Maryland Museum of Military History Internship

 

 This fall I started an internship at the Maryland Museum of Military History (MMMH) in Baltimore. The MMMH is located at the 5th Regiment Armory and a good portion of its collection relates to the Maryland National Guard as well as the 29th Infantry Division. The 29th Infantry Division is most well known for having participated in the D-Day landings at Normandy, where it landed alongside the 1st Infantry Division at Omaha Beach. However, the museum has exhibits which cover a much longer period of time. There are exhibits which cover the involvement of Maryland military units during the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War, during the Gilded Age, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Cold War, Desert Storm, and the Global War on Terror. 

There are two main reasons why I chose to take the internship at the MMMH. First, I have had a passion for military history for most of my life and, as a result, I have taken virtually every single class related to military history at UMBC and even went on a WWII study abroad trip to Europe while in community college. The second reason I chose this internship was because I would like to pursue a career in either museum or archive work after I graduate. Given that the MMMH is a relatively small museum in terms of staff, interning there provides me with the opportunity to gain experience in archiving and museum work. However, the process of getting to the point where I could start the internship took longer than expected. The process began at the beginning of July and I only started the internship in late September. There was paperwork to fill out and a background check. In addition I was required to get fingerprinted as part of the background check because the museum possesses class-3 weapons. So security is important.  But the main reason for the long process was because of issues getting in contact with the museum’s curator to get the necessary information about what I needed to do as well as get the proper paperwork emailed to me. However, with such a small staff of only 3-4 people (only two of them being full time employees) that actually work in the museum it’s understandable how other things may have taken precedence over the hiring a new intern. 

Although even once I started the internship in late September there were still issues getting me involved in their efforts because we needed to get a laptop with the cataloging software for me to use. This took an additional 2+ weeks which meant I was relegated to cleaning the museum displays and helping move items and artifacts around the museum. However, I was still able to observe how things were stored and cataloged.

It was during this time that I was informed about the current state of operations at the museum. I learned that the museum is currently in the process of preparing to move their offices and collection to the basement of the 5th Armory Regiment building and that a lot of preparations are still ongoing. In addition, I learned that many of the firearms that they have in their collection were unable to be displayed because of regulations regarding the display of functioning firearms in museums. These firearms need to be secured with three levels of security, such as being strapped down inside the display case, a locked display case, as well as locks on the doors into those rooms. They want to add an additional level of security to prevent anyone stealing the weaponry which has happened in the past. Another issue that the museum has faced is that one of the rooms that was used to store items in the collection was contaminated with lead dust and the entire room, as well as items that were stored within that room need to be properly cleaned to remove any lead dust in order for them to be safe again. However, it’s very a expensive process and, as of now, they have had to put that project on hold until they have finished moving their collections to the basement and can secure the funds for the lead treatment. 

Another issue that the museum is currently facing is with the cataloging of their collections which are constantly being added to. But the major issue with the collections is that a sizable portion of the collections they already have were not cataloged correctly and, therefore, need to be cataloged in the proper manner.  

The cataloging software that we use is called PastPerfect which is the standard cataloging software used by most institutions, which makes it useful to learn for when I want to start my career in museum work. Properly accessioning and cataloging the items in the collection is very important because it not only allows the museum to know exactly what they have in the collection, as well as where it’s located in the museum, but it makes the collection more accessible for researchers that need to find specific items or records and find any items or records that are related. There are a few in-house historians that work in the 5th Armory Regiment building that rely on the collections within the museum to conduct their research so making sure that everything is properly cataloged is very important. For the process of cataloging we use a system called USAMS, which is specifically used for cataloging military artifacts. Using this system helps us classify items into specific groups and provide the most important information about items such as their physical description (color/material), time period, unit association, and item type. In addition, we also try to provide as much of the history of that item as possible. For example, we recently began cataloging unit flags and guidons as well as some unit patches that we have in the collection. With these items we provide their colors, patterns, dimensions, and materials. These flags and guidons come from Maryland National Guard units from throughout the 20th century, such as the 110th, 115th, 158th, and many others. So for these flags and guidons we provide as much of the unit histories as possible.  However, this can be difficult because many of the units have changed names over the 100+ years that some of them have been in existence. So tracking down the lineage of these units has been quite a time consuming process when cataloging these items. But we have been making our way through them and the process has helped me learn more about the associations between the various units that we come across during our research. The more I understand these associations the easier it becomes to immediately recognize them when they come up in other collections.

Interning for the TSA Historian

 

Last summer I interned for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Historian. When looking for my first internship I decided to look on USA jobs for government internships.  I was surprised to find out that TSA had a historian. Being a history major I applied online. I was selected for an interview given by the TSA Historian Heather Farley. During the interview I learned that I would be updating modalities (posters with facts about the modes of transport TSA administers), helping with the filming of a video series on different parts of TSA history, and helping catalogue artifacts (called heritage assets by the government) in a warehouse.

I received an email saying I was selected for the internship.  I had to have a background check and get fingerprinted. I had to answer a lot of questions for the background check, from normal stuff like previous employers, transcripts, and references to more specific things like everywhere I have lived and went to college with a person who can confirm I was there. After a few hours I had finished answering all the questions and signed up for the fingerprinting. By contrast the fingerprinting was very easy. I made an appointment with a facility in Virginia. When I arrived, I went to an office where I had my fingerprints recorded and a picture taken for my badge. One thing I learned is that you don’t have to dress formally for your picture. The email I received from TSA about the fingerprinting said I should dress in business attire, so I wore a dress shirt, suit jacket, and tie. When I got there the man doing the fingerprinting informed me that I could have shown up in a t-shirt and shorts. He found me wearing a suit very funny which I did too.

On my first day I traveled to TSA HQ in Springfield Virginia. I had my badge made and got access to the building. Heather gave me a tour of where her team worked and showed me the various displays, they had already set up on the second floor of the building. The displays were a timeline of TSA’s history and recreations of threats they had stopped. The building was only a few years old, so it was modern looking. One feature I found very cool was that some of the doors like the entrance and bathroom doors had motion trackers that when you moved your hand in front of would open the door.  My first day was very interesting and I was excited to start working.

Interning at the Maryland Museum of Military History

 

For the past year, I have been interning at the Maryland Museum of Military History located at the Fifth Regiment Armory in Baltimore, Maryland. Before I became a paid intern and a graduate at UMBC, I volunteered at this facility during my undergrad at Stevenson University. You could say that I am very familiar with the museum and the historic objects and documents that our archive houses.

As a small museum with around 5 workers, my job as an intern includes completing numerous tasks that not only record the significance of historic objects but also safely store them according to proper archival techniques. In order to accomplish these tasks, I have taken numerous trips to other armories like the Pikesville Armory, which we collected historic objects from to track the history of the 110th Field Artillery Battalion, and the Carlisle Barracks where my coworkers and I learned about new archival and conservation techniques and services. I was even assigned to attend the 2023 Small Museums Association (SMA) Conference in Wilmington, Delaware. This trip has allowed me to build a better social network for both myself and the museum and has provided me with the opportunity to collect numerous resources that our facility can use. In fact, my boss is currently using one of those resources to help create a digital and interactive exhibit that will expand upon the history of the Maryland National Guard’s involvement in various riots and uprisings.

Despite what I have described, traveling to other armories and museums is only a small part of the job, most of the time I am at the museum cataloging documents and objects in our collection on to PastPerfect, a museum software that specializes in collections archiving. In order to fully catalog a historic object such as my most recent object, a World War II helmet, I first researched the specific type of helmet that it is. To do this, I use various reference books that focus on military uniforms and research for similarly designed helmets online. This resulted in the discovery that it was an M1 Helmet from World War II. From there, I incorporated that information into the PastPerfect database as well as including all information related to the history of its design and its significance in the war. Once that was completed, I measured the item, documented its location within the facility, and wrote a detailed description of the helmet’s condition to determine whether it may need future maintenance. Then, I created a list of subjects, a list that is used for recording general subject matter, search terms, a detailed list of terms or words that will be helpful in researching the helmet on the catalog database, and people, the list that is used to identify people associated with the item. For the M1 helmet, I had one individual, Frank Shroeder, who was related to the helmet after his name was discovered on the inside of the helmet. This means I had to take one more step to fully complete the process of cataloging the helmet. I had to create a biography for Shroeder which required me to research his name on various sites like ancestry.com and investigate his involvement in World War II. After finishing the last step to fully cataloging the helmet, I restarted the whole process for other items such as a Bronze Star and a World War I service hat. Although the cataloging process may seem tedious and repetitive, it continues to be one of my favorite tasks within my internship because it allows me the opportunity to interact with various historic objects and helps me expand my knowledge on my favorite field of history, military history.    

Black Power Resurgence in Conservative America: Research Assistant Internship, Part I

This past summer I had the opportunity to work with Dr. George Derek Musgrove of the UMBC history department as his research assistant intern. When I entered the Historical Studies graduate program last year I was excited to take classes with Dr. Musgrove, but soon found out that he was going on sabbatical for two years. So I was thrilled when I was selected to work with him on his current book project "'We must take to the streets again': The Black Power Resurgence in Conservative America, 1982-1997." 

This was a great chance to put my interest and background knowledge of African American history to use in a historical research setting while learning new methodologies from a well respected historian, author, and faculty member. As an undergraduate I majored in History with a minor in Africana Studies. Entering my first year of graduate school, I wanted to continue researching and writing about the Black experience in America, given that we are still living in a time when Black voices are being silenced through violence and politics alike. While Dr. Musgrove’s project is not related to my thesis, the methodology I learned in researching will become a valuable asset to my future work. 

This was not a typical internship, at least in the way I always envisioned them. My work as a research intern did not require showing up at an office or museum everyday to meet a supervisor and their staff. It is largely an individual and solitary endeavor, done from the comfort of home or library – something I have always quite enjoyed. That being said, it does require time management and discipline – something I tend to lack on occasion. Yet, my interest in the subject matter and Dr. Musgrove’s vision and outline gave me the necessary motivation to stay on track and even go beyond what was expected of me in order to understand and immerse myself in the subject matter. 

The main goal of my work this summer was to assist Dr. Musgrove in his research of Black Power resurgence during the 1980s and 90s. The first wave of the Black Power movement began during the 1960s and lasted through the 70s. This project picks up where most historians left off and attempts to add to the literature and data of those few who have already documented this era of Black history. While the overall goal of this research is to publish an academic book, the project includes the creation and publication of a website which will document all of the major Black leadership meetings of the late 20th century. 

My first project: Black Conventions and Summits was an attempt to collect and record every major gathering of Black leadership, activists, writers, politicians, artists, radicals and conservatives in order to document their attitudes and goals in creating a national Black agenda for the 1970s through the 1990s. The website functions not only as an archive for this information which will include a vast collection of books, videos, photos, newspapers, magazines, documents, and ephemera, but it will allow millions of people access to all of this history in one place. With increasing concerns in the public history discipline regarding accessibility to information, this project works to create equal opportunity to academics as well as the greater public.

Rabbi David Einhorn and Sanding a Caboose

 

Thomas Pate

Rabbi David Einhorn

            My addition to President Street station that stands in the lobby is a banner depicting the life of Rabbi David Einhorn. Einhorn was an immigrant to Baltimore from Germany, and he was the writer of the abolitionist newspaper Sinai. His anti slavery views, backed up by holy text, inflamed hatred towards him from not only pro slavery Baltimoreans but from members of the Jewish community. Some Rabbis, such as Rabbi Raphall, disagreed on the interpretation of the Torah, stating that enslaving African Americans was not sinful. After the Pratt Street Riots, Einhorn’s newspaper building was burned to the ground, and he received death threats for himself and his family, forcing him to flee Baltimore to Philadelphia.

Researching this banner required a visit to the UMBC library, and I also inquired from local Rabbis about Einhorn’s history. When writing the banner, I had to restart during the internship since I was not satisfied with the work I completed. Eventually, I finished writing the banner and Robert Reyes was able to transfer it to an editor, who finished the banner. There were not really too many interesting things to say about this, as it was a cut and dry research project, but there is another project I did at the internship which went without as much notice as the banner.

As I mentioned in the first blog post, I sanded down a caboose and this had numerous challenges. First, I applied Bondo to the holes on the sides of the caboose, and waited for the putty to dry. Then, I belt sanded the exposed portions to be flush with the rest of the surface. This kicked up many fine particles that wafted all over my clothes and the sidewalk. Eventually, I stopped any more work since particulates were starting to enter the adjacent James Joyce restaurant. I finished the job well enough, and that was another contribution I made to the museum. These two contributions to President Street Station were small, but they were quite memorable since I learned new skills such as networking and belt sanding.