Author: Bea Palonder
Museum Studies Intern at the Senator John Heinz History Center – Fall 2023
I was very fortunate that my experience at the Heinz History Center was very hands-on and overall, realistic. I wasn’t assigned busy work, nor was I tasked with a project. I simply showed up every day prepared to do whatever it was that a member of the collections team needed an extra set of hands to do. In a large museum with an even larger collection, the tasks that I was assigned ranged from helping to clean permanent exhibition pieces, to cataloging pieces for the upcoming Women’s History Month exhibit in March, to moving and photographing large pieces of film equipment from the George Romeo collection.
I worked closely with every member of the collections team, and a few members of the exhibition team, to help make it through this very busy season. Throughout the month of November, I was kept on my toes with the holiday exhibit – A Very Merry Pittsburgh – getting ready to open. I switched back and forth between helping the exhibitions team decorate and fluff garland then moving to collections to pull the hundreds of objects needed for the exhibit from storage. It was a surprising day when I walked into see boxes filled with hundreds of ceramic toy soldiers that I was asked to organize and then help place in the exhibit.
It was amazing to see all the time and steps that go into making an exhibition possible, but it was also a fantastic experience doing the necessary “everyday” tasks. I worked the most with Nicole Lauletta, the Heinz History Center’s registrar, who has a seemingly endless wealth of knowledge, and I will forever be grateful that I was lucky enough to learn from her. We spent much of our time doing things such as transcribing and rolling many different textiles, including quilts and tablecloths. She then taught me how to photograph and edit the photos of the diverse array of objects.
When I wasn’t working with Nicole, I was assisting Carrie Hadley, the assistant registrar, with photographing and cataloging endless amounts of political memorabilia. These objects were all part of a never-ending collection donated by a lovely couple who have a passion for politics and collecting if nothing else. Writing object numbers on a tiny little strip of soluvar is a skill that I am getting better at but will forever be practicing. Other times, I was working with a member of the exhibitions team to dress mannequins in garments that are to be in the Women’s History Month exhibit so that they could be properly measured for their cases.
There are so many other incredible experiences that I had while interning at the Senator John Heinz History Center that I don’t have the paper space to write about. This internship, rather than scaring me away from the museum field like so many joked that it would, only encouraged me and solidified that this is where I want to be.