Cleaning

I had a fantastic afternoon.  I cleaned.  Yes, you heard that correct.  I had a fantastic afternoon because I spent several hours cleaning.  Now, before you think I've totally lost it (which you may still think that when you get to the end), I spent my afternoon learning how to clean and cleaning PA Civil War muster out rolls.  It was so fun!  I know, I know.  I find stuff that most people find boring kinda fun.  LOL!  I think my supervisor finds me funny.  I am always so excited when they suggest a project or I share what I've found.  He laughs at me most days...and I hope it's good laughter!

Anyway...today, I took advantage of learning how to clean a document and then got the chance to actually clean  it.  Woohoo!  The archives is working on a project cleaning 1,000 Civil War muster out rolls from the state of PA.  They currently have about 800 rolls to go and no funding.  So, us lovely interns (volunteer) have the chance to learn how to clean 146 year old documents.  Eeeeee!  Seriously exciting stuff.   It was the best afternoon EVER!  This is from the archives website as an example of a muster roll.  The one I worked on was a tad bit smaller, but not much...except it had broken apart at the fold lines. 

So, every Thursday afternoon I will be with the other interns cleaning muster rolls.  Next week, we'll see how to clean a document that is in one piece, not broken up like the one we did today.

Yesterday, I had some success in the records finding mention of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic.  I spent Tuesday on the website seeking files that may contain information on the epidemic.  Wednesday, I went to essentially they "card catalog" to see where in the Tower (which is where the files are located).  Then, I spent the afternoon in the Tower looking at the documents I thought may have something to do with the Influenza Epidemic.  The first 6-7 boxes I looked at had nothing.  Very disappointing.  The last box before heading out for the day started mentioning it.  Yea!  I was very excited.  So, on Tuesday, I will head back to the Tower to see what else might be up there.  I kinda wanted to get back up there to see what else could be there, but I had a good day today. 

This is so much fun!