Day Six and Seven: May 26th and 27th

Thursday and Friday at the museum were beautiful days. It was chilly past the lighthouse on the catwalk on Thursday, everyone on the tours wore hats and gloves to keep warm. 

During those two days we had visitors from the U.K., Texas, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Lansing MI, and Marquette. It was fun to talk to everyone and find out why they chose to visit Marquette and the Museum. There were actually two different groups from the Lansing area. One was a mother and daughter from south of Lansing on their anual trip for their birthdays, and the other was a couple. The women is a professor of nursing at Michigan State University! 

We received even more books, maps and puzzles for the museums gift shop. Friday we also finished adding some text one of the Fresnel Lenses. 

My project that I started this week is making an outline for giving a guided museum tour. I have seven pages typed so far! We do not normally give guided tours. They are only for planned visiting school groups or senior groups. I have made it to half way through the Henry B. Smith portion of the museum. I am enjoying doing this because I get to take the time to slowly read through all of the text for the museum. So far I have learned a lot about Lake Superior, the iron ore mines, birch bark canoes, standard diving apparatus, Marquette shipwrecks, and Lake Superior shipwrecks. Next week I will continue on to the Life Saving Service, the Coast Guard, Edmund Fitzgerald, Fresnel Lenses, breeches buoy life saving technique, line-throwing guns, yachting and passenger vessels, commercial fishing,  and the Cleveland Cliff company. 

[I enjoyed being able to take pictures of the lighthouse without fog!]

[A view of the Upper Harbor]

[A view of the Lower Harbor Ore Dock and the Coast Guard Station]

[The little cove next to the catwalk. I loved watching the waves crash against the rocks] 

Day Five: May 23rd

Monday was a slow day at the Maritime Museum. We had to visitors come to the museum, but they did not want to go on the lighthouse tour.

The exciting part of the day was when two boxes of books for the gift shop was delivered. We unpacked all the books, priced all of them, and placed them with the rest of the books in the gift shop.  The book that I am most excited about is The Lightkeeper's Menagerie. The middle of the book is filled with pictures of different animals at lighthouses.

Day Four: May 21st - Opening Day

OPENING DAY FOR THE MUSEUM!

The Marquette Maritime Museum is now open for the summer! Seven days a week -- 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

I learned all of the opening morning activities: where to turn on all the lights, the air conditioner/heater, vacuuming, cleaning the windows, counting the register and cleaning the bathrooms.

Our first visitor was a women from Chicago. I went up to the lighthouse with her and Bobby who gave the tour. It was very foggy, so we could not show her the Upper Harbor Light or the Lower Harbor Light. She told us that she enjoyed the tour and the museum exhibits. 

I also used the cash register and credit card machine for the first time! I am slowly learning how all of the systems work in the museum. 

Another exciting part of the day was that I gave a solo lighthouse tour on the first possible day! The man I was giving the tour to was very laid back and understanding when I had to look up the answers to his questions. He was traveling the Upper Peninsula. [After the tour he showed me his pictures of his tour through the Soo Looks from the previous day!] The tour went smoothly. I did have to ask Bobby for some help answering questions, and I did refer to my outline of the tour to remember several dates. I have a hard time talking about the boat motors in the Winch Room. The easiest part of the tour for me was talking about the U.S. Life Saving Station and facts about the Lighthouse and Fog Horn building. 

I am excited to keep giving tours, and learning more facts to add to my talk. 

Day Two and Three: May 19th & 20th

Day Two: May 19th

A group of third graders came to the museum to tour the exhibits and lighthouse. My coworker Allison and I were put in charge of organizing the gift shop and helping put up exhibits [I was in charge of making sure the signs and pictures were level!]. We filled all of the postcard stands and began to organize the book shelves. I also learned how to use the cash register and credit card machine. 

[The third grade class in line to tour the museum]

[The view of the lighthouse when walking up during a tour]

[Sign right outside the museum entrance with a torpedo]

[My boss Carrie and my coworker Bobby]

We also had a staff meeting after the class left. We talked about the rules for the employees and planned the work schedule for the week. After the staff meeting, we were done for the day because Friday was the planned cleaning day.

Day Three: May 20th

CLEANING DAY!! Friday was very busy. Allison and I dusted the entire museum, finished organizing the rest of the gift shop, priced books, found additional objects for exhibits and explored the site of the now removed Fog Horn building. Carrie, Bobby, Allison and I also carried a ships wheel to the lighthouse from the museum. As our break from cleaning the exhibits, Carrie, Allison and I watched the 8 minute video that plays as a part of the museum to confirm that it is still working [it works perfectly!]. 

[Pricing Books]

[The beautiful gift shop]

[The view of the lighthouse from the catwalk in the fog]

[Perfect photo opportunity]

 [The pretty keychain for the lighthouse keys]

[The end of the catwalk where the fog horn building used to be]

[The wheel Bobby and I carried up the stairs in the photo below, without the stand]

[There are around 50 steps up to the lighthouse]

[Allison and I had our fun while dusting the museum]

[This hat is now added to one of the museum's exhibits. You should come down and try to find it]

[Allison and I also cleaned some binoculars]

It was a very productive day. I was also able to see the storage area/collections of the museum. Later this summer I will look through there to plan some exhibits for the second floor of the museum.

Day One: May 18, 2011

My First Day At The Maritime Museum:

I am an intern at the Marquette Maritime Museum for Summer 2011. I will give lighthouse tours, work in the gift shop, work in their collections and design the exhibits for the second floor of the lighthouse.

I arrived at the museum at 10:15. I was a little confused on where I should park, and worried that the museum doors would not be open. Technically the museum does not open until this Saturday, May 21st. All went well and I made my way into the museum. Once inside, I was introduced to three other staff members that will be working this summer.

A group of second graders were scheduled to arrive at 10:30 for a special tour of the museum and lighthouse. We broke the children into two groups. I tagged along with the first group to tour the lighthouse. I have toured the lighthouse when I was growing up, but I have not been there in several years. It was exciting to see it again, and to realize that eventually I will get to give tours! While walking up to the lighthouse I chatted with several of the kids. They were all very excited to see the lighthouse, but disappointed in the weather [it was drizzling and cold].

We had some time before we switched places with the other group of children, so I asked all of them to tell me their favorite part of the lighthouse tour. It was a general consensus that the catwalk was their favorite part. [in the picture above]

After the tour of the lighthouse the groups switched places and I followed them into the museum for a guided tour. As we walked through the museum's displays, they listened and learned about:

• Native American Birch Bark Canoes
• Marquette & Lake Superior Shipwrecks
• Early Life Saving and Coast Guard History
• Edmund Fitzgerald
• Marquette’s Lower Harbor Diorama ca. 1950s
• Area Lighthouses
• 2nd, 3rd and 4th Order Fresnel Lenses
• 3-D Diorama of the Wreck and Rescue of the Maryland off Marquette’s Shoreline demonstrating the breeches buoy life saving technique used in early lifesaving.
• Line-Throwing Gun Collection
• Yachting and Passenger Vessels
• Henry B. Smith
• Cleveland Cliff Collection
• World War II McClintock/Darter-Dace Silent Service Memorial

In the World War II McClintock/Darter-DAce Silent Service Memorial room there is a usable periscope. The children seemed to really enjoy that part. When you look through the periscope you can see the lighthouse! 

I had a wonderful first day the the maritime museum and I am excited to go back in a couple hours!