In the fall of 2013, the Anthropology department at the
University of Alabama Birmingham added a Museum Studies course to its
curriculum. The Museum Studies course introduced graduate and undergraduate
students to Museum history, philosophy, and function. Students gained practical
experience with the UAB Josselyn Archaeological Collection. In working with the
collection, students were instructed in the proper techniques for object
handling, storage, object processing, and record keeping and maintenance. The
class afforded students experience for their resumes while fulfilling
departmental goals of curating the UAB Josselyn Collection.
The success of the class and the need to continue the
inventory of the collection opened up internship opportunities for two students
during the Spring 2014 semester. Based on their outstanding work in the Museum
Studies course, undergraduate students Jessica Brodt and Anna Lathem were
chosen for the internship.
During the Spring 2014 internship Anna and Jessica completed
a total of 25 drawers full of artifacts including stone tools, pottery,
historic glass, soil samples and botanical remains. The internship afforded
them opportunities to work with a wider range of artifacts, to discover and
solve several curation problems, and to develop long-term procedures for
working with the collection. Anna, for example, developed and implemented
records curation procedures as part of her Honor's Thesis. Her research
highlights the necessity for records curation in the collection and provides
procedures outlining how records should be processed in the future. Her thesis
addressed records management issues, including inconsistencies between records
and site names, linking UAB records to the Alabama State Site Files, and
development of an inventory of Site Records.
Both students gained an appreciation for the size of the
collection and the amount of work it will take to complete the inventory.
Jessica stated “I was shocked at how many artifacts and sites the Josselyn
Collection contains", and Anna explained that, "During the internship
I gained a better understanding of just how much work is needed to accession
and complete the inventory of the Josselyn collection."
The Josselyn interns gained crucial hands-on experience that
museums and institutions with collections value in potential employees. As work
continues with the collection through the Museum Studies class and internships,
opportunities to learn and gain hands on experience with other Museum aspects,
such as exhibit design and community involvement will become available.
