Museum Musings

So my internship at Higgins Armory has been cool so far. The drive is obnoxiously long, but once I get there, I enjoy being there. I go twice a week. On Thursdays, I go and do archival work for the curatorial department. This is cool, because it's something I'm interested in studying in library school. It's nice to get some experience under my belt and realize that I actually like doing it.

Right now, I'm digitally scanning Higgins Family photos into the server. It's a little dull, but I really enjoy looking at the pictures, it has a kind of found magazine vibe to it. Two weeks ago, I was doing family portraits, which included one of Mr. Higgins Sr. as a baby in a kilt and stry-ped tights, and one of his wife as a child taken at the St. Louis World's Fair (1904).
This week, I'm getting into the weirdness of pictures from the family house. This includes faded, unflattering snapshots of the family bathroom, and a bizarre photo of a child mannequin in a baby-sized suit of armor, labeled on the back as "Jody".


When I'm there on weekends (usually Saturdays, sometimes sundays, but I won't be there next week if you were thinking about visiting...) I'm taking visitor surveys for Beyond Belief, our interactive art exhibit about mythology and crytozoology. This is kind of cool, because I get to sit outside the exhibit and watch little kids play in the quest gallery, where you can try on helmets and play dress up and the like. There are lots of cute little kids out there in the world. The other day, two even came to the museum already in costume. One was dressed like a little knight, and the other, for some reason, was dressed in a metallic silver spaceman suit.
I haven't even seen that many kids being rude or bad in there, or throwing fits, which is nice.

I have to say, seeing 200+ kids every weekend, I've learned which baby names are officially played out. Literally every other little boy who comes through the museum is named with some variation of Aiden. Hayden, Jayden, Caiden, or Brayden. It's actually kind of startling. There are also a crazy ton of Noahs, which is too bad, cuz I always liked that name.