Week 9: The Week of Tours

Wednesday 8/1
In the morning, I updated records with the sites that I had sent to Pat the Site Master last Friday and organized my notes to give to Kara on my last day, which is next week. Around 10:30am, Jill had arranged for all of the NMAI interns to go on a tour of the Museum Support Center (MSC) facility. The MSC houses the offices and the collections of the Smithsonian museums, the majority of them being from the Natural History Museum. The MSC facility is divided into 5 pods or storage areas and the collections are moved around according to available space.

The tour was great. We were taken to the open storage area where the large objects are kept such as boats, canoes, a cast of a colossal Olmec head, gemstones, and more. The group was also taken to the anthropology collections processing area, catalog room and cabinet storage area. I saw feather textiles from Peru, Eskimo and Aleutian fur and seal skin coats, samurai armor, Oldowan chopper, Acheulean handaxe, Northwest coast wood carving, and so much more. Lastly, upon request, we were taken to see the nitrogen storage area where they process and keep meteorites! Everything was tightly stored so we didn't get to see much of the actual meteors. After lunch, I finished up the day by completing about 30 records from the ledger.

Thursday 8/2
In the morning, I headed straight out to the Library of Congress for one of the Smithsonian intern tours. First we watched an introductory film and then the tour guide came to take us around. We were in the Jefferson Building, which is the main building of the library and the first one built. It is Congress' library and also the national library of the United States. It is the largest library in the world by shelves and number of books.

The library was originally housed in the Capital Building in the 1800s until the building and the book collection was burned in the War of 1812. Thomas Jefferson then donated his entire library in order to help restore the national library's collection. After the Civil War, a separate building was created to help store the increasing number of books coming into its collection. The library receives the majority of its collection through copyright provisions, which states at least two copies must be given to the library in order to receive rights to any piece of material such as books, poems, music, newspapers, etc.

Great Hall

On the tour, we were told the history of the library, an explanation of the internal architecture and decoration, and shown the main reading room. The group was also shown and told about the history of two famous books exhibited in the library. The Bible of Mains and the Gutenburg Bible. These two books were exhibited across from each other to give a contrast in the advancements in book manufacture. The Bible of Mains was hand written by a monk in Germany, which took about 15 months to copy one. On the other hand, the Gutenburg Bible was copied with the use of a movable type and took one day to make roughly 100 copies. It was the first major book produced on a printing press around the world. These two books show a movement into a major revolution in the way books were copied and produced around the world.

Main Reading Room (Courtesy of Library of Congress)

After the tour I stayed around to look at a few of the exhibit areas also in the library. I went to the Exploring the Americas and Books that Shaped America exhibits. Library of Congress Exhibits. For the rest of the afternoon on Thursday, I completed 20 records from the ledger.

Minerva of Peace glass mosaic

Friday 8/3

I did the usual record entering, sent the last sites e-mail to Pat the Site master, and grouped the completed records for the week. I am now up to record number 650!