The working life of Museum of London

The End of Project Four.

Time has seemed to speed by during this project as we packed and checked off our final objects until February next year. Saturday’s volunteer helped check off the final objects from Seal House (SH74), viewing along the way some fine iron artefacts (see below photos) By the end of the day, there was only three more boxes left from the site.

Monday’s final morning saw them work on a dreaded box from London Docks, labelled “Misc finds”. Always an excitement to open, sadly it quickly became apparent why these had been left in this box as a mixture of materials, some nice, some rusty nails, finally got placed into the standard bags we require.

Tuesday’s team culminated their experience at LAARC with 15 minutes of fame as a reporter and photographer spent time with them during their last morning. A piece is soon to be written via the Museum’s Hub and Renaissance, highlighting the spectacular effort LAARC volunteers put in. Whilst snaps were being taken, the fantastic four also completed Seal House (SH74) material, finishing the final three boxes and even working on some remaining pottery sherds from London Docks (LD74)

Wednesday morning was a chance to sit back and relax as the U3A volunteers presented some of the finest PowerPoints we’ve seen in the archive. All topics were inspired by the Shoreditch Park archive and ranged from V1 & V2 bombs, to The Lives of The Family of 32 Dorchester Street, to War Time Rations, to Crime in Wartime Shoreditch. These excellent presentations included personal photographs, original rations books, sound recordings and Powerpoints with animation.

To celebrate the achievements of VIP4, each afternoon was spent at the Museum of London itself, with special behind the scene tours, starting with the recently opened Clore Learning Centre, followed by the fascinating Centre for Human Bioarchaeology and ended with a visit to the Roman Fort Gate, beneath London Wall.

Overall, the project has seen many successes and continued to develop Inclusive Volunteering Opportunities with archaeological collections. 11 site archives have been fully audited on the Registered Finds side of the project and another length of 20+ shelves full of boxes processed on the General Finds side. The next project starts in February 2010. See you then.