Behind The Scenes At The Museum

Before anything can be included in an exhibit and seen by the public in the museum, it needs to be accessioned and brought into our computer system software program, PastPerfect. This involves much detailed focus time to capture all of the facets related to the new accession. It proves so helpful in the future to have historical information and stories related to the object as well as its physical aspects. The better the back story, the more interesting it is to the public.

Marilyn oversees the assignment of a new accession number and entering all of the pertinent information into the software program: Size, shape, color, type of material made of, where found, who used, and how it relates to Middlesex County history.

Tyler scans our photographs and negatives at large sizes so that we will be able to utilize them digitally in a variety of applications including exhibits and on our website. They are all assigned names related to their new accession numbers. He also uses this process to capture a likeness of fragile paper objects such as documents, forms, ledgers, newspapers, letters, journals and such.

And finally, Holly pulls the information together to create a 3D experience for the museum visitor. They can see the object and learn more about how it was used and some information about who used it in the past. Our new exhibit about the Saluda Historic District is currently in this information gathering process. Objects already in our collection are being married with newly accessioned materials and all will be cross referenced with historical documents to create an exhibit that everyone will enjoy.