For week 7 of my internship with the Museum of Military History I was assigned to complete two particular tasks. The first was to rearrange the Civil War exhibition area of the museum to make enough clearance for a 28 foot long Merchant Marine lifeboat that is being donated to the museum by a prominent merchant marine association that is headquartered in North Florida. The second task was to clear a storage area near the museum’s loading area to give the boat an entry point into the museum. The reason why I was assigned this task is because these areas both have authentic delicate items that the museum staff did not fully entrust the volunteers or light duty workers to handle.
The first portion of my week with the Museum of Military History was removal and reorganization of authentic Civil War uniforms and firearms that are displayed within the Civil War exhibition area of the museum. As mentioned in previous blog posts, the museum has an open floor layout; moveable “air walls” are what are used to create the various exhibition rooms within the museum itself. Due to the merchant marine lifeboat’s sheer size, the airwalls near the Civil War section needed to be moved roughly 15 foot into the Civil War exhibition area to provide adequate room for the lifeboat to fit within the merchant marine section of the museum. My first day on the job was removing or rehoming the delicate and authentic items found within the Civil War section. A few volunteers and I reorganized some of the display cases so that prominent pieces required for the exhibition area’s narrative would still be on display for the guests visiting during this period of item and exhibition shuffling.
My second task which focused on moving collection pieces near the rear garage entrance took place the following day. Volunteers and I sorted through the collection and separated items by likelihood of display in the current, near, or far future. Once this was completed a path for how the boat was going to be unloaded and then moved into the museum was measured and mapped. The boat is expected to arrive in the next few days and upon its entry into the museum, the museum staff will then rebuild the exhibition areas with the preexisting and newly sorted that we shuffled earlier this week. The boat, though donated to the museum, still has preexisting condition; the boat, which is wielded to a parade mount, must be accessible during the month of November for the Orlando veteran’s day parade. Chris, Mathus, Roger, and myself are going to constructing a trench system for the World War I exhibition area in the upcoming weeks, but have to built it to certain specification so that the boat is able to exit out the rear section of the museum near where the First World War exhibition section is going to be displayed following the trench system’s completion.
I will provide updates regarding the exhibition status, boat’s location, and any other project I work on in next week's blog!