Archives
A guest post by Juliette Simpson, work experience student.
For my year 10 work experience, I decided to come to the North Herts Museum in order to see the work it takes to organise a museum and put up the displays, I learnt all this and more.
All the staff were incredibly nice, and I learnt so much history about the area I am from. During my time here I helped with exhibitions, created a trail, logged multiple items and much more. It was a great insight into the world of work and how unpredictable daily life is in museums. It was also very interesting to go through things like documents that are hundreds of years old as well as explore the museum and its artifacts. Ultimately, I have really enjoyed my time here and will take the skills and knowledge I have acquired with me for the rest of my life.
Juliette working with a painting
A guest post by Isobel Evans, work experience student from Marriotts School, Stevenage
Isobel studies a museum accesion register, where we record items donated to the museum from 1914 to present day
Coming to north herts museum for my year twelve work experience was really enjoyable and gave me a lot of insight as to how a museum functions and how they prepare for exhibitions. The staff were really friendly which made my week here really fun. My work experience took place during the half term and the beginning of a new exhibition which meant I got to see a lot of people’s enthusiasm of the museum and what it displayed. Learning more about the history of the areas in which I grew up in and around was really insightful as it allowed me to learn about things that I more than likely wouldn’t of found out about anywhere else. Another thing that was interesting, were the accession books. Throughout the week, I spent a bit of time going through a few of them and helping log them onto a website they use to track what they have and also onto a spreadsheet. Seeing this was really insightful as I got to see what kind of things are donated to the museum and sometimes they were items I hadn’t heard of before and so it led to me researching them to gain a further understanding.
Thanks for all of your work during your week Isobel, all the best from us here at North Herts Museum.
Mia with some youth group archive
Guest Post by Mia Hoskins
I thoroughly enjoyed my time at North Herts Museum. In addition to gaining experience working as front of house, I got to see everything behind the scenes. I gained access to some amazing spaces such as the Archive, the Art Store and the Costume Store. The collections were extensive and fascinating. I received an in depth tour of the galleries and had several interesting discussions with the curators about how each display was carefully curated. I learned a lot about Digitisation and Data Entry, as well as being given the task of sorting through a collection of minutes describing youth groups/youth culture in the 60s and 70s. I also had the pleasure of organising and numbering a collection of stones painted by a local school during lockdown. A lot of the stones consisted of topical and inspirational messages advocating for BLM, LGBTQ+ rights, gender equality and celebrating the NHS. It was lovely to see children using their creativity to make a positive change during the pandemic. I was also able to work with a group of children in a hand print workshop which tied into the wonderful ‘Tiger Who Came To Tea’ exhibition. Working with the public has been very enjoyable. I would like to thank the whole team at North Herts Museum for being so welcoming and helpful and for giving me some exceptional careers advice. It’s thoroughly prepared me for my MA in Museum and Gallery Studies.
Good luck on the MA from all at North Herts!