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San Carlos Warehouse Observation Report

Decent Essays

I decided to do the volunteer work at the San Carlos warehouse of the Museum of American Heritage (MOAH). I went there for 3 days to complete the project. On the first day, Jim gave a brief introduction about the warehouse and the types of work they do there. I was surprised when Jim explained that the warehouse is mostly run by volunteers. Then, he introduced me about the main process they did at the warehouse. One of the main tasks is to determine what to do with the artifacts received through various means such as from donations, buying and other methods. As the storage space is limited, it is important to decide what to keep. Unwanted items are either transfer to other museums/archives, sell it for fund or simply throw it away. What items …show more content…

I am glad to be able to experience various types of work at the warehouse. It made the work fresh and kept me interested. This time Jim was working on putting an exhibition on MOAH by selecting interesting objects from the warehouse. I was able to work with Max, one of the classmate, this time. We were asked to help select a collection of typewriters from different eras. We helped arrange it on display, took photo and Jim was going to present it to another group who organize the exhibitions for the museum. Then we also help find various calculators from the warehouse database and select which would be interesting to put it on the …show more content…

As I was working with the item, Jim helped me explain the history, the features, when was it made, where and how it was use for almost every item we worked with. It was engaging and easier to remember that just simply reading. I also have to do a little bit of research on some items I worked with. So, it was a very good opportunity to learn about history. I also went to the California History Center because I was curious about the type of work there and wanted a different experience. It was fascinating to read newspapers on a film-like machine, but the type of work there was much closer to research paper work. I personally prefer the type of work at the San Carlos warehouse because I got a physical interaction with the primary source – artifact itself. It was like going to a museum and learning about history by looking at the artifact. It has the same feel as going on a field trip and learning the history base on experiences. For me, this was much more interesting than just simply researching and writing a paper. It is a very interesting active learning project; I was able to get a bit of hand-on experience on history and learn various components of American

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