach of 1,376.  Amazing.

Oh, and while I'm here, today is Museophilia's 5th birthday.  Happy birthday, little museum blog that no one reads!  ;)

Monday, January 21, 2013

Other Museums

Sometimes, I go to museums other than my own!  My husband and I bought our nephews a family membership to the Acton Discovery Museums for Christmas, so I made a trip there today with my parents and nephews.

Even though it's a very different museum than the historic houses I work in, it was interesting to look at their facilities, exhibits, etc. and assess functionality the same way I would at a history museum.  And it was really fun to play with all of the exhibits with my nephews, so there's that benefit, too!

Friday, January 18, 2013

Cold Authenticity

Deinstalling an exhibit in one of my historic houses today and this was what the windows looked like from the inside.  Further confirmation that 18th century houses DO NOT hold heat well!

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Picturing History

I'm prepping for a February vacation program at one of my museums and found this image while looking through the family photos of an African-American woman in the city.  This is her with her dog in probably the 1920s.  I love it.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Working from Home Awesomeness

A lovely day of working partially from home today. I drove up to the museum this morning, packed up some artifacts and the museum's projector, gave a lecture to some lovely old ladies, dropped everything back off at the museum, and headed home to finish out the workday here.

The troika of puppies at the reservoir on the walk they got when I got home.

My garden house office, lit from within as the dark started to fall. This is exactly how I was picturing it all fall while I slaved away cleaning & painting.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Remembrance

Photographing the 1884 portrait of one of the first female foreign missionaries today.  Cold in the historic house, but it was nice to get a good image of her for my lecture on Tuesday!

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Par for the Course, Part II

Why yes, wrapping a sedan chair in plastic to prevent the spread of powder post beetles IS a normal part of my workday.  Not so much for you?

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Post-Holiday Work


My first winter Tuesday working from home!  Unlike some of my working-from-home days in the past, it was a great success.  I was warm enough in my little garden house office (converted this fall), I came in the house for lunch & a dog walk midday, and I was able to work out in the garden house until 8:30pm (after a late afternoon visit from my dad & nephews).  A perfect blend of getting actual work done and enjoying being home.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Pre-Holiday Work

As you can probably tell, I was off work for quite a nice stretch (11 days) over the holidays.  Hence, no museum daily posts.  Here are a couple of images from my last week of work before the break, though:

Baking woodland creature sugar cookies for one museum's cookie social.

Schwag from my coworkers - they're so generous!