Sewing Like Pioneers

After working at the Daughters of Utah Pioneer Museum for the last two weeks, I've become accustomed to the pace at which the museum works. It truly is a valuable experience to work at a museum. This museum in particular is an incredible place to work at. Everyone that works is a volunteer - even the president. The team is a dedicated, fun, loving group of individuals that spends their time creating an opportunity for families and the community members to learn about their county's history. They welcome everyone that wants to learn about the pioneers and create wonderful memories.

We had an exciting visitor come to the museum today. A reporter from the local news paper stopped by to feature us in the local news paper this coming Saturday.



The museum has a quilt that they set up in the basement. It is open for any visitor to sew on. The only ketch is that it is sewn just like the pioneers would have sewn it, by hand with a needle and thimble.



I was fun to sit down for a while in a circle working on this quilt. The reporter was there taking photos of us and asking question about the quilt and the museum. It is really entertaining to sit in a circle with the ladies at the museum that day. We had a lot of laughs and I learned so much.



One of the things that were told was the tradition of how to quilt. In the time of the pioneers when the Indians would sew a quilt they would on purpose flip a square and sew it upside down. This was a tradition in the culture that the pioneers picked up. The upside down this was a symbol that nothing was perfect except God. It was exciting to learn about the adopted tradition. 

I also spent some time on the computer learning about the research program that we have on it. There is a section of the museum that is dedicated to the finding and research of ancestral pioneers. Anyone that has an ancestor that came across the plains is welcome to come in and look up information on there family. We have stories, documents and pictures that they can look and and order if they want a copy.



I looked through the program and made myself familiar  with the system and how to use it so that I can help the visitors easily access their family information.

Tours & Meetings

Today started out with a bang. I pulled up to the Museum this morning, only to find that our first Middle school tour was already standing at the locked front gates waiting for us. They were not scheduled to come for another hour. (But that's okay we love surprises!) The team and I quickly went inside and started to unlock and turn everything on. I was sent outside to show the school kids the Miles Goodyear Cabin, while everyone else quickly got prepared for their tour.

 

The Miles Goodyear Cabin was built in 1845 by Miles Goodyear.  It was the first permanent house built by a white man in the state of Utah. Miles called it Fort Buenaventura meaning "good venture". Miles was married to an Indian woman named Pomona. Together they had two children.
James Brown later bought the cabin and the land that Miles owned for $1,950.00 in gold. The Brown family lived in it for a few years, then sold it to Amos P. and Minerva Leontine Jones Stone. The Stone family lived in the cabin eventually turning it into a black smith shop. In 1926, a Daughter from the Stone family, donated the cabin to Weber County Daughters of Utah Pioneers for preservation.  (Want to learn more?  Call and make an appointment for a tour or just walk in.)

After my tour, we split the group into two and gave them a tour of the inside of the museum. I decided to tag along and learn more about the artifacts that we have in our museum.

(Middle School taking a tour of the Daughters of Utah Pioneer Museum. )

(Some Students taking an interest in the musical instruments that the museum holds. )

After the tour was done we had a board meeting with the presidency and all the camp leaders. We went over what activities we would be putting on in the museum this summer and gave out assignments on who will be handling what. We went over our plans to draw in more visitors to the museum and much more.

(Meeting at Daughters of Utah Pioneer museum. )

After the meeting I went back to my book project. I am pleased to report that I have documented the last of the known books that have numbers assigned to them, meaning that all the books that are already in the computer system have been located.

Tomorrow,  I can start in on the next step of the project. That is to give all the books that do not have a number a number. I can then document the name of the book with the number it was assigned to, and plug in the location of where to find it. After that is done, I will organize all the books onto shelves, so that guests can easily find and enjoy the many treasures the museum has to offer.