Ashmolean Museum

Kathryn Davies, Exeter College,BA History,Final year undergraduate, Remote working

Work Projects

I spent most of the internship working on a spreadsheet containing crowdsourced data about the Hope Collection. I standardised the position locations of inscriptions and made sure the inputted inscription data was in lower case for a set number of records. I rectified common mistakes, such as the tendency to transcribe ss as fs. I also completed the Place ID column of the spreadsheet by finding the publication location of the print from the inscription data inputted by the volunteers. Finally, I completed the Associated Persons information for many records by adding any missing publishers, artists or printmakers, and I created a list of new Associated Persons and their details to be added to MuseumPlus.

Overall, this gave me a very good understanding of how the Ashmolean collects and records information about prints, and I enjoyed the organisational aspect of the task. I also researched printmakers of the Hope Collection whose records on MuseumPlus were incomplete. I received a list of names and researched all the possible printmakers that these

names could refer to. I then compared this research with the MuseumPlus records and completed the records with dates, nationality and gender, if they matched. I particularly enjoyed this task as I could view images of the prints in question online and on the MuseumPlus database.

I felt very well supported by the Print Room Managers and Head of Digital Collections at the Ashmolean during my internship. I had regular meetings weekly, if not more frequently, regarding the internship work. I had every opportunity to seek guidance and ask questions via email between these meetings. I was greatly appreciative of the opportunity to speak to many curators within the Western Art department about their experience of working at the Ashmolean, which gave me a great insight into this career path.

Daily Life

I completed a remote internship. I managed working from home by finding a suitable quiet location in my house from which to work. In selecting this location, I had to take into account the lighting in the room and the WiFi connectivity to make sure that I was able to complete my work efficiently. This was easier for me as I had taken remote exams a month earlier, and so I already had a suitable location set up for quiet study. I was able to set up a computer station to comply with DSE requirements which aided my comfort as I was working online consistently.

I was encouraged by the Print Room Managers to take regular short breaks to limit my screen time, and I did this by taking short walks around the room that I was working in. To make sure that I stuck to a daily routine, I woke up at the same time each morning allowing me to prepare before I began work. I often had Teams meetings scheduled, and so I planned my working day each morning depending on any meetings that I needed to attend. I also went for daily walks after work to make sure that I was remaining active, as I was spending much of the day sitting down.

Lasting Impressions

Despite the difficulties of remote working, my confidence in the work grew quickly thanks to the helpful guidance of the Print Room managers over video calls and email. I very much enjoyed the experience, as I was able to work with both data and people that interested me.

My digital working skills improved greatly from the internship, and I now have working knowledge of MuseumPlus which will be very useful for any future museum roles. I also felt that the curators made it possible for me to work closely with the prints, despite not being in the Print Room, via researching them online. This gave me a good idea of what the prints I was working with looked like, despite the fact that I could not view them in person.

The numerous video calls with curators gave me a great insight into the life of a curator, and particularly how varied the role is depending on the type of art/object being curated, and the type of museum. I found out about new aspects of the job that I was unaware of, including accompanying loaned works around the world and spending time on researching the collections. These insights confirmed my career ambitions, and I will be aiming to gain a curatorial role in the future.