We’ve got a big project we are working on at the Territorial Capital Museum! Information on our entire artifact and archive collection will eventually be entered into a museum cataloging software program called PastPerfect.
We just received funding from the Kansas Humanities Council to continue our exciting project of entering our collection into our database, PastPerfect! This grant will allow us to work on our school memories hallway, where we have artifacts, photographs, and documents related to our area rural school houses and Lecompton schools. We have hired Andrew Gustafson to be our project curator with the funding. He will work with our volunteers to document, number, measure, photograph, and cross-reference the collection in that hallway–an estimated 1000 items!
Andrew Gustafson, left, is the project curator of this segment of the inventory project. On the right is Kristie Dobbins, project consultant.
Deb Powell, long-time volunteer at the Territorial Capital Museum, cleans a trophy display case.
We have been working on this inventory for several years now, breaking it up into several rooms at a time. We just finished a segment of the project funded through Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area. The FFNHA grant provided money to pay for a project curator, Kristie Dobbins, to guide us through our inventory project. Kristie, along with several of our volunteers, inventoried 1,214 artifacts in the Farm Room, Home Room, and lower hallway from Nov. 2016 to April 2017.
Volunteer Deb Powell, left, and (at the time) Project Curator Kristie Dobbins, right, work on the collection at the Territorial Capital Museum. Kristie Dobbins’ position was funded by a grant through Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area. Now Kristie serves as our consultant.
Volunteer Jack Oglesby with the geology specimens.
From left to right: volunteer Lynn Ledbetter, Project Curator Kristie Dobbins, volunteer Doree Goodrick, Intern Kelli Gamel, and Volunteer Elsie Middleton.
We have fun with our volunteers! The volunteers received a serenade and yummy food for Valentine’s Day–because we *love* them!
We started this huge project in the Fall of 2014 with a grant from the Douglas County Heritage Conservation Council. We were able to purchase the software PastPerfect and hire curator Lynn Ward. The project got even more momentum when we got a grant from the Kansas Humanities Council to hire a KU Museum Studies graduate student, Erik Radowski, to work for us for the 2015 Spring semester. Erik, along with the volunteers, cataloged and inventoried the entire quilt room and a good portion of the North Room.
Erik Radowski, left, worked with our volunteers Karen McConnell and Georgia Trammel.
For the Fall 2016 semester, with support from Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area, we hired another KU Museum Studies student, Rebecca Dickman, as our project curator. She is worked with our fabulous volunteers, training them in using the software and general artifact care and handling. We finished in the North Room of the museum, going item-by-item, describing, photographing, measuring and re-labeling. While we do this, we also collect the story and history (provenance) about each artifact and record it in our database, PastPerfect.
Through a grant from the KansaS Records Advisory Board (KSHRAB) we inventoried part of our large school photograph collection. We hired Monica Davis with the funding. The photographs from that project can now be accessed on kansasmemory.org. For a great article on a fabulous discovery during this grant, see: KSHRAB grant article.
Monica Davis, left, served as our Project Curator with our KSHRAB project. Volunteer Deb Powell is on the right.
Currently, we have 9 volunteers helping with shifts throughout the week. A big “thanks” to all of our wonderful volunteers. We can’t do this project without them!
Inventory Volunteers during a training session–and lunch afterwards!
Gina (on right) inventoried our hatpin collection with Rebecca.
Deb Powell stuffs acid-free paper into a ladies boot to give it a nice shape and to preserve it.
Elsie Middleton and Rebecca Dickman work on some beautiful carnival glass.
Donna Koepp, retired map librarian from the University of Kansas and Harvard, works on entering our map collection into the software.
Georgia Trammel works on a crimping iron for hair.
Carolyn Stauffer and Rebecca work on a women’s handkerchief collection.
Gina Clement puts the hatpins back in the exhibit case.