News
Guest Post by Dylan Bailey
For the past two weeks I have been volunteering at North Hertfordshire Museum, helping to find and catalogue various items which lie within the museum stores.
I began by adding to the work of a previous volunteer, who had sketched and made note of several dozen flints and artefacts. Here, I could see history come to life in front of me. From the head of a Roman statue to a Mesopotamian seal, in my own hands I held intimate pieces of the past, impossibly well preserved and unbelievably beautiful. I was instructed to go through the museum accession register, and find any more details that could be added to the notes of my predecessor.
Once I had finished that, I moved onto the flints. Here, I got an insight into the exact mechanicals of how a museum worked, examining the stones and trying to determine their geographical origin.
I was also involved in searching the old Letchworth museum for artefacts, including a World War One medal, as well as cleaning a variety of sculptures found there, and filling out the museum accession record. I was also given a go at posting on the museum’s twitter page!
My time working at North Hertfordshire Museum has been thoroughly enjoyable, I have learnt a considerable number of skills and techniques that I will be able to apply to other jobs in the future.
Guest post by Isobel Bailey (All Hallows Catholic College, Macclesfield)
My week at the museum has been an amazing experience filled with learning new skills, information and meeting new, fantastic people who have passed their knowledge onto me. I have thoroughly enjoyed this week and I feel as though I have had a real taster of what working in an historical environment would be like and has made me certain that it’s what I want to do in the future. On Monday I was given the opportunity to help Lucy, a masters student from York who was here this week as well, to identify the sexes of human remains; I really enjoyed doing this as Lucy taught me what to look for in the bones and so was able to determine the sexes independently. On Tuesday I was cataloguing stone artefacts many of which are fantastically preserved and were wonderful to look at. On Wednesday and Thursday I was cataloguing flint stones which involved drawing them, labelling my diagram and photographing the flints. On Friday I was lucky enough to look through the social history section of the stores for medical equipment for a display the museum is showing next week which will celebrate the NHS’ 70th birthday. My time at the museum has been wonderful and I am so thankful to the museum for my experience and how its sparked an excitement in me for my career and the future.
By Jack Hubbard (guest author)
Jack with a sherd of Roman pottery found during a site visit
When I first took the opportunity to have my work experience I didn’t really know what to expect from it apart from that I was going to be doing stuff to do with history which is something I am passionate about. But on day one I realised that the week was going to be better than I imagined. I really enjoyed seeing some very interesting things like the Louis Wain paintings which I got to spend most of my experience being with. The work environment is calming, and everyone works well together which I found pleasant to be part of for the week. I really learnt a lot about something I am interested in and I hope to come back as a volunteer sometime in the close future. I would recommend anyone with interests to do with history and other similar subjects that the North Hertfordshire Museum is the place to go for an amazing experience.
Thank you for letting me do my experience here.
Jack Hubbard.
Year 10.
John Henry Newman School.