Today, I headed to the State Archives to start volunteering. I worked in the non-profit fund raising world for 9 years before having my position eliminated in 2009. At that time, I was a thesis away from a Master's Degree in American Studies, which the goal of switching fields and working in a museum in some capacity.
So, I spoke with the head researcher at the State Museum last week and today was my first day. I only spent a couple hours there today, learning the basics, meeting people, and "helping" with my first project. I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to heading back tomorrow to start on my own project. One of the offered projects for research was to determine what information the archives has on the 1918 flu pandemic that swept across the country, basically did the state mandate or do anything during that time to help with it. When I saw that option on the suggested project sheet, I was excited. I'm a bit macabre, but I love pandemics and such. I had already read The Great Influenze: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History and thought this project would be perfect to start with. They suspect very little information is located at the archives, but I'm all excited to see what's there and bring it to light.
I'll be hitting up the museum Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdays for the foreseeable future. So looking forward to getting started and seeing what it's all about!
Sounds like fun - Enjoy and good luck. I hope you find something interesting!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I spent the day researching the on-line directory to see what they have. I spent the day doing that. :-) Tomorrow, I go to the "card catalog" to find out where in the tower (that's what the photo is of) it is, then head off to see if it's there, if it's helpful, and if it needs to be marked down as a resource the Archives has. Fun! (For me. LOL!)
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