10/27/2021 | Jennifer Grove, Registrar

Meet Ruth and Ray - the Collections volunteer dream team! For #CollectionsCorner today we are continuing our monthly series introducing our extraordinary Collections volunteers. 

Raymond and Ruth began volunteering with us in 2018. Together they have inventoried over 5,000 artifacts! This husband and wife team is a great duo and is always ready for anything we ask of them. In addition to inventory, they have cataloged permanent collections and incoming loans and even worked remotely from home to transcribe dozens of handwritten letters from the Busey Collection ranging in date from 1911 to 1919. 

In this photo, Ruth and Ray were working on correcting cataloging issues that were discovered during an inventory of drainage tile. They were also able to match each tile to a photograph from 1983 found in the accession file so that more information can be included in each catalog record. 

They said their favorite project so far has been the inventory of the museum's exhibits: "We enjoyed discovering how the artifacts came to life for use in the exhibits." 

Thank you so much for your diligent work and dedication Ray and Ruth!