Week 6: Field Trips and Reflection

 Hello Everyone!

    We are back again for another fun week. This Tuesdays meeting was a scheduled field trip to the Orange County Regional History Center and the Historic Greenwood Cemetery. As always outside of our meetings I am going over more work and have picked several more veterans folders to organize.

Our morning started by meeting with everyone around 9:50 in front of the museum. With everyone gathered we went to meet the team that would give us a first hand look into the museum, the Brechner Research Library, and a tour of the archives. When we got into the Brechner Research Library we got to see and touch real materials from the World War I and II eras that were provided by Jeremy Hileman.We were given a briefing on what the museums mission was and how they make the decision to display certain objects. When talking about the archives and the museum functions we were told that the Archives had two central locations, one that is off site and the main one in the museum. Thankfully we got a lot of time to really ask important questions that any of us had. I had the wonderful honor of speaking one on one with the Archivist there Katie Marra. She is one of the kindest people I have had the pleasure of meeting and I hope one day I may be able to work with her. I asked her about her education and what her job entailed, Would she recommend Grad school and if so, what programs were worth wild for an aspiring  archivist. I appreciated her open and honest answers and i'm glad to have learned a lot from her.
Once our time was up we followed Katie to the Archives to take a look. A very similar set up to the UCF Archives is what we were introduced to. There were many cabinets, shelves, and acid free storage boxes everything was labelled and they even have someone who specifically comes to check the temperature of the archive room.

Unfortunately we had to part with the staff, but even more fun awaited us as we were led by a docent on a tour of the whole museum. We started our tour in the Orlando Collective exhibit here are a couple pictures. these pictures are just a few of my favorites.

                              

After our walk through of the Orlando Collective we walked through many different main exhibits the museum had to offer. And as a child who grew up in the Orlando area, stepping into the old courtroom felt like a blast to the past.  Once upon a  time I was just a little girl doing the three little pigs on trial, who knew this would be where I ended up today. After our tour we hit  the gift shop and had a little picnic with everyone in Heritage Square. 

Our final  trip of the day was to the Greenwood Cemetery led by Sarah Boye. It was very enlightening, I learned so much about the history of Orlando just through the cemetery and those that are buried there. I also got to see the segregated plots that we will be laying wreaths on in December for Wreaths Across America for the soldiers buried in these plots who have been forgotten over the years. I can not wait for our next meeting and to see all the work we will be able to accomplish. Please enjoy the rest of the photos. 

Until Next Time !