44,000 Object Files

My street. The house I'm staying in is just to the left. 

Hobby Lobby

I have now completed my second week at the Museum of the Bible. It’s already been an interesting experience, very different from my past museum work.

The museum collection is housed at Hobby Lobby’s corporate headquarters. Yesterday I got to take a tour of the Hobby Lobby campus, which includes some six million square feet of warehouse, manufacturing and office space.

Hobby Lobby began as a framing company and its original name, Greco, is still evident in the framing department. Greco comes not from the ancient Greek world, but is a combination of the Green’s name and that of his original partner.

We took a couple of motorized carts around and saw people making items like ficus trees and barn wood frames. One made a stop at the layout room, which is a full-size mock-up of a Hobby Lobby store. In here, they work out which items will remain on the shelves and which will be replaced with new items. They can also look at the layout of the store (hence the name). Each item on the shelf has an attached sticker. This sticker indicates how many of that item was sold in the last month, so they can get an idea of what is and isn’t selling.

What happens to the cake?

One of the most interesting sections is the art department. Here, graphic designers create patterns from art and then use this new art to make anything from fabric to gift bags to wall decorations. Also in the art department we saw the area where they make the inspiration sheets that you can find throughout the stores. These sheets include ideas and directions for completing crafts with store supplies. While we were there, they were working on a cake shoot. Bakers had made beautiful themed cakes, decorated with fondant, and people were working to create elaborate scenes around the cakes. I don’t know what happens to the cakes after they are photographed, but I can tell they aren’t sent over for the museum staff to enjoy. Shame.

If the whole museum thing doesn’t work out, maybe I’ll look into this. These employees spend the day decorating cakes or trying new craft projects. Sounds like a good time to me!

MOTB

Of course, while my job site is Hobby Lobby corporate, I am really working with a separate entity, The Museum of the Bible, or MOTB. Still, I really enjoyed seeing the behind-the-scenes working of a major corporation.

I am joined this summer by two other interns. The other interns don’t have museum experience, but instead are completing theology and biblical language degrees.

Therefore, due to my experience with collections work, I was assigned to work with the registration staff, while they are working with the curators.

I joined them one day this week and worked on their current project, which is measuring scrolls. This first involves unrolling each Torah scroll, of which MOTB currently has over 1,700. They take a photograph of the beginning and end of the scroll, as well as the Song of the Sea, which is in Exodus 15. This text has a different layout from the rest of Torah, which means it is recognizable even to someone who doesn’t read Hebrew.

In addition, they measure the entire length of the scroll and then count the total number of klafs. A klaf is a section of vellum or parchment, which are sewn together to create the scroll. They also count the columns in each klaf and the lines in each column. I took some photographs and counted the lines in several scrolls. I enjoyed spending some time working with the artifacts and with the other interns.

Foundational Filing

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my main project this summer is developing a filing system for the collection. The largest portion of this task is making paper object files for each object. While my hand is sometimes cramping at the end of a day of writing information on folders, I am getting a very good grasp on the scope of the collection. Each folder heading includes the object’s accession number, acquisition number, dealer and a brief one to three word description of the object. This week I’ve made files for everything from Dead Sea Scroll fragments to Torah scrolls to Elvis Presley’s Bible to cuneiform tablets. Very exciting!

It is very interesting to be involved at the start of a museum. Everywhere else that I’ve worked, these things have already been in place. For example, the Holocaust Museum has rows of filing cabinets, already full to the brim, of accession files. As new objects are accessioned, the staff makes new files. Eventually the MOTB will be at this point, but first I must make files for the existing collection.

When I sit at the table, the kitties take up position right under my chair

Does this mean that I will make 44,000 object files this summer? I doubt it. I work very fast, but I can’t make the roughly 500 files a day that this would require.

I hope to do a variety of work while I am here, but it remains to be seen if I will have a chance to do more than work on the files. Despite the monotony of the work, it is kind of exciting to be a part of this foundational work for the museum.

The Museum of the Bible

A Museum Master
It's hard to believe that two years ago I moved to Waco, began another degree and embarked on a career in museums. It is perhaps even more astounding that I  am now a Master of Museum Studies. I don't think I ever thought that I would be old enough to hold a graduate degree.

And yet here I am, with another diploma in hand and a quarter of my life behind me.

Thankfully, due to a multitude of courses, projects, internships and volunteer work I feel very affirmed in my choice of profession.

It was a great day when I realized that I could turn one of my passions into a career. I can still remember when I discovered that universities offered master's degrees in museum studies.

"Sign me up," I said. And with that, I decided to return to school.

For a variety of reasons, I chose to go to Baylor for my degree. I am now very happy with this decision. My professors are knowledgeable, and held in high-esteem by the Texas museum community. My classmates have been wonderful, and many of them have become very good friends. My classes have taught me much, and provided me with the opportunity to learn and grow.

In a field where a master's degree has become essential, I am very thankful for this opportunity.

It is incredibly satisfying to feel that I am in the right place, to discover that books I purchased for free reading are required texts for classes and that I actually enjoy some of my assignments.

So, what's next? I don't yet have long-term plans or a full-time, permanent job. Hopefully those will come in the relatively near future. I always hoped to have a job lined up upon graduation, but museum collection jobs are few and far between.

The Museum of the Bible

My work building, at the Hobby Lobby headquarters

I do, however, have another summer internship. This week I began a summer internship with the Museum of the Bible and the Green Collection in Oklahoma City. With over 40,000 objects, the Green Collection is the largest privately owned collection of biblical artifacts and manuscripts. The collection includes such treasures as fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, part of a Gutenberg Bible, and letters from Martin Luther.

Over the course of the summer, I will work with both the curatorial and registration departments, assisting with all nature of museum collections tasks. It will certainly be different from last summer, as this is a museum still in the beginning stages. The Greens began collecting in 2009, and formal organization began after that. For those wondering, the Greens run Hobby Lobby and therefore have the resources to create such a wonderful, invaluable collection.

My first task involves creating a filing system, which currently does not exist. Luckily, I have plenty of experience with filing! I will make paper files for each dealer and each object within the collection. Furthermore, I will create digital object files on the computer. And after that, who knows!

Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweeping down the plains...
All of this means that I am living in Oklahoma City for the summer. One of my colleagues and his wife are currently in Rome with one the museum's special exhibits. They have graciously opened their home to me for the first half of the summer (Side note: if you know of a good place for me to stay for July, I would be very grateful!). They have a house out in the country, which I am currently occupying.

My closest neighbors. Seriously, y'all. I live closer to horses than to humans.

This house also has two cats. Two incredibly affectionate and attention-starved cats. The cats are very sweet and, honestly, nice to have around. It makes the house not quite as lonely.

Don't worry Mom, I'm not becoming a cat person, as my allergies will never allow this.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am kind of terrified of thunder, and big thunderstorms in particular. So far, we have had several massive thunderstorms roll through, one of which included 70-mph wind gusts. In other words, long nights for Rebekah.

The Non-Existance of Tornados

I am trying to pretend that this tornado shelter doesn't exist, or more accurately that the need for this doesn't exist, as I must admit that tornados absolutely terrify me. The weatherman last night seemed so excited about the storm coming through.

"Look at that beautiful formation," "See that rotation?" He gleefully announced. Yeah, I see it and I'm pretending it doesn't exist. Yes, I know how unlikely it is that a tornado will hit the house. But my slightly irrational fear of storms means I'm thankful to have access to this shelter. One particularly close lightning strike and the virtually simultaneous accompanying thunderclap made me and both cats jump. Seriously, those cats jumped a foot straight up in the air. Clearly I'm not the only nervous one here!

There is not internet at the house, so my online posts will be spotty, at least for the first half of the summer. Instagram and Twitter posts are quick and use less data, so if you want more frequent updates, check out those accounts of mine.

I'm looking forward to an interesting summer, one which I hope lays groundwork for my future career. My Bible degree and museum degree ensure that this museum collection is right up my alley and I intend to make the most of it.

Time to close up shop, disconnect from the online world again and go watch California Chrome win the Belmont Stakes.

As always, Sic 'em Bears!!