Marvel Pomeroy, a volunteer in the Museum collections, has been a long-time visitor to Andersonville. Over the past 45 years she always made a point to shop at Erickson’s Delicatessen and the Swedish Bakery, particularly around the winter holidays where she would pick up her family’s Christmas fixings such as bread, casings and string for potato sausages, and other delightfully Swedish treats.

Marvel’s path to the Museum traces back to her degree in Human Development and her work in Childhood Development at the Erikson Institute. These lead her to the Brunk Children’s Museum of Immigration in 2013, where she worked with Stacey Nyman (our Education Manager and her niece) as an educator and docent.  In addition to her work in the Children’s Museum, she often volunteered at events. Her favorite being Midsommarfest, where she really enjoys helping with crafts and games for children.

Today Marvel has taken on a different area of the Museum. She can now be found volunteering with our curator, Keith Ulrich, in Collections. She met Keith at the 40^th Anniversary Reception earlier this year, and they got to talking about how she might enjoy learning about that part of the Museum. Working with the collection includes tasks such as updating the catalog, moving items and documenting their new locations, as well as helping to update the Dream of America Exhibit. Most recently she has worked on changing the look of the ‘stuga’ part of the exhibit. These changes bring new information to the exhibit.

Working with the objects and items in the Collections has allowed Marvel to reconnect with childhood memories and gain a more intimate bridge to her family history. She explains that working in the Children’s Museum gave her the opportunity to talk to present-day Swedes about modern day Swedish topics, whereas in Collections she is able to get in touch with and remember past-day Swedes such as the history of her ancestors who began immigrating from Sweden beginning in the late 1800s.

– Caroline Gerbaulet-Vanasse