Feb. 21, 2008 –
My second shift focused more on docenting. Ben was there too, and it was the day of the Amgen Tour of California, so lots of visitors happened in to get out of the rain. We told them about the exhibits and one couple was interested in the movie. As the race got closer to downtown SLO, the stream of visitors trickled off. We bought SLOCHS t-shirts in an attempt to look stylish. It was interesting to see which exhibit some people fancied over the other: I’d place the odds at 50% each way. This was a full 4-hour shift.
James Watt
Permalink
2 Comments
Feb 14, 2008 –
Whoops, forgot about the blogging at first so I’m going back and revisiting my first two experiences at the SLOCHS museum at the Carnegie Free Library building. This time I got introduced to the responsibilities of a docent, then was summoned downstairs by Alan to work on some photos. I helped scan in some old photos, edit them, and burn them to a cd for a client. Then, we went through some drawers and he showed me some of the gems of the collection including: more old photos, legal documents from the 1800’s, a condemned man’s last wishes expressed on paper, etc. Very interesting stuff! This was a half-shift because I had to leave early.
James Watt
Permalink
2 Comments
So I concluded my volunteer work this past Sunday at the museum. I was supposed to volunteer on Saturday, but a last minute change of plans had me going in on Sunday. I was hoping to see a few people so I would be a welcome drop-in. When I came in and asked Leon, he was more than happy to let me hang out and help at the museum. There were actually maybe five other students trying to get in some hours as well. I wanted to make my last shift productive, so I made a point to (if not study) walk around the exhibits myself and try and help out some visitors as well. For the first part of my shift, the other volunteer docents and I had light conversation with Leon about Hip Hop and its roots to old school Rhythm and Blues. It turns out that Leon is a Hip Hop fan and enjoys club music as well. We had a hanful of visitors come in throughout the shift. One lady was interested in the mission and was hoping to get more information on it. We informed her that although it was closed at the time, there were scheduled masses she could attend to see the inside. She actually stuck around for a while and enjoyed the exhibits. I believe she actually watched one whole volume of the Chinese Immigrants in America videos. We had a student come in with a friend who was happy to see the Chinese exhibit was still up after a few years. I guess in one way or another, whether late or in the past, the Chinese exhibit is very educational and also a memory that some people hold in mind. I browsed the exhibit a little while visitors were walking around noticed that every time I come to the museum, I’m always drawn to the embroidered dragon three-panel screen in the corner.
During the shift, we had a family from Puerto Rico come in with a small child. I overheard the father speak about economy and agriculture with Leon while the mother and child were in the children’s room coloring some pictures. It seems they enjoyed the museum very much since they stuck around for a while. I had a chance to read up more on Ah Louis and his treks from China and through California. He seems to have been quite the business man back in the day. I still wish that SLO’s Chinatown had at least one really thriving business remaining. After, hearing about the pending selling of the Chop Suey restaurant, I believe that Chinatown is merely a tired and exhausted legacy.
I also noticed for the first time (maybe I’ve ignored it) the text next to the archaeological dig showcase. I read some of the origins and uses for the different items. It looks like some of the plans I’ve heard about in class have actually been actively in the works. For the rest of the shift, we had sporadic visitors pop in and we tried escorting them around the museum. There weren’t any people doing any research that I remember. I last remember sitting with the other docents talking about Cirque Du Soleil and watching some videos featuring a dance group that works like a symphony, to a conductor. Overall, it was a relaxed shift.
-Jennifer Olarte
Permalink
3 Comments
Had my third 10-1 shift today and for the most part it was pretty uneventful. My self and another ES student talked about off-roading and gave a guy from Nashville a tour of the museum and that was basically it.
-Dan Tedrow
Permalink
Leave a Comment
Back in the research room for my second shift doing stuff for Kim. For the first 3 hours I got to look through a box of Elsie Louis’ stuff. Once again it was tedious and slightly boring but at the same time quite interesting. First, I pulled everything out of the box and tried to put it in some kind of an order (I’m weird, I like things really organized). Then, using a list someone else had made I began numbering and labeling everything in the box. There were newspaper articles, funeral programs, a business card for the Ah Louis Store, photographs, a school project (anyone heard of a “Pear Tree” before???), a few pieces of jewelry, a music book, VHS tapes, and oddly enough a picture of a contortionist. There was this necklace pendant that I absolutely loved… I thought about pocketing it… haha just kidding. Anyway, the pictures were cool because I recognized a few of the places like the Madonna Inn and Apple Farm. Elsie seemed like quite a vivacious women even in her older age. There were pictures of her in her dance class that were so cute.
After the box, I scanned pictures into the computer again. Very interesting. I love looking at those pictures. Too bad it took forever for them to scan each time!!! My iPod came in such good handy once again! Not going to lie, I can’t wait to see what I have to next time. haha I’m such a nerd.
Stephanie
Permalink
2 Comments
did my second 3 hour shift on sunday. There was about 12 volunteers making sure every person in the museum was promptly informed that the building was a Carnigie library. One volunteer obtained a bat, and if a visitor didn’t sign the log book, he’d perform his best Ron Ebens impression. Overall there where few people that came in and most of the time was spent listening to Leons stories about Czechoslovakia, dancing, and somthing about a Peruvian Girl.
Dan Tedrow
ES-244
Permalink
3 Comments
I had my first shift on Friday Feb. 8th. I was originally assigned to work upstairs, but due to scheduling I moved downstairs to perform research. I was allowed to choose a city in SLO county that I was interested in researching. Morro Bay came up in discussing different possibilities and I decided I was interested since I’ve always loved the Bay and how beautiful it is. I went through files that mostly contained old newspaper clippings, some dating back to the late 1800’s, other’s as recent and 2003. Most seemed to be from the 80’s and focused on a yearly festival in the town. After three hours of research I knew that the Bay was discovered by a Spanish explorer, was originally inhabited by various Native Americans, and has some history of earthquakes handed down from Native Americans to European explorers. It was unfortunate that I didn’t find any information on Asian Americans, but I did feel I had a better sense of Morro Bay and SLO county.
The only question I’ll pose after this first shift is, is SLO city the only significant source of Asian American history in SLO county? I hope to find out with next weeks visit.
Permalink
3 Comments
So my third research shift went pretty well. I begin the morning continuing my research of the ethnic background of Arroyo Grande with little to no avail. I had pretty much exhausted my resources of Arroyo Grande so I was put on assignment to locate a missing cassette tape in the multimedia room. After a half hour long search I conceded and went back to the Arroyo Grande research. At this point I was joined by another volunteer researcher for a change and we were both put on assignment categorizing old photographs. This was really interesting because we were looking at photograph negatives and trying to figure out where it was taken and when. This was exciting because it gave me a chance to put on my detective hat and use the clues in the picture to determine its whereabouts. My shift came to an end after about an hour of looking at photographs and I’m looking forwards to next shift where i finally get to go upstairs and work as a docentg
Permalink
3 Comments
Well my first day I went to the Offsite warehouse where Kimberly gave me the tour of the facilities. She showed me how everything was labeled and packaged and opened up some of the cool artifacts. There is so much stuff back there, I’m sure the Historical Soceity could be filled five times over, and there is another warehouse at another location as well! My three hours there I went through three boxses that the most famous Chinese family in San Luis Obispo donate, the Loius family. Turns out Elsie Louis, daughter of Ah Loius is going into a retirement home and decided to donate much of her treasured items. Things I sifted through included A TON of TIGER WOODS memoribilia. She was SOOOOO into Tiger Woods, I mean this girl was in the paper herself for picking up the sport of gold so fast, so I guess it makes sense why she admired him. But every single piece of Tiger Woods articles, from every month, almost every year, was kept! You can only imagine! She was also into this Afro-Haitian dance as she got older, she was very vivacious! But that was it for the day, very fun and informative, and kind of interesting seeing someone else’s interests, kind of like room raiders! anyways…-Amanda Flint
Permalink
Leave a Comment
