Exhibits, SEMC and blogging!

Posted on October 30, 2014 by Nicolette & Clinton Talley

Fresh out of the SEMC Annual Meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee, I am happy to announce that I learned a lot while at the meeting, as well as established connections with other museum professionals. I will be typing up an essay here soon to send in as part of my scholarship responsibilities, and I hope to also send it in to the SEMC newsletter to be published. It was wonderful learning different ways to present history to others, and the new, innovating ideas for exhibits. I did a few tours of Knoxville, as well. It was great being able to learn so much about the town while I was also learning about museums. I think I saw over ten different sites, museums or archives while I was in town. I also was not aware until a tour that the city of Tennessee was host of The Worlds Fair, where the Sun-sphere was unveiled. Thank you again, AMA, for allowing me to go with your scholarship!

The Clinton Library, if you have been here recently, has undergone a few changes. The pictures on display were beginning to fade, and the artifacts needed to be swapped for others, so that the light would not damage anything further. We made copies of the original pictures and printed them out to display. What a difference! In addition, as we moved objects from display, we found new homes for them in storage (a mighty task since we are reorganizing everything in there!) and pulled the new items out to be used.

I was able to hone my photography skills and take pictures of each object to be stored in TMS (The Museum System, like Past Perfect). Its a great skill to have, since you need to set up the item number, get BRIGHT lights and make sure the picture is good enough for others to recognize what is in your picture! Some of them I take more for fun, like this picture of an item I took before we put it away. What a cool chess set! Its nautical themed, so those are small boats as pawns, and I think Poseidon makes an appearance…

The last bit of information I wanted to bring to everyone’s attention is the blogs that I do for the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum. My official job is a tour guide, but I do enjoy learning more about submarine life. I have been a monthly blogger in their “This Day in History” since June, and have been recently doing two a month. I learn more about the submarine, and can then incorporate this information in my tours, or even answer questions in more detail. Head to the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum blog to view what I have written for the museum.

Until next time, bloggers!