Week 1 blog

My mentor for this internship is Kevin Sheehan who has worked as a curator at the Maritime Museum for over 18 years and has also been a lecturer at SDSU.    He has studied at the La Salle college (Australia), The Pontifical Gregorian University and the University of California obtaining a PHD in history.    Kevin is fascinated in both researching and teaching past history, he knows how to speak Italian and Portuguese, and he is a part of the Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies (ASPHS).    This week Kevin has helped teach me how to use the Maritime's Cataloglt for archiving everything within the museum and how to repair exhibits.

The mission statement of the Maritime Museum of San Diego is to serve as the community memory of our seafaring experience by collecting, preserving and presenting our rich maritime heritage and historic connections with the Pacific world.

You can see their mission statement in the knowledge provided by the staff and volunteers, the many different artifacts that they have on display and in storage that provide historic proof of past culture.    Also in the many educational programs, exhibits and tours that are available every day.

Something that surprised me the most about the Maritime Museum was how big the museum actually is.    On the main ship called the "Berkeley" is where most of the museum's artifacts and exhibits are held, it also has an art gallery, a library, and a visitable boiler room.    And outside of the main ship there are many different vessels that are accessible to museum guests that vary from normal sailboats to century old sailing ships as well as a submarine.    This past week I have worked with Kevin in the library cataloging the many different book, with some that date back to the 1800's.