Hayley Moore, 25, is the new Fort Scott National Historic Site Museum Technician, since Sept. 16.
Her hometown is Southern Pines, NC.
When Moore was growing up, every family vacation included visiting museums, a national park, or a historic site, she said.
“I particularly fell in love with museums and once I learned that there were people who had careers working in museums and taking care of objects, I immediately knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” she said. ” I had never considered a career in NPS as I never knew that they had archival and museum collections. I had always associated national park sites with scenic views and outdoor activities, not museums.”
Serving the public is a part of her heritage, Moore said.
“Having a mother who is a teacher and a father in the army, I grew up seeing how devoted they were to serving the public and it inspired me to do the same,” she said. “I decided to pursue a position with the federal government. I was applying for every museum and archive job I could find and eventually I saw openings for museum and archives positions for the park service. Eventually, I received an offer and accepted a position as a digital archivist at Everglades National Park in Homestead, FL. When I accepted my first seasonal position at Everglades National Park, I had no clue what I was getting myself to.”
Her colleagues impressed her.
“I quickly fell in love with NPS’s mission,” she said. ” Being around my colleagues who were so passionate and knowledgeable about both cultural and natural resources of the park made me realize that the agency fit with what my career goals were.”
“There’s something at every national park for everyone whether it is history, science, or just being outdoors. It makes so many different types of subjects and activities accessible to the public all while trying to ensure the preservation of resources for years to come. For someone like me who went into museums, wanting to make sure objects were being preserved and taken care of, the National Park Service aligns with my career goals.”
“I began my career in the National Park Service last May when I took a seasonal job as a digital archivist at Everglades National Park,” Moore said. “During my six months, I drafted a standard operating procedure for digital collections, cataloged science permit deliverables for Biscayne National Park, assisted the museum technician with annual inventory, and did a full inventory of the archival collections.”
“It was an incredibly rewarding experience and a great introduction to the National Park Service as a whole, she said. “It made me step out of my comfort zone as I had never worked with science collections before and lived in a national park. One of my favorite things about the park was that you could just be driving to work and you could come across the wildlife of the Everglades such as pythons, alligators, and the great egret. ”
Her title at FSNHS is a museum technician.
“I am in charge of the care and management of both our museum and archival collections,” she said. “I am responsible for the housekeeping of our exhibit space, ensuring our objects are being cleaned…by the Department of Interior (DOI), NPS, and museum standards. I complete our Integrated Pest Management Program (IPM) where I trap pests and collect data on what we might be in our exhibit spaces and could cause harm to our objects. I handle the accessioning and deaccessioning of objects and catalog objects using our collection management system as needed. I also complete our annual inventory and annual submission of our collections that are required by NPS’s Museum Management Program. I am also available to visitors if they have any inquiries regarding our collection.”
Moore, like many who work for the NPS, has worked in diverse places in the U.S.
“Before coming to Fort Scott, I was working as an intern at the National Catalog for NPS’s Museum Management Program in Harpers Ferry, WV, ” she said. “Previously I worked at Everglades National Park, volunteered at the Tufts Archives in Pinehurst, NC and interned at the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library in Staunton, VA and the University of St. Andrews Special Collections Library in St. Andrews, Scotland during my college and graduate school years respectively.”
FSNHS history is fascinating to Moore.
“It’s a period in American history that not many tend to know about or talk about,” she said. “Growing up in a southern state where Civil War history is so prominent, there isn’t too much focus on the period before the Civil War. At our site, we focus on that area by interpreting that gap. We look at the daily life of soldiers in the new beginnings of the westward expansion of the United States, we’re one of only two NPS sites that has a history associated with the Mexican American War, and we are located where Bleeding Kansas took place. There’s so much packed into one site and it’s fascinating to be able to tell each of those stories, how they relate to one another, and the overall history of the United States. I can’t say I’ve worked at a place quite like this.”
