Catoctin Furnace Historical Society Internship

This spring semester (2015) I have begun my internship at the Catoctin Furnace Historical Society located within the Catoctin Village north of Frederick and south of Thurmont MD. I regret that I have not posted more expediently, but my boss recently experienced a great deal of family hardships and I was not able to contact her for some time following our initial meeting. Though from what we have discussed concerning her expectations, I will have plenty of work to keep me busy throughout the semester.

The Catoctin Furnace was in blast from 1774 to 1903 and produced a great deal of iron household goods, cannon balls used at the battle of Yorktown, armaments used during the Civil War, and may have provided the raw iron used in the manufacturing of iron clads. I visited the site and garnered this information and Mrs. Comer (my boss) provided a small tour through the village. I was also present for a paint analysis at our newly acquired forge worker’s house which provided me with insight into the practice. I then had my full meeting with Mrs. Comer in which we discussed how my primary endeavor during my internship was to construct and provide a full tour of the village and furnace.

I was also asked to attend the Frederick Historic Sites Consortium:  Master Docent 2015 Workshops. I did so on February 28^th at Frederick Community College and was reimbursed by the furnace society for doing so. I attended several workshops such as: Sharing Your Passion via Museum Visitation, Primary Sources for Docents, Local Opportunities, “When the Populace Chooses War: Colonial Voice in the French and Indian War”, and “Repudiation: Frederick’s Unique Response to the British Stamp Act”. These lectures provided valuable information concerning how one can present to the public in a meaningful and fun manner, how to identify valuable primary sources, how to become a Certified Tourism Ambassador, and unique views of local history. I believe that these lectures presented a great deal of valuable information and skills which I intended to apply whilst I create a superb tour for the Catoctin Furnace. P.S. I also made connections with many local docents which should help me a great deal in the future.

Historical Society Site: http://catoctinfurnace.org/home/catoctinfurnacehistory.html

Internship with Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum

This semester (Spring 15) I have been interning at the Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum in St. Leonard, Maryland.  This facility located on the Patuxent River in St. Mary’s County is home to the Maryland Archaeology Conservation Lab (MAC Lab).  Archaeological collections recovered by State and Federal agencies within Maryland are housed here.  JPPM is also home for collections from private donations made to the Maryland Historic Trust.  All collections are preserved, curated and available for research.

My job is to research and update the Prehistoric Ceramic link of their online website “Diagnostic Artifacts in Maryland.”  This is a wonderful tool which catalogs and presents brief histories regarding the many collections and objects typically found in Maryland.  Prehistoric Ceramics encompass Native American wares dating back approximately 3000 years.  Highlighted on the website are the manufacturing, tempering agents, forms and common decorations distinct to each style of ceramic.  This period, prehistoric, is broken down into three main areas: Early Woodland (1250 B.C. – A.D. 50) a period of ceramic technology experimentation, Middle Woodland (A.D. 50 – AD. 950) a time of expansion, long-distance trade and communication, and Late Woodland (A.D. 950 – A.D. 1600) with its increase in subsistence and permanent settlements.

I work out of the JPPM Research Library which contains approximately 12,000 reference journals and books regarding current research in the field of Archaeology.  To this point I have read pertinent articles pertaining to the various wares, within this time period, published in journals from Maryland Archaeology, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virginia looking for new or updated evidence and references to add on the website.  Probably the most important changes are to Mockley Ware, in that new research has produced evidence of fabric impressed markings or decorations at two sites on the Chesapeake Bay which changes the diagnostic description of this particular ceramic.

Once this part of the research is completed I hope to be able to pull materials from the collections and build a research display box that will allow students, researchers and the public to view and handle these artifact first hand.  Also if there is enough time I will be photographing various shards that demonstrate new technology and uploading them to the site.

Anyone wanting information regarding JPPM or this diagnostic website can check it out on this link.
http://www.jefpat.org or http://www.jefpat.org/diagnostic/index.htm 

Internship at Glenn L. Martin Aviation Museum

Beginning in December, I began volunteering at the Glenn L. Martin Aviation Museum. I do not actually work in the museum, but rather the archive. Both the archive and the museum are very small. My first project was with their magazine, The Martin Star. The Martin Star was the magazine put out between the years of February 1942 - July/August 1952. My job was to digitize every issue of this magazine. To do this, I first separated each issue and volume into piles. I found all the duplicates and tried to find the best issue, since many of them have been torn or faded. Once I had the best issue, I would put each issue in order by volume. Next, I organized all of the duplicates in a file cabinet located in the back of the archive. I then took all of the staples out so that I could cut each magazine down the middle. I only did this because it made the scanning process more efficient. Once all the staples were out and the issues were cut, I scanned each issue. I had to make sure that the pages scanned well enough for people to read. I also tried to get all the pages in the same direction after they were scanned, which was a conflict because even though they were put in the scanner the same way, they would come through in all different directions. I had to save each issue as a PDF file with the title, volume and issue number. After the scanning process was finished, I put each page into a plastic sleeve and put them into a binder. The head archivist, Stan, and I decided that we should only put one volume in each binder. I was able to finish this project around early February. More than anything, this project was time consuming. The most difficult aspect of this project was making sure none of the pages got ripped or torn in the scanning process. All of the issues were really fragile, and even the pages in good shape could be easily torn, so I had to be extremely cautious when handling them. I really enjoyed this project because I love magazines and old advertisements mainly. Some of the pictures were so interesting and I loved being able to see aspects of my own community from that time period.