Curating Archaeology...From Home!?
I’m the Curator of Local History at The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, which means I look after both the social history and archaeology collections. So it’s a very varied job!
Normally I’ve very busy in my office at the museum answering enquiries, cataloguing our collections, and working with our exhibitions and education team. Of course, the last few months have been a little different with the Covid-19 lock down. Like many people I’ve swapped the office for my dining room table and my colleagues for a very hectic 3-year old!
So what does a day in the life of a homeworking, archaeology curator look like?
Most days start by checking my emails and calendar for the day. Despite lockdown there are still some enquiries and research requests to deal with, and regular video conferences or phone calls with colleagues from other teams and museums. My partner has also been working from home so between us we’ve managed to avoid the toddler gate-crashing the other person’s calls! We’re having a new extension built at the moment for the museum’s Spitfire, so there’s lots of communication with the project team over that.
Speaking of building work, as some construction projects have been able to continue during the lockdown, we have continued to issue archive numbers for planning-led archaeology. The Potteries Museum is the home for all of Staffordshire’s archaeological archives – so we work with planning archaeologists and archaeological contractors to store a record of all and any work that takes place.
Next, I will usually check social media for interactions or engagement around our collections. A huge focus for us during lockdown is how we bring the museum into peoples’ homes. Naturally, we’ve increased our social media presence and the resources available on the museum website. I’ve even experimented with video blogs for the first time ever! It has been really enjoyable having those online conversations about our collections and what they are for.
Although I can’t access the museum stores as regularly as before, I can still access our database. This means I can edit and update records from home. During lockdown, I’ve made time most days to tidy and clean up data and images. Once records are ‘web ready’ we export and publish them on our website to increase the number of objects available to browse.
It might not sound glamourous, but keeping data tidy and well recorded is a really important part of being an archaeologist and museum curator! After all, our ability to understand and archive the archaeology that’s being unearthed today all depends on the quality of our record keeping.
I’ve definitely missed the proximity to our collections. You never get over the thrill of working will real artefacts. However working from home has really shown me the value of reaching out beyond the walls of the museum, something I hope to continue to do even when we reopen.
