Three Mummified Mice

You know you're famous when . . . mice found in the walls of your home are mummified and put in a museum collection. Abraham Lincoln was indeed famous. :-) Today we had a really fun day going up to Springfield again for our Collections Care class. We got to go on a behind-the-scenes tour of Abe Lincoln's house, and the curator there even showed us the special collections stored out behind the home. It was here that we saw the three mummified mice: Abe, Mary, and Eddie. The mice were discovered in a nest in the walls of the Lincoln home back in 1874 and, since by that time Abraham Lincoln had become a national icon, the mice had to be saved--because anything and everything having to do with him was important. Honestly, the three mice didn't look like mice anymore, but that's okay--it was still funny. It was really cool to see where they store everything and to see all of the cleaning and artifact care procedures they use there at the park. We also got to go on a special tour of the Old State Capitol building (where we cataloged artifacts last week), as well as the Vachel Lindsay Home State Historic Site. None of us knew who Vachel Lindsay was, but we learned that he was one of those famous poets from the early 1900s. Our main topic of discussion today was "agents of deterioration." We learned about all of the different things that can damage collections and how to prevent that from happening. It was all very interesting. Did you know that dust particles are sharp and can actually scratch the surface of things? I didn't realize that dust particles were all that complex. My classmate Angie and I loved seeing the park rangers at Abe's house today. We both miss being park rangers! Well, I'm off to do some homework. I love our field trips to Springfield!