Volunteer Profile: Karin Elmore

---John Pentangelo, Curator/Registrar

Karin cataloging a sextant and display Medal of Honor

The Naval War College Museum bids farewell to one of its curatorial volunteers this week. Karin Elmore came to the museum in June 2010 when her husband, an officer in the United States Navy, started at the Surface Warfare Officers School at Naval Station Newport. A native Californian, she earned her master's degree in museum studies from San Francisco State University in 2009 and interned with the California Academy of Sciences. Karin's wealth of collections management experience enabled her to immediately tackle the museum's registration backlog. Since her arrival in June, she has created over 600 new electronic artifact records in the collections database and taken nearly 2000 digital images of artifacts (many of which are now attached to new and previously created database records). She has also permanently numbered hundreds of three-dimensional objects, photographs, documents, and textiles using professional methods. Karin has assisted in packing and preparing artifacts for storage in acid-free boxes and helped to provide accurate locations for over 1500 items in the collection during our storage inventory. Thanks to Karin and our other curatorial volunteers, the museum is able to collect, preserve, interpret, and educate the public about the naval heritage of Narragansett Bay by following the standards of the museum profession for care and management of historic collections.

The museum wishes Karin and her husband well at their new duty station and extends deep appreciation for her hard work and expertise. Those interested in volunteering with the curatorial department can call 401-841-1296 for more information.

Image courtesy of the Naval War College Museum