Recently as part of my internship with Greeley Museums I had the opportunity to assist moving three of the Meeker letters, currently on display at the Greeley History Museum. The letters are part of a collection long ago saved from the dumpster by a little boy who was mostly interested in collecting the stamps. It is a collection of letters sent to Greeleys founder Nathan Meeker, requesting that they and their family be allowed to join the utopian society Meeker was establishing here. The letters were to be moved from the Greeley History Museum to the Meeker Home for the Founders Day event. My background is graphic design rather than museum sciences so to me it sounded like moving three letters would be a fairly simple task, however it was a much more involved process than I imagined. The first step took the exhibits team to the Meeker Home Museum to plan where the display case would be placed. It was decided that the best place would be in the front parlor in front of the fireplace.

The plan for how to pack and move the letters was devised by Assistant Curator of Exhibits, Nicole Famiglietti. I was in charge of photographing the move and taking notes. I learned a great deal about how artifacts are handled; keeping in mind that these items are part of a shared community history and preservation is of the utmost importance.

On the date of the move we had to disassemble the display case which involved the use of some specialty tools to remove security devices, and a pretty nifty set of suction cups with handles, very 007, to remove the Plexiglas top of the case. Our first goal was to avoid damage to the letters; the second goal was to protect the exhibit mounts from being damaged. The letters in their acrylic display stands were clamped at the base with exhibit clips to ensure that the letters did not shift in the stands during transport. With nitrile gloved hands the letters and stands were carefully packed in exhibit boxes with layers of ethafoam (a non-off gassing soft material). The exhibit box was transported through the museum on a cart to avoid jarring the letters. A separate cart was used to transport the base of the display case.

Once in the cargo bay we transported the case and letters to the van using the cargo lift which was very exciting, and required traffic barricades. We used the massive hydraulic lift to take the items out of the museum. The van was then carefully loaded, and the items transported to the Meeker Home.

Once we arrived, care was taken to move any artifacts that might impede access to the letter; a set of fire tools needed to be relocated as well as one of the chairs. Great care was also taken to move these items, using two people despite their light weight handling items like the chair from underneath the seat, where it is most stable. The box with the letters was carefully carried inside; the exhibit case was set up in front of the fireplace as previously determined. Nicole and Holly Berg carefully unwrapped the letters, removed the clips and set up the display in a similar fashion to the way it had been set up at the Greeley History Museum, ensuring that both the fronts and backs of the letters could be viewed. Before placing the plexi-glass top back on the display case and securing it, it was cleaned with acrylic cleaner and then secured to its base with security screws. We then placed the display descriptions on the outside of the case with blue tack adhesive  measuring from the top and using a level to make sure they were displayed straight and level and lined up with each other.

The letters were only scheduled for the one day event, so afterwards the whole process was repeated in reverse to move the letters back to the original location at the Greeley History Museum. I had a lot of fun while getting a new appreciation for the handling of artifacts and what goes into creating exhibits in a museum.

Written by: Kristine Nigl, Greeley Museums Intern, University of Northern Colorado

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