Hello, Mobile!
My name is Helena Stover and I am the new intern here at the History Museum of Mobile. I am working under Scotty, our History Curator, and am very excited to be a part of the HMOM team.
I'll begin by telling you a little bit about myself.
I just graduated from Auburn University (War Eagle!) back in May majoring in history and minoring in Spanish, French, and Italian.
My first love in life has always been history (my second is travel), although I didn't always realize it. I was blessed with parents who loved to travel and actually take their kid along with them, so I have been able to visit many cities and countries in my mere 21 years of age.
It wasn't until we visited Rome that I learned that I was slightly obsessed with history. Ever since, I have devoted my studies to it. Nearing graduation however, I began asking the million dollar question, "What's your next step?" And though I would guess it, I never had a good response to it.
So, in my search for "what's next," I began looking at my options. I have ALWAYS loved museums. But the truth was, I never knew what "museum work" entailed. So before running off to grad school, I decided that an internship was my best option to learn what it is I really want to do.
Being an intern here at the History Museum of Mobile has been very instructive so far. Scotty has been so nice and helpful! The entire staff really has been so welcoming. It's a pleasure coming in to work everyday. And I have already gotten to experience two events!
The first one being Hurricane Issac. Being on the Gulf Coast area, I was curious as to what we would do to protect all of our artifacts and collections. The answer: Cover EVERYTHING in plastic. And that's exactly what we did. Covered EVERYTHING in large sheets of plastic. It was all worth the hard work since we got to eat Pizza for lunch!
The second being the second annual Herstory event. Herstory is an awards ceremony and reception put on by the Museum to honor prominent women in the Mobile and Baldwin counties area. \ I must say that PR officer Daniela and Scotty, and everyone else involved, did a phenomenal job! I enjoyed helping write the biographies for the honorees and learning about all of these women's accomplishments. During the actual event, I helped welcome in the honorees and guests and handle tickets. And finally, I was given the opportunity to bar tend for the first time ever; and it was a crazy, hectic blast!
Currently I am working on the new Caldwell Delaney collection. Going through and organizing boxes into separate folders. My very own first introduction to archival work :)
Till next post!
-Helena Stover
