'It gets me geeked' – Exploring history and the Albany Regional Museum with LBCC Alumnus Sean Kinsey

Housed in a 138-year-old building, the Albany Regional Museum fits right into the city’s historic downtown. In fact, it blends in so well that it’s easy to miss its Southeast Lyons Street location when headed north toward the Willamette River. 

But once you find the “Albany Regional Museum” signage and enter the storied building, you’ll be treated to a collection of local history and exhibits, open five days a week, Tuesday-Saturday. 

And the first person you’ll probably meet is Sean Kinsey. 

Often manning the front desk as part of his “many hats” job at the museum, Kinsey, an LBCC graduate and soon-to-be Oregon State alumnus, stands as a ready resource to community members with a passionate interest in all things history. A nontraditional student, he enrolled at Linn-Benton as a history major to change careers after working a warehouse job that he hated. 

His career goal? Museums. 

“It’s all about helping,” he said of his job in an interview that ranged from his day-to-day life to the “absolute mess” that was the Fourth Crusade. 

Kinsey in front of the Albany Regional Museum's vaudeville exhibit.

Can you introduce yourself?

I live in Lebanon. For about seven years now. I'm 37, so I'm kind of getting a late start, but I wanted a career change. So, I went back to school, majored in history, trying to find a way into museums, not really knowing what path to take. 

And the first day of class was (LBCC history faculty Scott McAleer). He mentioned internships for a program that the school offers. So I asked him about that after class, and he worked with the Albany Regional Museum. 

It was a little tough at first, because it was post-pandemic. And they were going through a redesign in 2023 but I managed to get my foot in the door. And after the internship, I just continued to volunteer for about a year, and then they needed somebody, so they asked me to come on board.

How did you choose history? 

I've just always had an interest in history. I think that's what most people say. I just find myself reading and studying history and having conversations about it. So I figured the museum is an environment that I would like to work in. I'm interested in history. I just dove right into a history major and looked for an opportunity. And found one. 

What was your time like in the history program at LB? 

There were, like, movies, documentaries, and discussions that took place outside of the classroom. I know we went to see “Napoleon” by Ridley Scott when that came out, and then had a conversation after the movie that sticks out in my memory. 

That was a fun time talking about what we thought of the movie, but also what things they got right or got wrong, and what kind of choices need to be made when telling a story or a narrative about history, which is all very relevant. 

Did you have a favorite class or instructor during your time at LB? 

Scott … I'm really grateful towards him for helping me out. He seems passionate as well, and I always found his classes interesting. So that's also what made his classes so good. He seems to be interested in it. I think he's charismatic, and I think he doesn't teach the class in a dry way. 

And he has some ways of presenting history that get you thinking – how do I word it? He presented something that was detailing the stress of a nation having someone on their borders. And he made it sound like it was an American sentiment, and then did a, you know, little trick, and said, “Actually, that was from the Soviets,” and helped show how things are more complicated and how biases can direct our thinking and the way we think about things. So we kept things interesting in that way.

Tell me a bit about your job at the museum. What's your title and what's a day in the life working here?

My title right now is members and service assistant. 

This is one term I hear all the time – I went to a conference recently and heard it there: You wear a lot of hats. It's one of the things I really like about working at a museum is you might have one position and something that you have to do, but it really helps to learn how to participate and help out in a lot of different things.

I am trying to move into collections. That's where I mostly want to be. So I do a little bit of everything in collections – that's archival work, documenting and scanning, uploading, detailing, handling things, carefully putting them away, carefully … everything's very careful, acid-free materials, learning all of that. 

And then at the front desk, it's about greeting customers and going through transactions like that. You know, gift shop stuff. But also one of the best things is when someone comes in and they have a question: “You know who owned this building?” “Do you know what building used to be over here?” Lot of stuff about buildings. People really like buildings. 

Or, “I had a family member, I was wondering if you guys have information on that?” Oh yeah, we do. We have all of this information right here. I can or I need time to look something up. That's one of the best things about the job, is opportunities to do research for people in the area and learn more about the area yourself while you're doing that. That's definitely one of the absolute best things. 

Do you have a favorite exhibit or item here right now?

It's hard to pick favorites. I like the vaudeville exhibit that we have here, because it's theater. Yeah, I would say the vaudeville exhibit is probably one I find interesting, but that's if I have to pick one, because I think everything here is pretty interesting. 

Does the museum have a big draw right now, or something that people who come in are particularly into?

Yeah, our temporary exhibit right now is the Albany X-Files, obviously modeled after “The X-Files” (TV show). It details some of the more weird and interesting stories in Albany's history. 

Even though it's a local museum, there's so much history, ghost tales, yeti sightings, Flix – I don't know if you've heard of Flix. Flix, the Conser Lake monster, showed up in a near lake in the area in, like, the ’50s, and someone said they telepathically communicated with it. 

A bunch of teenagers went out into the forest with guns. That's dangerous, because they're going to shoot anything that moves. So that's an interesting history right there. So that's downstairs right now. 

We have, like, a 7-foot yeti sign that's carved out, as well as a lot of other interesting stories about murder mysteries and comet sightings and things like that. 

So that's a lot of fun. Also, it's a little unique as well. 

What's your favorite period in history? I know it’s a broad question.

That's alright, as long as there's a caveat, like, it's hard to pick a favorite right now. I'm kind of focusing on the American West. I feel like, as an American, I want to know more about our history, homesteading and westward expansion. But that's me pulling away from late medieval Renaissance Europe. 

That's a pretty common thing, I think, for people to be interested in crusades. You know, I specifically really like the Fourth Crusade. So that's something I'm continuing to learn more about. 

What makes the fourth one cool?

Absolute mess, absolute mess. Where to even start? Well, the crusade was meant to go to the Holy Land, Middle East. Jerusalem? Never even got there, really. Instead, they went and attacked other Christian towns, including Constantinople – modern day Istanbul – and sacked that whole town. And it was all about politics. I could go on and on and on, so I'm trying to think how to deliver this information without talking for the next hour. 

But the crusaders went and attacked Christian towns. Went to Constantinople to try and put a prince back in charge in order to get money to pay the Venetians who they owed money to, because they built the ships for the Crusaders. 

But half the crusaders didn't show up because they didn't like each other, so they went separate ways. It's just such a disaster – larger-than-life characters, contrasts with some of the earlier crusade stories, which had triumphant, larger-than-life characters. It just, yeah, it gets me geeked.

We hear a lot about history, how it’s cyclic in a way. What are lessons that you learned in history that you wish people today would be more cognizant of?

That's a tough question. Because I think the more you're invested in learning the nitty gritty aspects of history, the more you hate the idea of cycles, because nothing really repeats. Everything is very unique and built off of each other. But delivering stories in terms of cycles and repeating things and those kinds of narratives can be very helpful in answering the kind of question you're giving me. 

You know, I think that right now we're going through things that can be reflected in some of the history of America and the lead up to the Great Depression. Looking at where America was at in the 1920s and the 1930s and just trying to learn about that and gather an appreciation for where people were at and how we can avoid delving into the types of situations that led to that kind of pain and suffering during the Great Depression. I think that would be a notable thing. 

I think there's something to pull from everything. It's all people – if there's anything that's a pattern – it's people. It's the same type of people all the way down throughout history. 

You're at Oregon State – how's that going?

That's going well. It's tough right now. I think I'm headed to graduate this year, so all the work is starting to get more intense, but I have been keeping my grades up and I really appreciate the opportunity to participate in class.

How's the work-life balance, like the job and senioritis and all that? 

It's senioritis. It's, you know, when the water fills up the cup and the water tension keeps it from just spilling over. I'm fine right now, but I kind of feel like if I had anything more going on, I might have a little breakdown. But as it stands, everything's manageable. 

There's a lot of support working here and doing well at school, and I have family supporting me as well while I go through this. So I think everything's going pretty smoothly – smooth as it can go. 

Do you have any hobbies or interests outside of history?

A lot of it is history. Like, if I wasn't in school, I'd just be watching stuff about history anyways. 

But I've been learning Blender, modeling and animation. I've animated off and on throughout my life, so I've been learning to animate in Blender, and I've even incorporated that into a presentation before during one of Scott's classes. 

I was able to use Blender to create – it was about the affluent society of the 1950s – so I used Blender to model a picturesque 1950s home and a lawn and television sets, and then put old commercials on the television sets while I gave my spiel. 

So that's a hobby of mine that I managed to integrate, and look for opportunities to do that in the future. Even here, I do some graphic design. I make flyers and posters, and so using an interface to make those designs is a talent that I can bring from my hobbies into the work. 

Once you graduate, what are your plans after that, long term? 

I guess long term – it's scary to think about the future. I have no idea what the future is going to look like, so I've just been thinking months ahead for a few years now. 

There's a little nervousness as I start to approach the completion of the goals I set out for myself. It's a near the end of gaining my bachelor's, not that I want that to be the end of my education, but for the time being, and now that I have this position here, I'm hoping that after school, I can focus on the job and just do work and continue to learn more and go from there. 

For people around here who are also interested in pursuing history as a career, do you have any advice or direction on how to do that? 

Museums are looking for volunteers and interns. Even this museum, if anyone's interested, they might contact someone here and ask about volunteer work or internships, or just visit your museum and just take a tour of it. 

As I said earlier about the wearing many hats thing, there's a lot of skills that you can bring into this type of environment. Like I said, I was working with Blender – I even brought that in. But listening to people and their histories, and meditating on that, focusing on that, and looking for opportunities for volunteer work. Otherwise, it's just a lot of reading.

At a glance:

Sean Kinsey

Age: 37

Resides: Lebanon, Oregon 

Job: Members and service assistant, Albany Regional Museum 

Museum website: https://www.armuseum.com

Education: Linn-Benton Community College, Oregon State University (history)

Hobbies: Blender animation, history 

Current favorite historical periods: American West, late medieval Renaissance Europe, Fourth Crusade