STORIES

Back again from another great week at Banting House, and I have to say, this week felt like it went by pretty fast! The main reason for that I think is because it is starting to get busier throughout the week with a lot more visitors coming to tour the museum. Almost everyday this week there were nearly non-stop tours which meant all the volunteers and I were kept very busy. I absolutely love doing tours! As my knowledge on Banting and insulin has expanding, my confidence in giving tours has grown so much, and I have always loved telling the public about the cool history stuff I know! Since my tours can last up to an hour, given a couple in a day makes time feel like it’s moving pretty fast. But even with how busy we’ve been, I still had plenty of opportunities to get some work done behind the scenes too!

Straying from my regular weekly routine at Banting House, this week I got the opportunity to witness a museum process that I have never been a part of before: Appraisal. An appraisal is an opinion of value that is useful for museums to have know the value of their own collection. On Tuesday, Marvin Post from Attic Books came to Banting House to appraise selected artifacts in our collection, and I spent the morning with him as he did so I could better understand what goes into the process. I was very fascinated by the whole thing! Marvin explained to me the kinds of thing he looks for while appraising including the cost to make the object, its association with a significant person or event, and its importance and usefulness to a collection. He even gave me some tips on how to date certain artifacts and photos! Although I don’t think I’ll be jumping into the appraisal business any time soon, it is very useful to know how the process of appraisal works when you are working in a museum. Even just understanding the different ways that an artifact, archive or photo has significant value to the museum itself has furthered my understanding of the collection we manage and adds little bits of knowledge that can help me give tours to the public, especially if the items that were appraised end up on display! Whatever I use this new found understanding of appraisal on, I am thrilled to have this new experience in my museum worker’s toolkit!

As always, there was a lot more work I did this week related to collection management, social media and museum programming, but between the great tours I ran this week and the awesome opportunity to watch a professional appraiser at work, there’s not too much left to note. My internship has passed by so quickly already with so many great opportunities and experiences, and I know there are lots more to come throughout the summer! Excited to see what next week will bring!