This summer the museum welcomed Holly Taylor as a summer intern. To thank her for all of her hard work, we wanted to honor her as our Volunteer of the Month! Holly is a former teacher and current PhD student at CU Boulder. She lives in the Old North End with her husband, a local architect, and her son, a junior in high school. Her daughter is currently a junior at Texas A&M University. This summer, Holly received a scholarship from CU Boulder supporting an internship, so she reached out to the museum. Holly had previously worked in the archives in 2015 as part of an internship for her MA in History from UCCS.
During her internship, she worked as part of the collections team to prepare collections storage and exhibit spaces for HVAC construction. The team, lead by Registrar Caitlin Sharpe and Archivist Hillary Mannion, consisted of Holly along with Museum Technician Alex Archuleta, intern Diana Del Valle, and Peyton Walters, a UCCS work study. The work that the collections team did was both removing collections from storage spaces and exhibits impacted by construction as well as in setting up temporary spaces for collections at the museum. This work began prior to construction even began so that select spaces could be ready to go as soon as the museum closed to the public.
As part of the team, Holly assisted with moving Indigenous artifacts into a new safer permanent storage space, making sure to carefully handle each object and note the location. In addition, she took part in several move days to relocate collections from areas impacted by construction to storage at the museum’s offsite storage. The team brought artifacts, such as rolled textiles and large furniture to offsite storage that will be permanently housed there. To protect artifacts remaining at the museum, Holly worked with other members of the team to assemble shelving units in temporary spaces where artifacts could be protected during construction and later placed artifacts on these shelves. The team further protected these collections by covering these shelves and cabinets with Tyvek and/or plastic. Finally, to clear spaces for construction, Holly and other team members deinstalled shelving units.
“The internship was a valuable experience for museum studies; each artifact was handled with extreme care and attention. Watching the museum prepare for a necessarily intrusive construction project while meticulously caring for each artifact was enlightening. The attention to detail reflects the care the museum staff has for the displays, exhibits, and the Pikes Peak region. Overall, this internship was a perfect experience to understand how museums work and operate, from artifact and document care to seeing the work that goes into exhibit construction (and deconstruction!). Many thanks for the friendships made and the experience!”
We really appreciate all of Holly’s hard work this summer and wish her all the best as she continues her education at CU Boulder.