A Day in the Museum

I wanted to do something constructive with my summer since the university was essentially offering zero summer classes in anthropology. In weighing my options, I decided to volunteer for the Historical Society (www.historicpensacola.org). After a couple weeks of emailing back and forth with the volunteer coordinator, we finally met and I started my post. I am starting out working the front desk three days a week at the Wentworth Museum (well, the official name is the T.T. Wentworth, Jr. Florida State Museum which I would never remember when answering the phone if it weren't painted on the wall directly in front of me). I was told it was a pretty boring post when I joined up. Since the museum is free, I don't have to run a register or anything, just give a spiel about the museum whenever anyone walks in, otherwise amuse myself with a book. But it turns out the mornings are pretty busy with upwards of 70 people coming in over a three hour period and UWF students** stopping by to hang out in colonial garb trying to avoid some other task they should be doing, such as manning the children's Discovery Gallery on the 3rd floor which is apparently a task worse than death.

The museum is in the old city hall building which is over 100 years old overlooking one of the parks in downtown and it's pretty cool if I do say so myself. It's a history museum, mostly focusing on Pensacola but also contains the collection of T.T. Wentworth who in my estimation could be described somewhere between a collector and hoarder since he acquired a mess load of really weird stuff which turns out to have its advantages. On my first day there, I learned a great way to handle children: when a kid asks "Do you have dinosaur bones, airplanes, etc?" respond "No, but we totally have a petrified cat!" and they make some sort of happy noise and then go running off in search of said flattened cat. In fact, I think if you ask anyone who grew up in Pensacola and went to the Wentworth on a school trip, the only thing they will be able to tell you about the museum is that it contained a petrified cat, I know that was I all could recall from my trips.

**One of these college students asked me if I was in high school, looks like I'll be getting carded for a few more years.