Object History

Unfortunately, we don't have extensive records on many of our objects. Sometimes we don't know if an object was donated to us in a broken state, or if it broke in our care (over the nearly 40 years a museum in some form has existed). So it was really exciting for me to find a contact print documenting the repair of a broken object.


I presume this occurred in the 1970s, when there was a great deal of activity in the collections. You can see that the ceramic figure was in (at least) two pieces, broken right down the middle.


Presumably, an adhesive was applied to the broken edges, and then it was held together. By what look like rubber bands. And then it is all one piece again!


And the repair has held through all the years. You can still see the crack running down the center of the figure.


I've got a large box full of negatives to go through. I wonder what other object stories we'll uncover as we work through those.

New Dean Hall Neighbors

I learned this week that Dean Hall has some residents without offices. Whooo whooo can it be?


Do you see them? It's a couple of Great Horned Owls (I think). They've decided that those, um, architectural features over the windows are just about the best place to be. What's really neat is that, from the third floor stairwell landing, you're pretty much at eye level with them.



It's kind of appropriate that these great birds would choose to spend their days on the building that houses the Museum of Culture and Environment - this intersection of human modification of the landscape with the needs of wildlife is right up our alley.

Tyvek Shelf Cover project

Our compactor storage is awesome. In addition to the compactor storage, we have a couple shelves of storage for oversize materials.


The shelves do their job well, but the objects on them are exposed to light and dust... especially light. A number of the shields have quite fragile pigments. So I wanted to devise some way to construct covers for the shelves. I considered many options, but eventually decided to use the Tyvek, which is a great material for museum use because it's light, waterproof, and pretty archival. Plus, I happened to have a roll of it 60" wide.


Except the shelves are 76.5" wide. Which meant that I had to bring in the big guns. Or, rather, the Mini Ultra Sewing Machine.


Now, I hadn't used a sewing machine in about four years, but I was pleased to find that I was still able to fill a bobbin and thread the machine. And, after some experimentation on scraps, I was also please to find that the Tyvek sews pretty nicely and doesn't rip easily.


The covers for the front of the shelf are quite large. In addition to being over 6 feet long, the shelves are 8 feet tall. In order to make such a large amount of material sewable, I did what any resourceful person would. I used paper clips to keep everything lined up.


The paper clips worked remarkably well. And so did the little sewing machine.


By the end of all that I had several large pieces of Tyvek and then had to work out how to attach the Tyvek to the shelves. I've seen velcro used with great success, but decided against the velcro because it would make adjusting the shelves difficult in the future and would probably leave a sticky residue on the metal if it was ever removed. Ultimately I decided to use simple magnets. The magnets hold up the Tyvek effectively, but are also easy to adjust, rearrange, and remove. It's almost too simple!

The end product of the the project is shelves which are protected from light and dust. I'm pleased with the result.