9/27/2022 | Jennifer Grove, Registrar

Our volunteer Charlie is proudly showing off a win for our collections team!

This unique swing style churn and its stand were recently reunited! Until last week both items were considered to be "Found in Collection", which means they were not connected to any donor or collection. We didn't even know what the churn was!

We presented the churn as a mystery item to Charlie who went to work! His research identified the churn and he shared the results with our registrar, Jen, who went to our files and found a record for a churn that was missing! We believe the churn was accidentally numbered with the wrong Object ID (think of it like an artifact's social security number), likely at its time of acquisition in 1975. Without the correct Object ID, the ability to identify or track an artifact is lost.

Matching the churn with a record was a celebration on its own. But a few days later while working with our large artifacts, Jen spotted the churn's stand! It was labeled a Found in Collections item too (it had no Object ID!). Having viewed Charlie's research, Jen knew exactly what that funny looking mystery stand really was! The two were quickly united, both given new catalog records and were labeled with the correct Object ID.

Thank you Charlie, for your research and the many hours of work you give to our collections!

#CollectionsCorner