Chloe Genter is a Conservation Technician at the Library of Congress, Conservation Division. This blog is written in collaboration with Cheyenne McClain, Associate Curator at The Mummers Museum in Philadelphia.
In early October 2024, I participated in the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums volunteer day event. As a Conservation Technician at the Library of Congress, I saw it as a great opportunity to contribute my skills as a museum and cultural heritage professional to such a meaningful event supporting collections care. I went into it knowing very little about the history of the mummers but was soon to learn about its very rich history, and in particular what a cultural impact the Mummers Parade has to this day in Philadelphia.
Associate Curator Cheyenne McClain said about the event:
‘The Mummers Museum was honored to be chosen as a volunteer worksite during the Mid-Atlantic Annual Meeting (MAAM) conference in the fall of 2024. The museum was opened in 1976 and we have a wide variety of collections which support our mission of preserving Pennsylvania’s oldest folk tradition. We have a variety of holdings ranging from ephemera and costuming, to musical instruments and original artworks, and more. With the assistance of about 12 volunteer participants from a range of backgrounds and experience levels, we were able to get started on some much-needed work. Most participants had no or minimal prior knowledge of the Mummers Parade or museum and we were thrilled to welcome such a talented group.
The Slide team took on the task of sorting and attempting to identify cardboard and glass slide mounts. Volunteers worked to assess the condition of, organize and repackage slides using light boxes and archival slide protector pages. They also were tasked with using their detective skills to best determine the time period of photos as well as which “division” they depicted, based on a crash-course in Mummery and clues as to what is the difference between a Wench and a Comic, or the Fancy Division versus Fancy Brigades.’
One of the highlights of the day was an enlightening tour of The Mummers Museum, led by a Mummers history expert Curator Mark Montanaro, who spoke with such knowledge and enthusiasm that he is a national treasure himself!
After communicating with Cheyenne weeks in advance and making plans, when the day came, and I arrived at the Mummers Museum the first thing to do was to assess the collection items that my team and I would be dealing with for the day.
What we had was a large collection of cardboard slide mounts and glass slide mounts, all beautiful images of brightly colored costumes and other festive images that really caught the eye. Many times throughout the day we all would just pause to look at some of these amazing photos. Unfortunately, they were not in any categorical order and that was the first thing that needed to be tackled—we certainly had our work cut out for us!
Of course, like most other small cultural institutions, the key is to work with what you have. I often think of this like that old adage ‘making lemonade from lemons.’ The first thing I established was what resources were available to us. The collection items were in much need of organizing and cataloguing and additionally needed some re-housing; even if it was only a small step, any improvement would be beneficial to the collection and would also make it more accessible to both staff and public.
We were able to tackle basic inventory which started with sorting the slides into categories by theme as we looked at them through light boxes. Some of the themes included ‘fancy’, string bands’, and ‘comics.’ Throughout the day it became an esoteric joke whenever one of us yelled out “fancy!,” as we were all both pleasantly surprised that we were saying the word so frequently, and also feeling rather proud that we could now clearly identify what a typical ‘fancy’ mummers costume looked like.
We also identified any condition issues and then placed them into their category before being housed. Once sorted, we them placed the items into improved storage using polyester sleeves and archival slide boxes.
At the end of the day, we were exhausted yet happy to have been able to organize all of the slides we were assigned to. I really felt like teamwork really did make the dream work!
It was a great reminder that having the mindset to do what you can for a project, even if it is small, will bring any collection one BIG step forward to being better cared for. It was also very rewarding to be able to help the incredibly dedicated staff that are so passionate about the history of the mummers in Philadelphia and preserving this history for the community. This is what collecting institutions are all about!
For all who are interested, volunteering efforts are amazing opportunities to learn about and preserve community history that is so integral to our country’s identity. There are thousands of small institutions like this across the country that are in need of volunteers to assist with projects just like this. Preservation Week is coming up in just a few short weeks, and many libraries, archives, and museums have events lined up. It is a great opportunity for people to explore their own local institutions and see what volunteer opportunities are out there.
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