Historians at Work: Museums – Alessandro di Giacomo
5th July 2024
This series of posts showcases examples of our students undertaking work experience or volunteering as part of their studies. It demonstrates the range of experiences open to them at the University of Gloucestershire, the range of possible career paths that History students have, and the transferrable skills they develop as part of their degrees. This post comes from second-year student Alessandro, who volunteered at the Holst Victorian House in Cheltenham, and the Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum in Gloucester.
At the end of March 2024, I started working as a volunteer at both the Gustav Holst Museum in Cheltenham, and the Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum in Gloucester. I joined the museums to improve my CV as well as satisfy my own intellectual curiosity, explore a possible career path, and they were fascinating experiences.
The Holst Victorian House is centred on the life and music of the music compositor Gustav Holst, and offers a glimpse into Victorian life. While there I mainly carried out front of house duties. It allowed me to develop different skills, such as relating to customers, both adults and children, and above all increasing my knowledge of the local history of Cheltenham in the Victorian era, as well as the history of music. Furthermore, I had the opportunity to collaborate in the guided tours that took place, which helped me to understand the complexities of running and operating a museum. For instance, there are countless historical facts that a museum contains, and it important to decide which are most significant depending on what the museum is hoping to achieve. I also learned a lot about the organizational structure of the organisation which was really useful.
The Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum is based on the history of all the soldiers from Gloucestershire that participated in military conflicts as part of the British army. I worked mainly behind the scenes, where my job consisted of cataloguing new materials that were donated or loaned to the museum, as well as organizing a new archiving system. For instance, I had to analyse a letter that a British soldier wrote during WWII to his wife. He assured her of his safety, affirming that he safe into a hospital and that the Germans will not bombard it. However, when she received the letter a couple of days after, the soldier had died. The hospital was attacked the day after he wrote the letter. As well as learning about how the conflict was experienced, this experience also allowed me to develop skills in archiving and in classification.
Working at the two museums with different tasks certainly broadened my skills and helped me to apply what I’m learning on the History course, especially research, as I was able to access a lot of fascinating primary sources. Furthermore, when I started I didn’t have any future goals related to museology, but now going on to postgraduate studies in this area after graduation and building a career in the museum sector are certainly clear objectives.