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A glimpse at your job as MUSEUM CURATOR and how you will handle the ARCHIVES:

A museum curator is the person responsible for taking care of all of the “stuff” that the museum receives through its oral histories, archaeology, and accessions. Accessions are simply whatever people decide to donate to the museum: often the types of things that people keep in their attics for a really long time and then decide they can’t throw them out because of their historical value. Instead they decide it would be better to preserve these items for the future in our museum.

At the museum tons and tons of pictures, old written records and documents, and antique (antique means really old) objects are donated by people who have grown up and/or still live in Scottsville for use in our museum exhibits. All of these items make up the museum’s archives (the place where the collection of stuff is held, recorded, and organized). At the Scottsville Museum, the archives are held both in a special place in the museum and also in the building next to it, called the Barclay House.
Every Saturday our archivist, Rachel, comes into the Barclay House and organizes and records everything the museum has been given that week. With all of Rachel’s hard work in the archives, the museum curator can easily find everything he/she needs to put together an exhibit! It’s a lot of terms to hear for the first time, but you can see how well everything works together in the museum system.

Now, before you get started being the oral historian, archaeologist, and museum curator/archivist, you need to get better acquainted with this town and its historical landmarks. Two fun activities await you: one will give you a virtual tour of the town of Scottsville, and the other has you go on an historical adventure just like Indiana Jones! Click on the “Getting to know your town” Activity button whenever you’re ready to get your adventures started!