St. Joseph Museums staff focuses on collections

Interim director Jackie Lewin recalls the strong suits of past directors, but says there`s still room for improvement. "When the museums started under Roy Coy, he was setting up a museum and his main focus was exhibits, because that`s what he had to do to get ready to open the museum," Lewin says. "During the time of Rich Nolf, one of the things that he really liked to emphasize that he did was that he cared for the collections." The 2003 Conservation Assessment of the St. Joseph Museum called for changes--changes like checkpoints for those looking at locked collections--and the interim director says that change has been made. "When someone goes into collections, first of all, the area would be alarmed, so you would have to have the key to unset the alarm to get in there," Lewin says. "When you go in, we have a clipboard with a record on it, where you have to sign your name, what time you came in, what time you left." Curator Sarah Elder says the system fell by the wayside for most of 2005, and that it was her responsibility to fix it. She says she did that in January 2006 by adding a strict sign-in sheet. But all the security in the world won`t protect artifacts from Mother Nature. That`s why the assessment recommended the museum take control in another way. Outside the Wyeth-Tootle Mansion, artifacts are still stored in a carriage house, where Lewin says two-thirds of the upstairs is air-conditioned. But she says humidity stays fairly constant inside and the artifacts kept there are ones that can stand the temperature change. Still, Lewin says her goal is to get those artifacts moved to the Facility on Frederick where she says they`ll have better climate control.