Interest in World War II and British history brought Amy Cantone to the National Churchill Museum when she had a week off from her job as a curatorial assistant at the Missouri State Museum last summer.
Now, she gets to work at the Churchill Museum every day as an archivist-curator.
"I'm excited to be around all of it," Cantone said on Monday. "I love to open boxes and go through all of these photographs.
Everything has a story to go with it, and I want to learn it."
Cantone will care for the museum's collection, including taking inventory of the artifacts, documenting new ones and making sure they're stored in an environment that will preserve each pieces' condition.
She'll also be in charge of caring for permanent exhibits, bringing in traveling ones, organizing in-house projects and assisting in the caring for the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury, the "Breakthrough" sculpture and other pieces.
"I have a somewhat varied background in terms of archival and museum work," Cantone said. "I think doing a little bit of everything at different sites and being able to jump in if something comes up and my mind's ability to work in different ways will help the museum thrive."
Cantone has master's degree in history from Kansas State and helped develop a 5,000-piece 1904 World's Fair donation into the exhibit during her time at the Missouri State Museum.
She's enjoying her time at the Churchill Museum, especially the amount of pieces that she's caring for.
"It's been really fun to find out just how much there is," Cantone said. "For many in the museum, you see a small fraction of their collections...it's incredible to realize how much there is."