I’m the museums officer in charge of looking after the council museum collections and what a wonderful job it is. This is my first ever blog so please bear with me! And I have a confession to make – I’ve been in the job a year now and it’s taken all this time to get over my fear of blogging!
I have just returned from 3 weeks holiday during which I made a resolution that one of the first thing I’d do when back – even before opening my emails – was to start blogging and I’ve done it.
So, what do I do? Well, basically I ensure the various objects in the collection are looked after properly. That means that they are kept at constant temperatures and humidity, are free from pests and mould and are documented to national standards. The museum cares for many diverse objects that cover all aspects of life in East Lothian, from social history to archaeology, natural history to industrial machinery. Part of my role is ensuring that objects in our care are conserved appropriately so they do not deteriorate and also to organise remedial conservation for objects that need it.
My office doubles as the workroom and I am surrounded by various objects, including an old sewing machine, a stone lintel and a stuffed pine martin (who I’ve affectionately named Fergus) looking over my shoulder! On a day to day basis I can be visiting other museums, finding out about and arranging for specific conservation requirements of an object, filling in paperwork and exploring (and tidying!) the museum store.
I’ll write more in the future (promise!) and thanks for reading,
Claire.
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Very interesting blog – I like the sound of the workroom!