Washington: Archiving Museum Collections

Washington – Archiving museum collections for over seven years

Seven years ago, the Skagit Reliques Questers chapter started posting on Facebook, about their volunteer archival activities.  Countless volunteer hours have been donated by the chapter. Photographs as early as October of 2019 show them taking inventory of museum cases.

Washington Questers member Dee Jobe said, “Skagit Reliques #1407 does wonderful work for the Skagit County Historical Museum and has received several P & R grants from both International Questers and Washington  Questers.”

During Covid 19 quarantine, Shirley Viscalla, chapter member, said, “Hello friends! Hope this note finds you well! As we while away the time, awaiting the next step in heading our county toward wellness and peace, we'd like to share a couple of photos of the unbelievably beautiful examples of quilting that we have here at the Skagit County Historical Museum. We are looking forward to getting back in to the Museum so we can rotate our quilts in the Textile Storage! Quilts need to be re-folded a few times a year to avoid permanent damage. We were scheduled to work on this project right as the closure happened. Can't wait to spend time with our friends from the Skagit Reliques Chapter of the International Questers refolding our wonderful quilts! Take care and we'll talk again soon!”

They were back at it in 2021, 2022, and 2023 sorting and re-housing their costume collection.

The LaConner WA Quilt museum received a grant, in 2024,  from Washington State Questers to purchase archival storage containers.

One project was re-housing vintage quilts. The two quilts shown date 1901 and 1906.  Again, photos show their work behind the scenes of their Skagit County Historical Museum cataloguing the museum’s treasures.

During their work on the museum’s artifact preservation, they have come across some unusual items such as a “dressing ham,” which was used for fine needlework, embroidery or tatting and vice for coffin making.

One special project that the chapter has helped archive is the doll collection of the museum.  They completed that project in 2024 and have moved on to alphabetizing the museum’s collections of paperwork and placing them in binders.  They continued filling in notebooks with Ascension records.

Using a grant provided by Washington Questers in 2025, the chapter started work at the museum’s storage facility.   During this project, artifacts were photographed, wrapped, and placed in the boxes provided by the grant monies.

The Skagit County Museum is in LaConner, Washington.  One can explore Skagit County’s rich and rugged heritage by touring the SKAGIT LEGACY exhibit filled with scenes of early Skagit life from the mountains to the sea. From parlors to plows, Native American baskets to Shirley Temple dolls, the Museum galleries are overflowing with interesting and often unusual treasures of Skagit County’s vibrant past.

The museum documents, preserves, and interprets over 200,000 County-related artifacts. Extensive collections of dolls, household items, quilts, clothing, Native American pieces, tools, and farm equipment are exhibited on a rotating basis to provide a variety of views into our county's past.