Welcome, CBL students of ES 212 and 244!
We’ll use this blog as a forum to share your SLOCHS stories, give advice and tips, and ask questions. Here are the requirements:
- Check the blog before your shift so you can read what others had to say.
- Post after your shift so you can contribute your own experience.
- Leave at least one comment to another person’s entry.
- No word minimums or maximums. But do be earnest in your posts.
- Remember that this is a public forum so anyone (from your professor, to your mom, to the museum) can view your entries.
jvandonk said,
January 23, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Hey guys,
So it appears that I have worked the first shift, so I will give you a brief rundown on what happened.
To be completely honest, not a whole lot. I arrived and was promptly put to work editing brochures that had the wrong time on them with a permanent marker. That took all of 20 minutes, and essentially that is all the real work they had for me today. I think that I provided good entertainment for the other volunteers, but especially since it is a rainy day there were not too many visitors. I was quite surprised to see the three that we actually did have. I did not interact with them too much since I do not know too much about the exhibit yet, but I did listen to the other women while they conversed with the guests and learned a lot. I think the best way to learn about the museum and what it has to offer is to listen to the other docents and hear what they have to say.
I also spent some time perusing the exhibit, but unfortunately am still not totally impressed. I have not spent too much time discovering the real story, but I do think that it needs to be expounded upon. I think that A. H. Louis has a good story to tell, but there is not really much here to read. I honestly am still unsure as to what he contributed to San Luis Obispo.
I think perhaps next time I will look more into the story of what he really did, and hopefully get a better understanding of the exhibit.
Well, good luck to you all I hope you have a great time:) the people are wonderfully friendly:)
lkiyoi said,
January 27, 2008 at 11:03 pm
I visited the museum today and yeah there aren’t too many visitors because of the rain… Looks like a pretty chill place to work and learn though. Hope to work sunday afternoons.
Shaun Greenhalgh said,
February 7, 2008 at 6:23 am
My first day involved three hours downstairs in the research room. It actually surprised me how much information they have stored down there. There is an entire room dedicated to archives of old pictures of San Luis Obispo and the surrounding area dating all the way back to the 1860’s. The main purpose of the research area of the SLOCHS is to take requests from people who are interested in obtaining information regarding people, landmarks, and the general history of San Luis Obispo.
My assignment was to find as much information about a house on Terrace Hill. This involved looking at old pictures of the area and looking in the old directories to find out who occupied the house at the time. It turns out that alot of these type of requests are hard to uncover information because SLO only keeps track of certain areas of historical importance. This took me approximately two hours to research and i came up with zero information.
The last hour involved going through old newspapers to find out where a person was buried. This was very tedious because you have to look at each page very carefully.
The three hours went by pretty quickly because alot of the old newspapers and photos are interesting because they give you a glimpse of life over a hundred years ago.