Week #4: From Russia with Love

            This week I have been neck-deep in books, but through hard work and dedication I have begun to see the light at the end of it all. The center of my workroom has boxes everywhere that I have made it through, but I still have the Civil War books to get though, which is another five or six boxes. It is not that I am dreading the work, I just want to make sure I get it all done in a timely fashion. The work can be mind-numbing at times though. All I do is open the front of each book and find out the basic information like the title, author, publisher, and date it was printed. While it can get stale after a while, I do enjoy the work environment. Straight out of the window next to me is the city plaza building. On the top of which is a construct built to resemble a sail catching wind, very appropriate for the kind of books I’ve been going through.

Me holding a copy of Jack Friend's West Wind, Flood Tide: The Battle of Mobile Bay

My co-workers also keep work interesting with our occasional talks on comic books or movies. Tonya works in the same room as me and she is going through a collection of Mardi Gras, and diseases and disaster newspaper clippings. She stops occasionally to share something interesting she reads, like just now we stopped to talk about the large amount of deaths by yellow fever in the late 1800’s around the area (super happy, fun topics like that). People should keep more newspaper clippings on dog shows, or cute baby pictures, that would be a nice break in the action. I also appreciate my co-workers for keeping me from becoming socially awkward in the course of a workday. In this job, it would be easy to go the entire day without talking to anyone, so I might forget how to “people.”

Week #3: Age of Ultron

            This week I was able to complete my book culling, which in itself could be made into a great epic poem, but there is no rest for the weary. Now I am tasked with taking all of the books that are being recommended for deaccessioning, putting them in order by subject, and then taking the different groups and putting them in alphabetical order by author’s last name. My brain was effectively turned to mush. I said the alphabet in my head enough to make Elmo throw up. Jack Friend was pretty honed in on certain subjects, so the vast majority of his books either fit in Civil War, ships, or World War II. There were those rare instances where I was stumped; he had quite a few books that were about a single event that did not seem to tie into anything else, such as Nicholas and Alexandra, a novel about a Russian tsar. I mean, I love a good historical love story as much as the next guy, but that just isn’t a very strong genre (sorry Titanic).

            I wanted to start with the deaccessioned books because it will give me a chance to practice before moving onto the larger scale of books that we are keeping. We probably kept three times as many books as we will be donating to the library. Next week I will begin typing up the actual list of books that are being considered for deaccession, time to brush up on my Turabian!

Week #2: The Empire Strikes Back

            This week started off with sorting the Jack Friend collection of books, which is no small task. In fact it has taken me all week and I will need another day to spend on it next week. So there is really not much I can offer in the ways of an update. Book culling can be very interesting, especially when looking through a collection of books as varied as the one Jack Friend had. He had books from the dawn of man, all the way up through present day. Due to the majority of his work being on the Battle of Mobile Bay, he has an enormous amount of books on ships and the Civil War. It is astounding to me the amount of research that went into this book. Binders upon binders of research notes, books as broad as A Brief History on Sailing, to books as specific as Letters to Amanda.

My job is to sort the books into three sections; rare, keep, and recommend for deaccession. What makes a rare book? Anything written before 1900, first edition books, signed books, and books that are just hard to come by. Books worth keeping? Anything that has to do with Mobile, or really anything Alabama/Gulf Coast related. Book recommended for deaccession are overly broad, not specific enough to this area, or is not scholarly in its research and presentation. We try and keep all of the books that people may need when doing research for any topic pertaining to Mobile. Museums are kind of like professional hoarders, but we hoard all of the awesome stuff like old books and military weapons.

Check out my own work desk! From humble beginnings…

Week #1: There and Back Again

Hello all! My name is Kendon Hughes and I am the most recent intern for the summer expedition at the History Museum of Mobile. It has already been such a blast and an adventure!

Before I get into these summers festivities I should introduce myself. This fall, I will begin my senior year of college at the University of Mobile where I am studying History Education. I was born in Lakeland, Florida, but grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, (and yet somehow a love for country music never manifested itself in my heart). I moved to Mobile five years ago when my dad took a teaching position at UM. I enjoy long walks on the beach, candlelit dinners, and smooth jazz.

The very first thing I got to do while representing the museum was to go on a donation pick-up. The house we visited was filled with electrical equipment. Several items having to do with local history were donated to the museum, which were great finds. My great find for the day was the previous owner’s medals he received each year he did not suffer an injury with Alabama Power. Thankfully, for him, only one year was missing.

After the excitement of the donation pick-up, I was tasked with assisting in the construction of shelves for all the books given to the museum by the late Jack Friend. Now that the work is finished (I sustained only minor injuries to my hands and pride – power drills are tricky). I am ready to begin traversing the magnificent collection of works Jack Friend accumulated over the years. The Jack Friend collection is a monster that will take weeks to slay, but with my senses honed and wits sharpened, I may just emerge victorious. Culling begins next week, wish me luck!