Harrison Smith Museum of Military History Summer Internship Blog Post 2

As mentioned in my previous blog post, my name is Harrison Smith. I am currently a grad student at the University of Central Florida who is pursuing a masters in public history. My areas of interest are military and 20th century history; with my focus being on the First World War. For the summer semester of 2022 I will be interning at the Museum of Military History located in Orlando, Florida. The first week of my internship was an introductory session focused on museum’s history, staff, collection, and practices. Upon learning about my background, the museum’s executive director Chris Roberston and operations manager, curator, and webmaster Mathius Williams instructed me by overlooking the institution's First World War exhibition

For the second week of my internship, I performed a variety of tasks ranging from exhibition cabinet categorization, data compiling, collection research and development, display curation, and digital tool engagement. I spent roughly eleven and a half hours over the course of the two days (Tuesday May 24 and Wednesday May 25). The museum’s exhibitions and policies/practices has changed dramatically since Chris Robertson’s recent position as executive director. Due to this, the museum’s collection and exhibition layout have been everchanging to properly showcase the museum’s narrative and mission of “educating, increasing awareness, building knowledge and understanding of the American military experience through interactive, interpretive exhibits designed for visitors of all ages.” Chris and Maithus explained that because of this constant motion and altering of exhibition spaces; the categorization system that sorted display cabinets, keys and locks, and their locations within the museum was largely ineffective. The problem arose when I needed to get into a display case within the First World War exhibition and we were unsure which display cabinet it was and which key went to said display cabinet. (The various display cabinets in the museum are sorted by number with a key and lock that have the same number). Because of this a majority of my first day I spent relabeling each display case with its correct number and ensuring that each display case was properly locked and had a corresponding key to unlock each cabinet. And believe me, you do not realize how many locks and keys can go to various display cases and cabinets especially when a majority of the fixtures are donated materials that don’t share a universal lock and key.

The second day at the museum was object oriented. Maithus found 6 pieces of trench art from the First World War that were FIC (Found in Collection) but were not properly catologged in the museum’s collection database. (I will provide pictures to Dr. Gannon) This prompted Mathus to open the museum’s collection software Past Perfect. He taught me the basics of how to properly catalog items acquired by the museums (whether bought, gifted, donated, etc.) An individual also donated a Second World War/Korean Era Signal Corps Radio Tube Tester which had been sitting in a garage or storage for some time. Mathus instructed on the museum preservation policies and cleaning techniques. I cleaned the tube tester and added it to the Second World War exhibition near a section focused on the Native American Code Talkers under instruction of Mathus and Chris. Following this placement Mathus and Chris gave me free reign to how the pieces of trench art would be displayed within the First World War exhibition. (Pictures will be provided to Dr. Gannon) Chris and Mathus also accepted a proposal I had for number tagging to pamphlet/poster labeling. I will be creating a label for the trench art I placed within the exhibition following the museum’s current labeling format and creating a “mock” label for a few objects within the First World War exhibition over the weekend. Both label formats will be presented to Chris and Mathus next week when I return to the museum. And based on their reception will lead to the my next steps in adjusting the museum's First World War exhibition.