Guest Blog by Hannah Nguyen ’27
This winter, I had the opportunity to work with the coolest museum I’ve ever set my eyes on. I’ve worked in my fair share of museums from fine art institutions to local historic houses to natural history museums, but none match up to the straight-up wonder I experienced at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation. The building itself felt so alive and loved by the people constantly working to improve it.
Before this winternship, I had actually volunteered at the museum last summer learning about watches and clocks from the other volunteers (shout out to Jon Currier!). Since high school, I have been deeply interested in horology and the mechanics behind timekeeping. I’ve always been fascinated on how these tiny structures can produce so much power and work together to measure something so accurately and precisely. Being able to examine these objects so up close and learn their history was so incredibly rewarding.
During these three weeks, I worked closely with Lain Orndorff on revamping the watch gallery (specifically for Waltham Watch Company) upstairs and beginning the process of a complete redesign. This included cleaning display cases and wiping off the years old dust, giving the pieces its well deserved care and attention. There was a huge amount of documentation when it came to figuring out what was in each case, what was in the “WayBack”, or what was in the big working bench downstairs. There was also designing and creating schematics to figure out what a better layout could look like and what pieces should be prioritized. On the last day, we even found missing watch movements that had been displaced for years!
The amount of enthusiasm from the entire team (particularly Steve Guerriero and Joe Niedbala) made me feel as though I could show interest in anything and everything I set my eyes on. It felt like everyone showed up for not just the work but for each other and the warmth truly made me feel so happy to be working at the Charles River Museum.
I am deeply thankful to Steve for welcoming me into the museum over the summer and allowing me to continue as an intern this winter. This experience has shown me what a collaborative and truly alive museum looks like. This has been an amazing time, I’ve gained an amazing community, and I hope to visit again and again in the future.
