Hi, I’m Ember Lundgren and I work with the archival collections here at the Royal BC Museum and Archives. I’ve been working with the collections, first as a volunteer and now as an employee, for almost 17 years. My interest in museum and archival work was inspired (at the age of 15) when I stumbled into the middle of an episode of Reading Rainbow (PBS) entitled “Mummies Made in Egypt”. The host, LeVar Burton, was at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, interviewing a conservator who was cleaning a mummified cat. My first thought was “I bet you get to see some cool things with that job—I think that’s what I’ll do”.

Born and raised in Esquimalt BC, I did my undergraduate studies in anthropology at the University of Victoria. After living abroad for a year I headed off to train in motion picture film preservation at George Eastman House in Rochester, New York (the birthplace of Kodak).

When I first began volunteering at the Royal BC Museum I worked with Conservation staff, and while I didn’t clean any mummies, I did get to clean some other cool things from our provincial collections. I have worked in the Archives since 2003 and have been able to work with all sorts of historical documents such as maps, film, audio, video, photographs, negatives and textual materials. I am such a nerd that in my spare time I volunteer at my municipal archives.