Office of Exhibits Central

Interview with Robert Perantoni, OEC Exhibits Specialist in Fabrication

Q: Can you describe what you do here at OEC?
A: When I first started at OEC, I was an exhibits specialist for years on the bench. I built display cases, ran moldings, and occasionally helped with crating. Over the years, I acquired administrative duties and after a series of leadership changes, I became the acting Fabrication unit supervisor in April 2003. Last year I was reassigned, returning to the bench part-time while continuing to perform some administrative tasks and working installations.

Q: How long have you been working at OEC? How did you get started here?
A: I have been at OEC since April 1984. I started in a three-month position that has led to twenty-four years of work. My first project was the crating of Treasures of the Smithsonian Institution, a traveling exhibit that opened in Scotland. Several OEC staff got to work on the installation in Edinburgh!

Q: What kind of training did you have before coming here?
A: I actually received my B.A. from the University of Vermont in geology. After several years of tech work at the U.S. Geological Survey, I started helping a friend on weekends in his high-end antique restoration shop in Purcellville, VA. This part-time effort turned into a four-year full-time job, which prepared me well for my SI position. It’s interesting how many OEC people formally studied something other than what they’re doing now. Many of us have “fallen into” our positions.

Q: What is your favorite part of the job? The most challenging?
A: I enjoy the variety of tasks I do here. There is always something different that I’m working on, which keeps life interesting. I’d say the commute is the hardest part; there’s really nothing I dislike about the job per se.

Q: Have you had a favorite project so far?
My favorite project was an installation we did in 1987 at the National Museum of American History for Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) called Hollywood: Legend and Reality. The exhibit featured famous movie props, including Sam’s piano from Casablanca, a miniature King Kong used to film the original movie, the alien spaceship model from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Marilyn Monroe’s billowing dress from The Seven Year Itch. That was a fun project!

Interview with Janette Pitts, OEC Management Service Specialist

Q: What exactly does a management service specialist do?
A: Another way of describing my position would be an “administrative officer” or “office manager.” Basically, I manage the office.

Q: What kinds of responsibilities does managing an office include?
A: I process personnel actions such as hiring and terminating staff, updating staff personnel files, writing position descriptions, and setting up training for staff. Timecards, travel requests, and purchase orders are all processed through me. I provide services to all of OEC staff and clients within and outside of the Institution. I work closely with a variety of offices in the Institution that handle staff and financial affairs. My goal is to provide excellent customer care to all of OEC staff and clients by making sure their needs are met to their expectation in a timely manner.

Q: How long have you worked at OEC and why did you decide to start working here?
A: I’ve been working here since 1996. I started out as a management support assistant. A friend who was working here told me that OEC needed some help. They contracted me to work with them for thirty days. Somewhere along the line, those thirty days turned into twelve years of employment!

Q: What kind of training and/or experience did you have before coming to OEC?
A: I worked at a large health insurance company for twenty-three years prior to coming to the Smithsonian. There I worked as an enrollment specialist, claim processor, unit leader, and customer service representative. I have had various training in leadership skills, how to manage time and people, the federal policy and regulations pertaining to procurement, travel, and many other topics.

Q: What is your favorite part of the job?
A: I love working with people. In my job, I spend a lot of time working with the staff of OEC. Also, I get a behind-the-scenes look at how exhibits come together prior to being put on display in a museum.

Q: What is a challenge you have had to face?
A: One challenge is adjusting to changes as they come down through the Institution and communicating those changes to the staff. Changes startle some people, so my job is to reassure and assist staff as they adapt to the changes.

Interview with Harry Adams, OEC Specialist in Artifact and Exhibit Packing

Q: What do you do here at OEC?
A: I make sure that the various parts of exhibits, including artifacts, are packed safely and securely. I design, layout, and build the crates that will be used to pack exhibits for travel.

Q: Have you had a favorite project so far?
A: I once had to figure out how best to pack an 8-10 inch sandpiper. The box I made folded up around the bird like a lily and supported the body from underneath. Then I made a cap that went on top to secure everything.

When I had just started working at OEC, I impressed my supervisor by finding an innovative way to pack a set of powder-filled glass vials that were placed upside-down into a board. George Washington Carver made this display in order to hold some of the compounds he had synthesized. Instead of just cavity packing it (embedding it in foam), I made a box with a double box lid similar to a tackle box or doctor’s satchel. The bottom plate holding the vials sat embedded in foam in the bottom of the box and the two parts of the lid closed around the vials, giving them support.

Q: Your most challenging project?
A: The First Ladies exhibit was challenging because it required packing many different types of artifacts. We built crates with foam-filled drawers in order to handle the variety of objects. The crates were so nice they almost could have been furniture!

Q: What is your favorite part of your job?
A: Besides the variety of projects that I get to work on, I enjoy finding solutions to the challenges of artifact packing. It is always challenging because the objects vary so much, from large to very delicate.

Q: How did you get started in this business?
A: I graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in Philosophy, but I took several courses in woodworking for fun while I was in college and high school. After college, I was apprenticed at a cabinet shop and then I got a job teaching woodworking for a couple of years. When I came to OEC in 1990, I was assigned the specialty of packing where I joined a team with two other packers. Here, I received my initial training. Now, I am the only packer and I do roughly the same amount of work as all three of us did before.

I’ve taken several graduate courses at George Washington University in registrarial work (caring for museums), and several courses given by the Smithsonian in packing and artifact care. I also look at what other packers do to see what works and what doesn’t.

Interview with Howard Clemenko, OEC Mountmaker

Q: Can you describe the first things you consider when making a mount?
A: Well, the first thing we say is, “Oh, I can’t do it!” (laughs) No, the first thing we need to know is whether the object we’re mounting is a prop or an artifact. An artifact is an object that is or will be accessioned. These are given a number and put into or are already a part of a permanent collection. If it’s an artifact, we have to make a mount that will protect and preserve it. If the object is a prop, then almost anything can be used to mount it. We usually don’t need to worry about destroying it because it won’t be used afterwards. Then, depending on what type of environment the object will be in, the look the client wants, and the support the object needs, we work on fashioning a mount.

I use “we” because I make mounts with the help of other people. Everyone in the model shop at OEC is capable of making mounts and some people bring valuable experience in certain types of mount making to the jobs. For example, Natalie has more experience than I do making mannequins. Jon and Danny have more experience than I with props.

Q: What materials do you typically use to make the mounts?
A: Well, if we’re working with an artifact, we can’t use wood or any other natural material in case this would attract creatures, decay, and/or interact chemically with the artifact. I often use brass, stainless steel, or manmade plastics. Steel can be used as well, but only for a short period of time; otherwise it will start to rust. If we’re mounting a prop, we can use whatever material we think will work best because we don’t have to worry about preserving the object.

Q: Do you make all the mounts here at OEC?
A: Sometimes, the object is so fragile that it can’t be transported to OEC. In that case, I have to travel to the site to make the mount. I can’t take all my tools with me so I have to be more resourceful with what I use to create the mounts, which can be fun!

Q: How long have you worked at OEC? And where did you work before?
A: I have been at OEC four years. I worked at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology for thirteen years as their principle Mountmaker before I retired. I worked only with artifacts there, so when I came to OEC, I had to learn how to make mounts for props.

Q: Why did you decide to work here?
A: After I retired from the University of Pennsylvania, I had friends living in Rockville who convinced me to come live next to them. I looked for part-time work starting with the National Museum of the American Indian because I heard they were looking for mountmakers. I never got through to talk to them and I ended up speaking with Lora Collins here at OEC, who had just lost her principle mountmaker, ironically, to the Museum of the American Indian. That is how I started working here.

Q: What’s your favorite part of the job? What’s the most challenging?
A: The variety of objects and projects I get to work on. All of the projects are challenging. But I’d say the biggest challenge is keeping up with the people I work with. They’re young, brilliant, and so creative. They’re just amazing.

Q: Have you had a favorite project so far?
A: No; I like them all for different reasons. Jim Henson’s Fantastic World was fun, First Ladies was fun – but both for completely different reasons! I also enjoyed doing the electronics for the Polio interactive displays and the rain showers for the exhibit Orchids: Take a Walk on the Wild Side.

Q: How did you decide you wanted to be a mountmaker?
A: A friend of a friend asked me to make some mounts for several large African pieces. I managed to make the mounts without destroying the pieces even though I knew virtually nothing about mountmaking and less than that about conservation. As a result, I was asked to do some more mounts for friends of his. At the time, I had my own business designing and building interiors for children’s rooms and private playgrounds. A friend told me about an opening at the University of Pennsylvania Museum. I applied for the job of Mountmaker and was hired.

Q: What kind of training did you go through?
A: I took a course in mountmaking after I had been making mounts for a year or so. Virginia Greene, the head conservator at Penn and her assistant Lynn Grant were most helpful over the years teaching me the things that good conservation methodology required. Slowly I developed approaches that produced mounts that were lighter, stronger and less obtrusive.

Q: Family?
A: I have three children and seven grandchildren. Everyone here knows my grandchildren as “Howard’s Mob” because I put one of those old-fasioned sepia photos of them in the break room.

photo: Clemenko shows where the artifact he is holding will be located in an exhibit.

More photos

One of Clemenko's mounting jobs at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology