Museum Volunteers

By Karen Osburn, Archivist and Geneva City Historian 

I have a real soft spot for museum volunteers.  Once upon a time I was one and it led to a career in museum work that I still love.  I didn’t know when I made that first phone call and was offered a choice of volunteer duties that by choosing to work in the museum library I was going to one day become an archivist with 20 years of museum training under my belt.  That day all I knew was that I loved museums and libraries and it seemed like a great volunteer combination.

Our Geneva Historical Society volunteers come from all walks of life.  Some are retired and some are still working.  Some come for social contact and interaction, some for history, some because they want to contribute to their community and some because they love museums and research.  A couple of people who volunteered for me have gone on to become archivists and I would like to think that their exposure to archive work at our museum helped them make that decision.

With museums, as with many other non-profit organizations, volunteers are a tremendous help with day to day operations or with special events.  When a historical society owns several properties with numerous out buildings, has a limited budget and also a limited number of staff, the volunteers are extra hands, and brains.  They do all sorts of tasks from helping with artifact cataloging to taking photographs, baking cookies, working on fundraisers, working on landscaping, fixing things in buildings, painting, cleaning, greeting visitors, giving tours, running gift shops, helping researchers, washing and ironing table linens and gloves, and indexing records.  Some volunteers take on a long term project that may occupy them for years; others take a short term, one time only projects like helping with a workshop.  Some help once a year with a special event; others contribute their time weekly. 

The some volunteers assume responsibilities like finances, opening and closing of buildings and supervising other volunteers.  Why do they accept these large responsibilities for no pay?  Volunteers are special people.   Whatever their reason for helping an organization they are enjoying themselves or they would not give their time.  And of course, (in volunteering for a museum) there is the added bonus of seeing and handling various artifacts, whether historic, natural science or otherwise, every day.  Where else might you see a 150 year old chamber pot, a taxidermy passenger pigeon, or a tintype photo?  Depending on the museum you could even see Mastodon skeletons, whale bones, fossils of trilobites or flowers, suits of armor, or an Egyptian Mummy!   The different types of specialty museums are too numerous to mention here, but there is one for every interest.

Most museums rely on volunteers to some degree.  Some small museums are run entirely by volunteers.  Some museums add up volunteer hours and record them each year.  These hours are often cited in grant applications, sometimes for matching grants.

Volunteers add so much to the organization where they donate their time that it is hard to thank them enough.  We acknowledge our volunteers’ generosity with a luncheon in the autumn.  I invite you to consider becoming a volunteer somewhere.  The rewards are incredible.

 

"Kid" Collectors

By Karen Osburn, Archivist and City Historian

A lot of things have brought childhood to my attention lately.  My friends have made me an “Honorary Aunt” several times and I find myself spending enjoyable time shopping in toy stores and book stores looking for the perfect gift for small friends.  I am not a woman who can’t wait to purchase that perfect little dress or cute little baseball uniform to dress the new niece or nephew in, but I am the person who can be counted on to purchase charming stuffed animals, favorite children's books, building blocks, puzzles, crayons, art supplies and (shudder) things that allow children to make their own noise!  You know drums, tambourines, whistles, harmonicas and xylophones.  I am not the aunt who purchases toys that need batteries or power supplies, toys that say “moo”, “neigh”, “meow” or that do the exploration for my young discoverers.  No, I am the aunt that grew up with books, many physical collections, and a real back yard swing set and teeter- tauter.  I am the aunt who discovers and collects!  Just ask my niece, Alicia, if you ever meet her.

Part of the joy of being a child, for me, was reading books that took me to many imaginary places filled with wondrous sights and sounds.  I could spend an entire rainy day solving a mystery with Trixie Belden, or on the back of a Black Stallion with Alex Ramsey, or being in a sunlit forest with Bambi, or even a space ship created by Robert Heinlein.  I loved books and started to ask “Santa” for them as soon as I could write my own letters to him.  I found out early that when you ask for books Santa is much less likely to bring you socks and underwear for Christmas.  I guess Santa is a fan of reading.  One of the many things I collected as a child was books.

It didn’t stop with books though.  We had a cottage on Lake Ontario when I was a child and walking the shoreline led to collections of interesting stones, interesting driftwood and colorful collections of “lake glass”.  My fate was sealed.  I would become a collector.

I also collected stuffed animals.  I will confess immediately to being an animal lover from my very first memories.  If it had fur, I loved it.  Of course many of my parent’s friends encouraged me with stuffed dogs, cats and mice, but my first love was bears!  My parents encouraged toilet training with the irresistible reward of a bear.  Bears came home with my father from hunting camp; he said he found them hiding in trees begging to come home and eat cookies with me. Very large carnival bears came from my teenage cousin who managed to win them at games of skill (he must have been between girlfriends that year).  Then, of course, there were the dogs that came home in lunch pails and stuffed rabbits at Easter. 

I am sure you see where this is going.  As a child I not only had a book collection and collections of interesting lake debris, but a stuffed animal collection.

These collections were quickly followed by a new love….HORSES!  How could I read the Black Stallion and not love horses?  I received my first model horse for “being good” when I got my tonsils out.  It was a Hartland black and white pinto with Cochise as the rider.  Cochise was kept in pristine condition, untouched, while I played with his horse so often and so intently that I broke the poor thing’s front leg off.  My father fixed the leg and we embarked on a journey of fix, rebreak and repeat, fix, rebreak and repeat that continued until the small equine figure vanished.  It was about this time I discovered Breyer Horses.  A company now in business more than 50 years, they made beautiful “plastic” horses.  My first Breyers were and appaloosa mare and foal followed, as rapidly as I could manage, by others.  My parents were not as enthused with this collection.  It required dusting and took up space, something at a premium in our small house so they were more than a bit discouraging every time I tried to add another horse to the “stable”, but lucky for me my mother’s friend “Grandma Roberts” sent me horses for every birthday and Christmas holiday.  I keep and treasure those horses today.

Anyway, fast forward to this moment.  Do I still collect?  Of course!  I am an archivist and a museum worker by avocation and inclination!  I still collect books today, some of which remain from my childhood; and bears, stuffed, carved and painted create a diorama on my 2^nd floor landing; Breyer Horses fill shelf after shelf in my home jostling agreeably for shelf space with my books ; of course there is Native American pottery, rugs and baskets; then there are fossils; interesting shells and stones; and finally (I can’t be too sure about that though) beads with which I create items I hope others will want to add to their collections of jewelry. 

By now you might be wondering what the point of this article is.  My “Kid Collections” led me to a career, a lifetime of learning and discovery, helped me form friendships with people in various walks of life I may not have otherwise met, and given me endless hours of fascination.  I support encouraging children develop interests and hobbies that lead them to curiosity, creativity and inspire lifelong learning.  Collections can lead to research, discovery and inspiration that will at least make life more satisfying even if it doesn’t make one materially rich.  This may sound obvious, yet everyday legislators, tax payers, and bureaucrats question the value of informal education.  Just think how desolate life might be without libraries, museums and the arts.  Think of the topics that fascinate you and where you might go to learn about them if we didn’t have institutions that are a part of the informal education network.  Imagine saying, “I’m bored, there is NOTHING to do” because there is nothing to do!  Help a child start a collection today!