I work in a Special Place :)

Today I found out I work in a special place, not just a great place but an extremely cool place. Sam Houston Museum is the BIG Splash, bull's eye, and has every bell and whistle imaginable.

I have been looking over the policies of the museum at the advice of some of my co-workers. I decided that I would read the policies so I could: a) have a better clue what was going on, b) get ideas and examples since I might be asked to do some of this stuff in the near future, c) put on my resume I already have some ideas and have looked at and given input (I'll get to that in a second), d) write down anything I have a question about or confused or want more information on while I am reading so that e) I could ask Sandy and Mac about it to get it cleared up and show that I am interested and trying to learn while I'm not even registered for classes.

It was a success. I understand more about gifts to the museum, collection procedures- since I was reading the collections policy-, accession and deaccessioning artifacts, loans, storage, preservation, documentation, appraisal, inventory and so on. And to top it all off, I had a great conversation with Sandy we kept digression but I learned LOADS!!! Like at the La Salle (The Belle Shipwrick) excavation, SHE WAS THERE when the only human remains was found. It gets better, it was discovered under a huge coil of rope she was in charge of retrieving, documenting and preserving. AND it was found October 31, Halloween Night. I mean WOW how cool is that. Turns out the man was French. They called the French government to let them decided what they wanted to do. They did DNA tests and found he was from France and even traced him to Fort La Salle, AND found some of his descendants in Louisiana. AND then he is buried at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin, where only big wigs are buried like the who's who of who. Sandy said there was a big ceremony and she was invited to go with an ENGRAVED invitation. I mean WOW, just WOW.

I also learned things need to be documented. If they aren't then years down the road no one will know the importance of an artifact, who it belonged to, where it came from, etc. We went down into on the back basement rooms of the Museum. I thought we were going to the vault. Nope, we went to another room that houses all of the stuff that was given to the museum in the 1920-40's that no one has documented, don't know where it came from, who gifted it to the museum, and no one knows what to do with the stuff. Hence why documenting things is important. There were shelves of old cast iron dutch ovens, tools, shoes, Eskimo shoes, deotypes, pocket watch, quilts, clothing, linens, books, paintings. I could have spent HOURS down there looking at everything.

(We really only went down there to look at artifacts surveyed from the Sam Houston buildings on the grounds between the mid 1970s to mid 1980s. I didn't know that, that had been done. There was broken glass, nails, animal bones like from ribs, buttons, marbles, broken porcelain and crockery, a pistol and my favorite a golden locket that said 'Mamma'. Simple yet elegant. Who knows how long it had been down underneath the Woodland Home, but someone owned that, cherished it, loved it and here I am looking at it years down the road. Of course I thought about my mom when I saw that. All of those things packed away in archaeological bags in archival acid free boxes. Inventoried and all. Done by and intern 2 years ago. I COULD TOTALLY DO THAT!!!! Now the reason the museum has that is because those artifacts were found on state property. Therefore they belong to the state. Sam Houston Memorial Museum was one of the first, if not the first, museum to be a certified repository for state artifacts. Yeah there's a ton of paperwork involved with have state artifacts and you have to be able to show you have artifacts when there are random checks done. But still SO COOL. We even have state artifacts from TDCJ's prison surveys of the Walls unit, Ferguson, and so on.)

Yet just because somethings are documented, doesn't mean it's safe. Sandy had been called to ask if she wanted to receive the records of the prison museum from a female prison in Texas to have at the Prison Museum. Not necessarily to display but store and just to have. Heck years down the road someone might want to look at that to do some research or right a book. Heck I would. Boxes and boxes of records. Not the recent stuff but from like the late 1800s to the mid 1900s. Pictures, documentation, logs, mainly... their lives, who they were. But someone who will remain names decided against that and had everything shredded. SHREDDED. Those women were real people, they had families, lives, they breathed the same air and drank the same water we do today (since everything on earth is recycled and goes through Mother Nature's cycle). And now those women are lost to history and time. Sandy said she cried for 2 days after finding out what had happened. I teared up when she told me, got the lump in my throat. It got me.

Ok I've really digressed. But back to why the Museum is special. The Museum grounds are a Texas State Park and Historical Landmark. Sam Houston's Law Office, the Woodland Home, and the Steamboat House are Texas Historical Landmarks. (We are about to add two more to the list with Bear Bend and the Guerrant Cabin). The Woodland Home is a NATIONAL Historic Landmark. The Sam Houston Memorial Museum and it's grounds are an accreditation of the Texas Association of Museums. AND is accredited by the American Association of Museums. Of which come to find out, only about 8-9% percent of all museums in the USA are part of. AND we were the first site listed to be a repository for Texas Historical Commission artifacts held in trust to us. Hence why the museum is getting artifacts uncovered by one of our own, Sandy, at the most recent digging excavations of San Jacinto. We will be only place to have those artifacts in the year if it is approved. But heck, WHY SHOULDN'T IT BE!!!! Especially since it will be the 175th anniversary next year of the Battle of San Jacinto, and next year will be the 100th anniversary of March to the Grave and dedication of the Sam Houston Marker in the Oakwood Cemetery. And the WEC is going to be renovated thanks to some grant money. I think it was a Gibbs foundation of money. The Exhibit hall is going to be redone and the gift shop will be moving there to get a more central location on the grounds. Both should be done next year.

All of this in a city with the population of about 35,000, 1 hour north of Houston on Interstate 45 in Southeast Texas. And the greatest part of all, I, me out of about 6 other applications to get a part time job, then the first person approached with the choice of full time, which I graciously took. And I, I was given the opportunity to work here.

WOW, just WOW!

I'm practically speechless about all this since I found all this out only two hours ago. I know speechless is funny since this is a long post but it's mainly for me so I remember. Yet still... WOW!