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An Artifact's Point of View: Getting Ready for Class

  • Post Date: 3/17/2025
  • Author: Jen Grove, Collections Storage Coordinator
  • Reading Time: 4 minute read

What does your routine look like to get ready for class? Perhaps a morning of getting dressed, breakfast, coffee, gathering your belongings, and heading out the door! But what does a museum artifact go through to get ready for a university class? Check out this video to see what an artifact sees during this process!

Quite a journey, right?

Each step from artifact storage to university class supports our mission and core values to provide engaging experiences and be responsible stewards for the artifacts and belongings in our care at Spurlock. Let’s go through each step and meet the students and staff that help make this possible.

Coordinating With Instructors

Our Manager of Academic Programs, Abigail Padfield-Narayan, coordinates with professors, faculty, and staff from across the university. She discusses with them the topics and themes of their course, and how our exhibitions and collections can supplement university students’ learning experience. Our most common class visits include a gallery tour or a presentation of artifacts, some even include a hands-on component.

  • two women standing in front of a class of students, with a table of artifacts
    Abigail Padfield-Narayan (left) and Betsy Bevis, Lecturer of Classical Civilization and Archaeology (right), lecturing in front of a class

Over the past 5 years, our academic programs have increased from about a dozen per semester, to over one hundred classes visiting the museum each semester! Fall 2024 was our busiest semester yet, we had 122 classes visit, including 22 artifact labs that featured 308 artifacts—all of which went through the process described here.

  • three students sitting at a table with artifacts, holding magnifying glasses and inspecting them closely

Cleaning with Collections Staff

For class visits featuring artifacts, Abigail works with our Collections staff to select artifacts that are appropriate and stable enough to be presented and discussed in each class.

The list is assigned to a Collections Artifact Preservation Assistant student employee who then retrieves the artifact from its home in the Artifact Preservation Center.

  • Collections assistant at a shelf of artifacts, holding one in his hands

The Artifact Preservation Center is a dedicated collections storage area where artifacts are cared for in a secure, clean space that promotes long-term preservation. Since removing an artifact from its home in storage inherently puts a small amount of stress and risk on the artifact, we aim to complete as many tasks as possible during each ‘outing’, minimizing future handling of the artifact.

The artifact is then cleaned with brushes, tweezers, air bulb, and sometimes a vacuum. Collections students also write a detailed condition report of the artifact. Think of this report as a word-picture of the artifact’s physical components and their condition at this exact time.

  • Collections assistant holding a small brush and cleaning an artifact

Processing with Registration Staff

Next, the artifact goes to Registration. Here students focus on the record keeping and intellectual content associated with the artifact. Processing tasks in Registration include writing a visual description, determining the materials an artifact is composed of, and measuring its size and weight. Students then research the artifact’s country or region of origin, cultural connections and significance, and ensure the database contains all associated history of the artifact.

  • Student wearing an apron and holding a measuring tape up to an artifact, with a student on the computer behind him

Next, the artifact heads to the photo booth with a photography student! High resolution, detailed photographs help students and staff identify artifacts and capture the exact condition of the artifact at this moment. These photographs are also posted in our online database on the website, providing community members and scholars worldwide visual access to our collections.

  • Student holding a camera, photographing an artifact that is inside a black box that is lit up brightly inside

Setting Up for Classes

Our artifact has spent between one to two weeks traveling across the museum and is now ready to meet new people!

  • Empty classroom with a long table of artifacts in the front and chairs facing the table

Before a class arrives, Collections and Education staff set up the Community and Collaboration Gallery to match requirements such as class size, presentation styles, artifact needs, or additional class activities. Students from across disciplines arrive for their class and are led through an exploration of each artifact presented. Our educators encourage participation and often lead students through inquiry base learning. Small and detailed artifacts such as coins or manuscripts are displayed on a television thanks to a magnifying app on an iPad. Larger, stable artifacts are sometimes carried by trained staff around the classroom, giving audience members a closer look.

  • woman carefully holding an artifact in her hands in front of students

At the end of class students are invited to come forward and spend a few minutes up-close with the artifacts and ask questions. After class, all artifacts return to their home in the Artifact Preservation Center where they can rest comfortably after all that activity!