A Summer's Reflection

 Introduction 

    Hello all! I've introduced myself on our socials already, but never officially on this blog, so hi! I'm Abby, the summer student responsible for the last few blog posts here. I recently graduated from MUN (Memorial University of Newfoundland) with a BA honours, and I am headed back to school this fall to get my MA. This is my second summer working at Admiralty House Communications Museum, and it has once again been a blast. It's been a pretty eventful summer here in NL, between the wildfires, water shortages, and hosting the Canada Summer Games, but I can honestly say that coming into the museum for work has been the highlight of my season. I've been mostly focusing on researching and writing blog posts, but I have also been helping with the day-to-day runnings of the museum and a little bit with programming too, so I want to take the time to tell you what that's like!

 What happens behind the scenes?

    When I talk to non-museum employees about my job, a lot of them assume it is mostly giving tours (which we offer!) or waiting around to give a tour, and while tours are a huge part of the job, there is a lot else that needs to be done daily or almost daily as well. A big one that I had never thought of as important before starting here last summer is what we call bug hunts. There are a lot of insects who eat things like paper, wood, and fabric, which often make up the bulk of artifacts kept in museums, either on display or in storage, and a lot of our artifacts fall into these categories. Almost every morning, a few of us will do a quick walk around the museum, checking to see if any insects got in overnight, and removing the ones who did, to help protect our artifacts. I am terrified of bugs, most especially spiders, so this was a daunting task to me, but with all the practice, I think I've gotten pretty good at it! Another thing that us students are responsible for is cleaning the display cases. Since they house delicate objects, they cannot be cleaned with regular cleaning products or devices, so museum staff clean them as needed because we know how to be extra careful. Except for tours, I think cleaning is my favourite job to do in the museum. We also operate as the Visitor Centre for the City of Mount Pearl, so I often spend time talking with tourists, giving them directions and making suggestions for other fun things they can do while they're here. 

City of Mount Pearl Trail Map (available for visitors)

All things blog

    Like I mentioned above, my main focus this summer has been working on updating our blog and writing the most recent posts. I have found this a fulfilling, if sometimes surprisingly difficult, task. I thought because I had the freedom to pick my topics, and because I enjoy all of our exhibits, I would not have any trouble writing the blog posts, and yet, they proved somewhat challenging. I've spent so much of the last few years learning how to write for academic audiences, I've almost forgotten how to make things fun. However, I welcomed the opportunity to improve my public writing skills, and I found I quite enjoyed exercising those muscles. I also realized that writing blog posts and doing deep dives on some of the smaller aspects of our exhibits have wildly improved my tours. For example, when I talk about Hedy Lamarr during tours, I always mention how her patent ran out because the U.S Military suggested she sell war bonds instead of inventing. I did not know that because she was Austrian, or an "enemy alien," they actually seized the patent so she never could have benefitted from it regardless of it expiring. I now include that in my tours, and it helps me bond with our European visitors, who often remember Hedy better than us North Americans. I also enjoy the process of research and getting to look deeper into some of the things that are only briefly mentioned in our exhibits, and the opportunity to use Canva to design accompanying social media posts has taught me new creative skills that I believe will be helpful with any future careers in this field. All together, helping with the blog this summer has been a fascinating and fulfilling way to spend the last few months. 

Hedy Lamarr in Let's Live A Little (1948) - Wikimedia Commons

Programming, Programming and more Programming

    The last thing that fills a lot of my work days is helping out with public programming. A lot of people don't realize that museums often double as community spaces, especially small regional museums like us. While our main focus is preserving and sharing history, we also offer, host, and run a lot of public and educational programming. Getting to help prepare for and run some of our events is always a really fun part of my week. At the beginning of the summer we hosted a board game night with MUN's Boardgames Club, which went really well. I love playing board games, so getting to play them while working was delightful, as was meeting a lot of new people who ended up coming to visit the museum afterwards. We've also had a lot of school and camp field trips come to visit us since I restarted in May which is always a good, if a bit chaotic, time. Seeing the kids so excited to learn and interact with history is a fantastic feeling. We even had some of the kids come back to the museum in their own time because they enjoyed it so much, which was very heartwarming. The last bit of programming, and I think the one I have enjoyed the most, is preparing for the restart of Admiralty House's trivia series. My coworker Ally has been hard at work preparing themes and questions for our trivia events, the first of which is running at 7pm on September 29th! I've gotten to help out by testing questions and suggesting rounds about some of my favourite things, and helping with it is always the best part of my day.

September Trivia Poster

Conclusion

    So that's my recap of Summer 2025 at the Admiralty House Communications Museum. Between the daily tasks of museum work, researching and writing blog posts, and helping out with programming, it has been a busy, but highly enjoyable, few months. I have genuinely loved and looked forward to going into work each day, and I can guarantee I will be coming back as a visitor and event attendee in the future. I hope you have enjoyed this inside look into what goes on in the museum's daily functions, and that it has encouraged you to also be a future museum visitor, or maybe even employee, yourself!