Imperial Valley Desert Museum Internship

The Imperial Valley Desert Museum, Ocotillo, CA

While I was attending my first Society of American Archivists (SAA) convention in San Diego this August I met a Simmons alum named Jessica Brody. She invited me to do an internship at her museum, the Imperial Valley Desert Museum, establishing an archive for the startup museum.  I thought about it for awhile, since moving to the California desert for three months had never really been in my plans, but in the end decided that it was an opportunity I couldn't afford to pass up.  How many people, especially new archivists, get the chance to be involved in building a new museum and archive?

 On September 12 I flew back out to San Diego and, an hour and a half by car later, was in Ocotillo, CA. Population: roughly 200.  Mere miles from the Mexican border and in fact, closer to Mexico than the nearest town with a grocery store here in CA. Literally in the middle of the desert.  Imperial Valley is said to be officially the second hottest place to live in the USA- beaten only by Death Valley. Temperatures ranging from 103-110 are the daily norms.  I've seen cloud cover once since arriving.  Needless to say it's a dramatic change from New Orleans, where everything is green;  let alone Lake Forest, Huntington, or Boston, where I discovered seasons and snow.  I currently live in a trailer with Jessica as my roommate, we walk over the desert ten minutes to get to the museum, and I'm learning all about hiking and desert survival.

While I am learning how the museum operates and how to take care of everything in it, my main focus will be establishing a paper archive for the museum.  The museum was originally established thirty years ago in connection with the archaeology department of the Imperial Valley College.  But the college no longer has an archaeology department and so a small board of trustees is opening the museum to celebrate local history all on their own.  What does this mean for me? It means a large number of documents that haven't been looked at in thirty years, with a lot of information connected to the IVC.  Many of the people who worked to build the museum worked with the college and I'm finding papers for them- classes they taught, archaeological surveys they performed, articles they wrote. My current job is to survey and catalog all the paperwork I find in the museum's off site storage so that I can begin deciding what will go up to the museum for conservation and more detailed organization.  It's a daunting prospect, and much more than I expected to start my career doing.  But there is a real opportunity to make a difference here and establish something meaningful.  It is truly an amazing opportunity to begin my adventure as an archivist.