Today was productive, but really tiring. Last week, I scheduled a meeting for today (during my so-called "free-time"*) with State Parks to drop off a bunch of Southwestern pottery that we have had on permanent loan for a zillion years. I think it's been at my institution since the later 60s, possibly earlier. No one seems to be really certain. The original loan form (on their end--I had not previously seen this particular paperwork) said "[____] City College. When we (my university) was created as a College back in the mid-20th century, we initially shared space with ___ City College, which had a pretty robust archaeological program in the 30s through 50s. The vigor of that program then moved to my place when we got our own campus a few years into our existence. Some of the City College collections even came to us (both initially--and then later through a bequest by the descendants of one of the shady characters affiliated with that program). So, I'm not sure what the original disposition of these objects really was. Were they originally owned/collected by City College, who then gave them to State Parks, who then gave them on permanent loan to us? OR maybe the State Parks paperwork says City College incorrectly--and these objects were really loaned to us waaay back when we were housed on that campus and the lenders (State Parks) didn't really differentiate the two institutions. Who KNOWS??? I was glad that their paperwork was equally devoid of dates for this loan transaction. Gah. Everything was so cozy back then between the handful of people and institutions who "did" anthropology and museums in my little neck of the woods. Artifacts circulated rather casually along some rather interesting corridors; professionalization of the museum field was not even a twinkle in the eyes of any of these guys. (And, oh yes, indeed--they were ALL guys.) One thing I did come away with is a more extensive list of ceramics covered in this loan. Since CLE wasn't able to connect a bunch of our SW collection to this loan (despite catalog numbers that would seem to verify their relatedness), I can now get another 25 or so objects out of our repository. Woohoo. Ninety today, another 30 tomorrow. Space is always at a premium.
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Once I got done at the State's repository, I went by IKEA to pick up another hanging file frame. My mom called while I was there and kept me on the phone for oh..., 45 minutes. When she finally hung up, I went in search of the rolling file system I use in my study only to discover that it has been discontinued. DAMN!! I am so disappointed because these work so well for having archival docs at the ready. Then I stopped by Home Depot on the way back to campus to look for a new battery pack for my Ryobi drill. Struck out again. Have to buy that size on-line. Back on campus, I made photocopies of all the documentation (new and old) for the terminated loan and filed that away. Took MP2 to Whole Paycheck with me and bought some stuff for a late, late lunch. Came home to the much needed AC (geez it was hot today) all ready to eat it. Then, almost on cue, my mom called again (only 15 minutes this time). She had finally picked up her birthday present and wanted to talk about that (and all the stuff I already heard from her while I was at IKEA). Doesn't sound like an exhausting day, but it was. By 4 pm I was brain dead. Maybe tomorrow I'll get some of my stuff done.
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*Even I was wondering what possessed me to make this appointment during the summer. And then I remembered--last week when retiring faculty person was in to pack up the olde office (4 years later than similarly-retiring colleagues on parttime withdrawal), I realized the boxes of SW artifacts were still sitting on the flat bed hand-truck down in the repository and this fact might become a stumbling block for completing the move out of new colleague's office (i.e. "Oh you're using the flat bed--I'll move NEXT year." THAT's when I scheduled the delivery for this week--so the hand truck would be available for retiring colleague's moving-pleasure).
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