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On Wednesday October 12, 2011 the White Gloves Gang once again visited the Fells Point Preservation Society (FPPS) at1726 Thames Street,Baltimore.  No stranger to the FPPS, the Gang made its first visit back in 2005.  For a moment now let us go back in time to when Destiny’s Child was still together, Batman Begins was playing at the box office and the FPPS had just called upon the White Gloves Gang to help them move their new collection. Some might call them unrepentant hoarders, but over the course of five generations the Dashiel’s had amassed a huge collection of Americana and this move was the culmination of the efforts of Sisters Mary and Eleanor Dashiel to have their family’s items turned into a maritime museum.

The Dashiel Family Collection was immense but not exactly organized.   Taking over the Sisters’ home it was a monumental undertaking to sort and move the objects.  In a feat worthy of its own season of clean house the FPPS, with help from the Gang, eventually cleared the house.

We pick up our story again in August of 2011 with Hurricane Irene heading towardsBaltimore.  Fearful of a storm surge a group of local students from UMBC was called out to help carry the FPPS archives out of the basement and to safety on the upper levels of the museum.  Then with the storm past and the archives left in disarray the White Gloves Gang was called on to help again.

The Gang tackled two problems that day.  First, the re-organization of the archives.  Moving everything so that it was accessible, re-labeling the shelves and sorting the archives.  By the end of the day the Gang had re-arranged the archives and created an inventory list of all of the shelves.

Chris, Jenn, Jen and Robin organizing the archives

…Meanwhile in another part of the museum the rest of the Gang was hard at work re-boxing part of the museum’s textile collections which had been damaged in their brisk move from the basement.  They photographed, recorded and boxed most of the textiles, providing the FPPS with an inventory list in the process.

Heather, Motrja and Sandra

In closing the White Gloves Gang would like to express appreciation to the Fells Point Preservation Society (FPPS) for letting us play with their collections, we had a blast and hope to see you again soon!

Jen Swisko, Fire Museum of Maryland.