Introduction to my CLothing/Material Independent study

I have begun my journey with cataloging and curatorial work. I started my independent study January 14, the same as my other in class courses. I volunteered here over the summer so I have a good idea of where most things are, which helped when I began to catalog the clothing collection. The decision was made, here at the Lancaster Historical Society, to catalog and organize the clothing so it can be assessed in August. This cataloging and organization is job with the help of the curator, Barry Rauhauser.

On my first day I jumped right into cataloging of the first rack of clothing, military uniforms. A lot of the jackets, shirts, and pants were with out specific owner tags or great accession numbers, so my job is to go on a research hunt for background information, without background information it will be hard to say whether a Naval Jacket from World War two is worth anything or not. Each item is special, not so much monetarily, but to Lancaster county in some way. This is most of what my job entails, finding out who, where, and why they wore it.

One of the first pieces I cataloged was a Red Cross uniform worn by a woman in World War one. The piece came with an envelope attached including a name written on the front. Inside the envelope was a picture of her and other women she served with during the war. This seemed so much more like finding treasures then just old pieces of clothing. When I describe my interest to family, friends, and fellow classmates I try to present it in that light because not everyone finds things such as these as fascinating as I do. Some day I hope to work in a museum to create exhibits or possibly serve the public as kind of a history informant. I like dealing with people so some how I want to be on the public aspect of historical or museum work. I hope this independent study will put me on a solid path to attaining a career that is right for me.