Day 8

12 April

Ann-Rachael and I both work part time and we come in on alternate Tuesdays, so we swap the packing days we do every other week. So last week I was in the roller racking packing typewriters, and now in the metalwork store packing everything from ancient Greek mirrors to Nigerian leg guards.

Why store all the metalwork together? The store was a mix of archaeological material from the local area, ancient Greek and Roman metalwork, foreign metalwork from Nigeria to Tibet, English pewter and contemporary craft. Metalwork needs particular environmental conditions, so it’s easier to group everything together.

It makes it more difficult to pack, though! A shelf might contain a tiered Indian incense burner, a betel nut carrying box and several Buddhas – as well as an elephant with detachable palanquin!

Treasures included a beautiful Greek mirror, engraved on the back with female figures, and medieval gold dust measuring scales all the way from Constantinople. The Nigerian leg guards were less glamorous, but dramatic, and Jill and I were disturbed that once someone put them on they were never taken off.

Day 7

6 April

Each member of the curatorial team looks after different parts of the collection, and we rarely get the chance to work with our colleague’s collections, so today was a treat as I got to work with the social history collection in the largest store to be packed up, the Roller Racking. Ann-Rachael briefed me on what was to be packed, and I was presented with a bay of writing desks and typewriters, all sitting on the shelves unboxed. A lot of the objects we store are best stored unpacked on secure shelving – but that’s no good for a move where delicate parts could so easily get damaged, so each of those larger objects had to be individually packed.

Laren and I set to, and Laren got a most spectacular object to start on – an desk tidy with two ram’s horns forming the tails of silver dolphins that act as inkwells and a bell with striker in the middle. Very dramatic and tricky to pack. First, the horns and silver dolphins were padded with spider tissue – a very soft and strong acid-free tissue – then packed around again with ordinary acid-free tissue. The whole object was then wrapped in tissue, and then again in bubble-wrap and secured. It’s a long and laborious job, but once complete it’s safe and secure. On with the next 6 shelves!

I was also assisted by Ann and Beryl, regular volunteers, who made a start at tackling the doll’s house furniture in the next bay. These had to be packed and padded in their boxes, and the contents of each box checked against the inventory. Not as cumbersome as packing typewriters, but fiddly. They did discover some wonderful things – a shower, made, we think, from a pepper pot, a mangle whose handle turned, and a set of steps with the motto ‘Steps to Progress’ which seemed very fitting!

Day 6

6 April

Charlton Kings Local History Society magazine arrived today, complete with a picture of Mr Punch on the cover! Mr Punch, and the rest of his cast of puppets are in the museum collections; now safely packed to move. Each is swathed in tissue paper, snugly tucked around each feature, and each string – what a job! We don’t want them muddled up when they are unpacked.

Jane Sale, came to look at the puppets in the summer, whilst researching an article on Professor Bofeys, the puppeteer from Charlton Kings. She has written a fascinating piece about the self styled Professor, real name Benjamin William Henry Fry. He was a conjuror as well as puppeteer, and entertained ‘anybody form 2 to 98’. I wonder what he would make of his puppets being in the museum?

Since writing this blog, Jane has sadly passed away, but how good to know that her work on Mr Punch made it into print, and our collections form part of her legacy to Charlton Kings local history.

Day 5

5 April
‘Operation pack up the archaeological metal work’ commences 9.30am …first Helen briefs me on what she has done, and gives me my beautifully packed box of useful tools, purple gloves, scissors, cotton tape, silica gel, special writing pens, soft pencils etc. Thanks Helen! Then to decide the plan.
First I photograph all the shelves, so we have a base record of where boxes were and what each shelf looked like. I hope we won’t need such a record, but best to be safe.
The metal work is all boxed and well labelled and inventoried. The only thing missing is the location label. I’m expecting volunteers Terry and Lauren to help me in an half an hour to an hour, so decide I’d better have a dummy run at it all. ‘Metalwork store, Bay 2 shelf 7’ is the starting point ….6 labels later and I hope a volunteer comes soon!
Lauren comes first, complete with table to work on. Have table will work! And immediately grasps the labelling job, spending the rest of her hours working through Bay 2 and most of Bay 1. I hope she will not dream of ‘Metalwork store, Bay 2 shelf 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7’ though it could be the museum answer to counting sheep I suppose!
Terry arrives next, clutching the inventory, and we move around a bit to accommodate another person, there is not much room for people in this store, the new build will have much bigger store rooms. Can’t wait. He then checks off the inventory, while Lauren labels and I pack. A great team.
By the end of the day we had done 74 boxes, each had been labelled with shelf location, and brief contents title, unpacked, checked for bronze disease or any other unpleasant nastiness affecting the objects, repacked with soft padding on the base, between the layers and padded out with acid free tissue to prevent movement. Finally a silica gel packet was popped in, to absorb any moisture.
Found some gorgeous things! One pair of star shaped pieces from medieval spurs, just lovely uneven, blacksmith made metal stars; a dinky chopper like a modern herb chopper, with twisted metal handle, found in a quarry; and a beautiful bundle of manicure tools from a Roman lady.

4 April
Second day packing and what would we do without volunteers? Some volunteers have been valiantly helping us pack for several months. Today it is Sarah, Pam and Anna and with them we have been working on packing assorted weaponry. We started with European swords and daggers, of which we have an interesting collection, and then moved on to Indian and Middle Eastern, shades of Cheltenham’s old colonels here, because this is what they collected and brought back as souvenirs which eventually found their way to the Art Gallery & Museum. Now we are on to African spears and daggers.

Day 3

1 April
First day packing, although in fact the collections team has actually been packing for one or two days a week since last March. Some of this has been muilti-purpose because as well as providing a well-packed item that can be moved safely we have also been improving storage. The delicate human skulls from Belas Knapp and elsewhere have been carefully packed into hand-carved supports of plastazote (think dense foam) so they are well-supported and then wrapped around with tissue. We have received a grant of £500 from the Renaissance programme for museums (given by the, soon to be no more and greatly missed, quango, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council) to buy 24 acid free boxes to enable us to pack some of the smaller items of weaponry from Africa and India which has also much improved how these items are stored.

Day 2

2. 31 March 2011

Early (yawn) train from Cheltenham to Manchester, spent the journey thinking of the others at the museum on ‘The last day’.  How was it going?  I wonder what they are doing?  I’m missing the ‘thank you and best wishes do’ for Michelle, our brilliant documentation project officer who has been with us since last June. That’s sad.   I will miss her. Also missing the big ‘farewell to the old Art Gallery & Museum do’ at 4.30.  That’s odd.  Things will be so different when I get back, and I won’t have had the transition, the event to close one chapter and open another. 

Is it significant that I am going to a social networking course?  Is this a new chapter for curators?  Some speakers think so!  Discussions about ‘freeing up objects’, allowing people to comment on them in cyberspace, giving them a new life …. an ‘imprisoned object’ is something stuck in an institution or in a museum database, no one can see it or react to it unless they visit the buildings.

Social networking is a new way of working, releasing and trusting staff to blog about their jobs and feelings, entering into dialogue with twitter and facebook followers ….bringing the museum into people’s lives, not just releasing facts and news.