Some have happy endings, some are bittersweet... and if not me, who keeps our legacies?
Know that age old quest of searching for the perfect job or place that makes you completely happy - finding your niche?
I'm fairly confident I've found mine. Today, in my special collections class, we got to look at original copies of John Milton's "Paradise Regain'd". And I saw a $100,000 original copy of Darwin's "Origin of Species". I was speechless. Last week, in my archival representation class, we discussed our 40 hour projects for the semester. I got to go to the Caroliniana library the next day and see the collection I'm working with. It's of Louis Collier, a lesser known actress in the Golden Age of Hollywood. I'm so excited... and just being in the Caroliniana was incredible. It was the original campus library, and it just felt right. It smelled right, looked right... everything was perfect. I was surrounded by priceless books, shelves and shelves. Heaven, plain and simple.
It hit me, after talking with Beth who is helping me with my project, that I've basically been archiving and preserving things since a young age. I don't know why I started, but I think something along the lines of wanting to be remembered and leaving behind some sort of record of who I was got me going. I didn't want to disappear after I died. I wanted people to know who I am, beyond the basics. I have folders of various drawings and writings from my preschool and elementary days, and not because my mom wanted me to keep them. They are my folders, then starting in middle school, I began saving all my notes from friends, any mementos from the years as well as what I have since learned is called ephemera. This was when I started chronicling my doll house stories (I have several notebooks full of different story lines and the characters names and placement of furniture. The details are ridiculous). In high school, I started sorting the mementos into boxes **American Eagle shoe boxes, go figure :)** and then decorating the outside of those boxes with various cut outs from magazines from each year. Each box reflects who I was at the time, and when I'm home this weekend I'll have to take pictures of them or something.
I just found it really neat that I've been preserving and archiving my own life, and somehow, it's a job in the real world. I never would have guessed. I'm so happy to have found a niche. I've always loved libraries and history, and somehow managed to find the job that combines the two. It makes for one happy Amber :)
I'm fairly confident I've found mine. Today, in my special collections class, we got to look at original copies of John Milton's "Paradise Regain'd". And I saw a $100,000 original copy of Darwin's "Origin of Species". I was speechless. Last week, in my archival representation class, we discussed our 40 hour projects for the semester. I got to go to the Caroliniana library the next day and see the collection I'm working with. It's of Louis Collier, a lesser known actress in the Golden Age of Hollywood. I'm so excited... and just being in the Caroliniana was incredible. It was the original campus library, and it just felt right. It smelled right, looked right... everything was perfect. I was surrounded by priceless books, shelves and shelves. Heaven, plain and simple.
It hit me, after talking with Beth who is helping me with my project, that I've basically been archiving and preserving things since a young age. I don't know why I started, but I think something along the lines of wanting to be remembered and leaving behind some sort of record of who I was got me going. I didn't want to disappear after I died. I wanted people to know who I am, beyond the basics. I have folders of various drawings and writings from my preschool and elementary days, and not because my mom wanted me to keep them. They are my folders, then starting in middle school, I began saving all my notes from friends, any mementos from the years as well as what I have since learned is called ephemera. This was when I started chronicling my doll house stories (I have several notebooks full of different story lines and the characters names and placement of furniture. The details are ridiculous). In high school, I started sorting the mementos into boxes **American Eagle shoe boxes, go figure :)** and then decorating the outside of those boxes with various cut outs from magazines from each year. Each box reflects who I was at the time, and when I'm home this weekend I'll have to take pictures of them or something.
I just found it really neat that I've been preserving and archiving my own life, and somehow, it's a job in the real world. I never would have guessed. I'm so happy to have found a niche. I've always loved libraries and history, and somehow managed to find the job that combines the two. It makes for one happy Amber :)