@janbb I did Google and I would have ventured a guess alongside you but, surprise…the oldest/1st museum in the U.S. was The Charleston Museum. Founded in 1773 and opened to the public in 1824. Its collections include Natural history, local history and decorative arts and the oldest known fossil of an extinct prehistoric bird. Well..I learned something new today. :-)
And I think you all just answered a life long question I’ve been asking myself. ‘What do I want to be when I grow up?’ I think I need to go back to school and be a museum coordinator. Wholly cow.
My brother worked at the local public museum as a teenager. He got a bachelors in anthropology and then a masters in museumology (yes, they really call it that).
He’s had some really cool jobs. Through him I’ve met people who restore military jets and I’ve held (with gloves) some of the million+ years old bones of our ancestors that Dr. Leakey brought from Africa.
@cazzie Most museums have volunteer opportunities. That’s how my brother started.
The Peshtigo Fire happened the same day as the Great Chicago Fire. What’s odd is that 1,500 or more died in Peshtigo, but only 300 in Chicago, where 100,000 lost their homes.
I drive through Wisconsin a few times a year and think about the fire when I see the Peshtigo River signs.
No doubt you know. Did you live in Australia at on time, is my memory correct? The Peshtigo fire makes me think of the terrible fires in down there in recent years. People living in the country and everything for miles around is burned to bare ground. “Good morning, Earth as you know it no longer exists.”
I was in New Zealand for 15 years, not Australia, but I visited several times.
One of my relatives sent me a book ‘Firestorm at Peshtigo’ and it was a really good read. It’s lead me to put another book on my list. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Increase_A._Lapham The story of Increase Lapham sounds really good.