Other work

MOHAI Resource Center- Georgetown

If you read the blog, I don't blame you for thinking my life is a long string of days making fancy dinners, messing with horses and dinking around in the garden. But I do some other work, too-- I just don't write or talk about it very much. I have a new temporary job (a few hours a week) organizing a personal archive.  And then there's my volunteer gig for the last three years at the Museum of History and Industry.

The beautiful old museum building near the UW is closed and destined for demolition, and most of the offices and collections have been moved to the gray warehouse building above, in south Seattle.  I show up to work here one afternoon a week.  After so many years in the same location, Georgetown is a big change for the staff and researchers who use the museum archives.  For me, the warehouse is just a short drive from home and that's nice. But I still miss walking through the old museum displays on my way down to the basement library.  

The new MOHAI

Anyway, the dazzling new MOHAI opens late December in the trendy South Lake Union district. (Think Amazon headquarters, biotec companies, Gates Foundation, fancy condos and restaurants.)  The days of pulling up in front of the museum and parking free are over, and the beloved and funky old museum is gone. I haven't been there yet, but I'm sure the Lake Union Park setting and the high tech interactive exhibits will be just perfect for the new Seattle, especially this neighborhood.

I'm still writing archival finding aids and love it, because I can take my time, learn all sorts of strange things, and eventually have the satisfaction of seeing my work published on the Internet.  The library staff is working in overdrive for the opening, so it will probably be early next year before they have time to post the most recent ones.

I've moved on from the Seattle World's Fair to more challenging and esoteric donations-- for example, a historical collection about Puget Sound underwater cable laying operations, a scrapbook documenting the career of a successful Seattle fashion model in the 1960's, photographs of the Alki Avenue regrade project in 1900, and a wild collection about Boeing's first female engineer, who worked in vaudeville before putting herself through college.  Who would guess such good stuff is going on in this nondescript location?