On Mon, 12 Jan 1998, marie maxwell wrote:

> Regardless of if they did have a consultant it was so true and so funny.
> I used to work at the US Holocaust Museum as a "burgundy" jacket.  We
> didn't eat with the security in the "blue" jackets, but we did hang out
> with the conservation folks in the "white/no jacket" folks and to get the
> people who worked in the offices (development/research/admin.) to talk to
> us we had to remove our jackets, or else all they saw was the jacket and
> not the person underneath.

Marie:

When I started my doctoral research in the fossil mammals section of the
London Natural History Museum's basement in the late 1960s/early 1970s I
was fascinated to find that in those splendidly social class-conscious
days behind-the-scenes visitors had to self-assess thewir own status
in chosing which of the three adjacent staff lavatories in
that part of the building they should use - labelled "Scientific Staff",
"Eperiemental Staff" or "Men!  My mentor explained that graduates should
use the first - provided for curatorial staff on the scientific civil
service professional grades.  The "Experimental" (though certainly not
high-tech, as the title might be though to imply) was for techical staff
"Experimental Officer" grades in civil service terminology, and "Men" was
for the "industrial" - weekly paid - staff such as porters!

Curiously, all women  - from the very distinguished and formidable
female Head of Department to the cleaners - seemed to be democratically
thrown together behind the single door labelled "Women".

Patrick Boylan