Service Learning Update: Hawks Inn Museum

This summer, the Material Culture Program at UW-Madison is sponsoring five undergraduate students at local historical societies and museums in the Madison area. The Summer Service Learners gain real-world work experience and put the skills they've learned in the classroom to practical use, and the host organizations receive help with projects they may not otherwise have the time, staff, or other resources to complete. In this post, Hadley Nelson describes the projects she's working on with the Hawks Inn Museum in Delafield, Wisconsin.

So far this summer I have been working on digitally recording and cataloging the many objects at Hawks Inn. I started my work with the Fireplace Kitchen room and have since then completed recording all the objects in the Fireplace Kitchen as well as in the Buttery and Hawks' Office. After I have taken all the images for each room, I then organize the pictures to correspond with descriptions that are provided by the museum's curator, Jim Babcock, in an Excel spreadsheet. From these sessions with Jim, I have learned some fascinating uses of objects as well as how people were living in the mid-nineteenth century in Wisconsin. For example, one of my favorite objects is a green chair that is easily converted into a bench that was made in 1850 (see below). 

I also really enjoy the many "make-do" objects present at the Inn. These are pieces that are a combination of two or more objects that had been broken and are now used together to create a new and beautiful piece like this old porcelain vase (below) atop a "make-do" wooden base! I have begun work in the Family Bedroom and am excited to learn about the objects in that room next.

In addition to the inventory I am helping with at Hawks Inn, I have also been working on a first person narrative. This narrative, told from the point of view of Fannie Hawks (one of Mr. Hawks' daughters), will eventually serve as a guided tour through the Inn upon completion. This project has so far taught me a great deal about the Hawks family (including fun anecdotes about their pet raccoon who acted much like a dog, learning tricks and following the family around) as well as life in Wisconsin and California (as the Hawks later moved to California) during the nineteenth century. The project is still in the drafting stage, but will be completed by the end of the summer!

--Hadley Nelson