The New and Improved May Weber Collection

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together."

~Vincent Van Gogh

After waiting for over a year, the May Weber Collection is finally moving to its permanent home!!!! Dr. Nichols and the rest of us are thrilled to now be in a bigger space with better storage. We're still in the process of bringing objects from the old rooms to the new rooms, but hopefully it won't take too long with the team of current and alumni interns to help Dr. Nichols.

Goodbye, old rooms!!

That being said, this change of rooms is only one major shift in a series of smaller ones over the past year. The landscape of the collection has changed a lot since it first arrived at Loyola. I've written before about how it has changed since the summer, but even since the last semester it isn't quite the same room. The collection is a work in progress, so change is simply part of its existence for the time being.

This is what the collection looked like in August, right before classes began for the year. It was the end of the summer, so many of the boxes had been moved and there was room to work (without getting lost in the labyrinth of boxes). On the table, I had just begun sorting the books. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of the room at the beginning of the summer, but back then the boxes covered the space from the table to the windows. It really was a "cardboard jungle."

This is what the collection looked like on its very last day in its 8th floor location. Lots of objects are out of their boxes because students have been working with them, and the photo studio is still set up in the back corner. Since August, more tables have been added and many of the boxes were moved to the storage room across the hall. The books we finished sorting at the beginning of the fall semester are organized by geographical region in the stacks of boxes on the right.

This is the new room before the cabinets and shelves arrived. It will be used only for storage; the connected room will be used for research and preservation work.

 We've begun filling the new cabinets with artifacts!!!! Yay for proper storage!!!!

The new rooms are wonderful because first and foremost they allow us to more fully properly care for and preserve the artifacts. Specially designed cabinets are better storage solutions than cardboard boxes because they are much sturdier and will be more accessible to us. It's far safer (for us and the artifacts) to look for objects by pulling out drawers instead of lifting and rummaging through boxes. We even put the books on shelves, so no more moving boxes while doing research!! Another great feature of the new space is that there is a separate room for storage and a separate room for working on objects. While technically our space was divided like this with the old rooms, our workspace was surrounded by objects in storage and consequently kind of cramped. Once we're done moving objects, this is going to be one incredible place to work.  

Now that the May Weber Collection has been moved into its new space, it is far less of a "Cardboard Jungle." It actually resembles collections in larger museums, like the Field Museum. While I'll miss its wild charm, this change really is for the benefit of the collection as much as it is an improvement for those of us working there. 

Thank you for reading, and stay tuned for the continuing adventures from the new and improved Cardboard Jungle!!!!