Sixteen graduate students from the Museum Studies program at the George Washington University visited MCI in April to complete their final practical exams. As part of the exam, the students assisted the Collections Manager, Rebecca Kennedy, and Collections Intern, Erika Zurita, with collections registration and management. For many students, this marked their first time gaining practical experience and their first time working with a museum collection.

Students learned how to navigate and employ MCI's collection database, TMS, to catalog and inventory objects ranging from fiber samples to shark vertebra. They also participated in constructing boxes for newly acquired objects and rehoused hundreds of X-Rays and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) strips produced during past MCI research. Other tasks included preparing objects for return shipment and filing MCI project records.

One notable project, the Pigment Collection, spanned the entire month and required numbering, rehousing, and inventory of approximately 500 rare paint pigments. Thanks to the students' collaborations, the MCI collections space has progressed immensely. The Pigment Collection along with the Fiber, Leather, and Mineral Collections are now accessible to MCI staff and visiting researchers.

This project received federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative administered by the National Collections Program