A Fun Day Out: Maryland Museum of Military History Internship

 A Fun Day Out: Maryland Museum of Military History Internship 

The UH-60 Black Hawk that I rode in!

           Within the past month, the Maryland Museum of Military History has experienced a significant amount of progress in moving our archives from the first floor, which consists of a small room that can barely contain our current collection, to classrooms 2 and 4, located in the basement. While the transformation of these two classrooms is not fully complete, the new archival shelves that were given to our museum by Fort Meade have been built and have started to be used for proper storage. The only things that are missing are the filing cabinets, tables, tiles, desks, and other items that will add to the overall quality of our new archival space. Although the archives have undergone many important updates, this blog post will not provide an in-depth description of these changes. Instead, I will be showcasing the reward my co-workers and I received after we were given an award from the Maryland Military Department.

           On November 5, 2023, the 5th Regiment Armory hosted an event for its employees where they provided food and games, as well as gave their employees awards for their work that supports both the Maryland Military Department and the overall quality of Maryland’s armories. Alongside the recognition of the museum’s progress and work, I, along with five other employees, received the Chief of Staff award from the Maryland Military Department. It recognizes my “significant contributions to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity within the agency.” While there were a few rewards attached to this award such as additional Paid Time Off, the largest and most exciting reward was the participation in the military’s test day for their annual Bosslift Program at an Air National Guard Base. This program was established in 1972 to promote cooperation and understanding between service members and their civilian employers. While my co-workers and I may not have participated in the actual event, we served as the National Guard’s practice groups for the actual event that took place the next day. This meant that we followed the program’s schedule and provided feedback on areas where they could improve.

           Our schedule began with a meeting where we listened to opening statements from the Adjutant General (TAG) and watched an instructional safety video that taught us about the proper way to enter and exit a UH-60 Black Hawk. From there, we retrieved our earplugs, because the sound of a helicopter could burst our ear drums, walked to the platform, and entered the helicopter as groups of 5 or 6. After buckling up and waiting a few minutes for the pilot, the UH-60 Black Hawk lifted into the air and allowed me to experience my first helicopter ride! It was exhilarating to see familiar locations like the White Marsh Mall from above and I made sure to take plenty of photos. When my group landed in an empty field, we were escorted to another area where the Army National Guard had set up workshops. We learned about various aspects of the Army National Guard like the the medical field and the weaponry they use, participated in a simulation where we got to shoot fake weapons, and got to ride in an armored military vehicle. I rode in the High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, also known as the Humvee. 

           After learning about the Army National Guard and taking a quick break for lunch, the groups were again divided and guided by a guardsman to workshops that introduced us to the inner workings of the Air National Guard. My group’s first workshop was at the base’s new fire station where they had various tables displaying an array of weaponry and equipment used by the Fire Department, Security Forces, and Emergency Management. It was interesting to learn and see the equipment that they used on a daily basis. Although it’s tough to describe, one of the guardsmen let me throw a camera that was on wheels and control it with the remote! From there, my group was guided to a conference room where we learned about the Cyber Operations Specialists, and then we were taken to the base’s hangar where we got to have a close view of an A10 Thunderbolt and talked to various pilots who fly these enormous jets for a living. It was amazing to see the inner workings of these jets and learn about the care and use that they undergo. Finally, the last workshop my group attended took place in another conference room where we were introduced to the support staff of the Air National Guard and given a brief overview of Family Support, Chaplains Office, Psychological Health, and Yellow Ribbon.

           While my internship with the Maryland Museum of Military History has been full of excitement and fun, nothing can beat this memorable experience where I not only got to interact with various equipment used by the Maryland National Guard but I got to learn about the important role that they play in the state of Maryland.

In Preparation for the Big Move

 

In Preparation for the Big Move

A helmet that I previously 

            As I have stated in my previous post, I am currently interning at the Maryland Museum of Military History at the Fifth Regiment Armory in Baltimore, Maryland. I have been interning at this facility for almost a year and have yet to be left with a large project to complete as most of my job includes accomplishing smaller tasks such as cataloguing. However, for the past few months I, along with my coworkers, have been working towards helping the museum accomplish its largest project ever, moving. 

To allow you to understand the large project my coworkers and I are in the process of completing I must first explain the layout of the museum and some problems that we experience in our workplace. To begin, our facility is a three-story building and includes a basement. Our museum and archives are on the first floor in a small room that barely fits all the objects and documents that we have and have not cataloged. In fact, some of the objects and documents are stored in various closets around the building where they are not receiving the treatment they deserve. These conditions have caused my boss, Barbara Taylor, to search for new rooms within the facility so our archives can flourish. A couple of months ago, we found those rooms in the basement, in what are currently known as Classrooms 2 and 4. These two spaces are much larger than our current room, can accommodate our increasing workforce, and will allow room for our new archival storage units.

One of the most important tasks that will support our move is acquiring proper shelving, cabinets, mobile storage cabinets, storage racks, and other items that are needed to help our museum. My boss and I have accomplished this by obtaining archival storage items from Fort Meade, an army base whose archives are no longer in use. After visiting Fort Meade numerous times, we have not only gained the approval of Fort Meade’s previous archives directors but collected a couple of new historical items like panoramas of various troops from the 29th Division. Yes, I did have to catalog those right when got back from those trips. While I did have to store those photos and items in storage closets and tight spaces within the archives, I am relieved by the thought that our facility will soon be upgraded with professional archival storage cabinets. I understand that it may seem like I am fawning over a couple of cabinets, but I cannot emphasize the importance of this agreement and these new archival cabinets. These units provide more space for us workers by consolidating the number of objects on a shelf and creating an area where we can safely store the history of the National Guard. Not only that, but it will allow us to better track the location of each historical object and incorporate that into PastPerfect.

We may have completed other tasks that better prepared us for this move such as painting the classrooms, acquiring proper safety regulations and air conditioning, and obtaining new flooring. Our largest accomplishment for this moves so far is the transfer agreement that helps set our museum on the right path to professionally and safely store our collection.

Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum Summer 2023

 

Hello everyone,

This is Emmy! And, this is my final blog post about my internship from this past summer 2023. To ‘wrap up’ the summer season, we began a video series called, “50 Years 50 Artifacts.” Every week leading up to our anniversary, July 2024, we will be sharing 50 different artifacts around the museum that we believe either hold a unique story or are linked directly with Babe, himself. But, a series like this doesn’t spur out of nothing. The initial listing of artifacts to include was about 100 items long (some items already displayed, in our basement archive, in the super, secure archive off-campus, or even privately owned items). It took quite a while to solidify the listing down to 50. And, if you must know, there was quite the debates about what to keep on the list and what not to. However, once the list was secured, myself, and my co-worker and UMBC alumni Katie, began filming. Immediately we realized something, we are no experts in filming B-roll for museum artifacts. The first secession of filming artifacts was a bit disorganized as one may imagine. The artifacts, themselves, made up of all different sizes, ages, weights, and materials. So, no set up was the same. For example, the Yomiuri Shimbun Award (samurai helmet) placing it on the turn table was quite the challenge. The front weighed more than the back thus when we spun the lazy Susan, it would stop half way. After what seemed at least ten failed attempts, for a perfect spin, we got the footage. But, this was only half of the content that needed to be done. While I focused on the videography, Katie did the photography. Again, as the secession went on, we learned, refocused, and most of all, realized this is a much larger task than anticipated. At the same time, we both recognize that by tackling this as a team, we should be able to have all 50 artifacts filmed and ready to edit, and later published, right on time.

The next few secessions after this is where, I believe, we made some bigger strides with filming and finding a common ground. We were able to set up a larger vertical blackout set up for filming much larger items such as Jonathan Ogden’s jersey (which is almost as tall as me), found a much more stable environment for photographing the trophy artifacts (jerry-rigged a clear mailbox container to be a soft-box for our spotlights), and much more. Not only this, but Katie and I decided to switch roles for one of our secessions, while she did the videography, I did the camera work. It was new, and at the same time, very exciting to try and document these artifacts as best as I could. I will note, the trophies, such as the Lombardy and -83 World Series trophy, were extremely difficult. No amount of soft lighting could dampen the amount of shine that the trophies emanated. Despite this, Katie and Shawn, our director, did note that even the Baltimore Sun, Orioles, and Raven’s photographer had issues with photographing these items. Shawn noted that, and I quote, “In order for them to have their level of approval with photographs, they quite literally brought in their OWN softbox to put around the trophies so that almost no extra lighting came in.” With this new knowledge, it let my courage to continue photography a little less damaged.

I should heavily note, we are a small team. Most of our photos for artifacts are all done by the immediate staff. We don’t have a “dedicated” photography or videography team. We all pitch in where and when we can. Yet, I believe our products so far don’t fall too behind many other local museums work. Do what you can with the resources you’re provided. Try and make the best of any situation. Below I’ve attached some “behind the scenes” photos of our set ups.  We work with what we’ve got!

Practical History Experience at TSA

            By the end of my internship for the TSA Historian I had learned a lot. Working at the TSA HQ was my first office work experience so I learned how to do things like send professionally formatted emails. Which is easy but is still important to know.

Updating the Modality statistics taught me about research. Some statistics were easy to update like the aviation modality, which had recently updated statistics that were easy to find with a google search. Other modalities like the passenger/freight rail and highway modalities had statistics that were hard to find and were not updated regularly. The harder to find statistics taught me how to better search for information and that some websites had people I could contact to help me find information, like the archivist for the Department of transportation. Learning how to Research information is useful for my classwork and a potential history career.

 Filming the interviews and editing the transcripts for the TSA YouTube video series: “Historian Presents: Did You Know.” Gave me experience interviewing people who lived through historical events. I learned how to ask relevant questions and gained experience being on camera. While editing the transcripts I learned that speaking is much more efficient than writing. Our mistakes and interruptions during filming would take a minute or two in the recording but that would be transcribed as a few paragraphs or a page in the transcript. Editing the transcript was similar to adding a quote to an essay, taking the important information and removing the unnecessary parts while still getting the point across. Overall, my internship taught me important skills for office work and a career in history. Researching topics, interviewing people, properly quoting and citing sources are all important skills for a career in history and more immediately are useful for completing my classwork.

All is Well that Ends Well

    In this final entry, I would like to share the recent developments that have come out of my

internship at the Heurich House. Additionally, this will serve as a point of reflection on my

experience overall this semester. As of last week, at the time of writing I completed both of my

required test tours with flying colors. For my first test tour, Jenna and I walked around the house

while I talked her through how I wanted things to go. The major issues I ran into was that I ran

out of time and had to find things to cut. Unfortunately, given that I only had one hour means I

had to focus on things related to technology and try not stray too far from that path. This is easier

said than done in a place filled with so many great stories! An example of something I was sad to

see go was the story I found about how Christian Heurich met famed composer Richard Wagner

on one of his trips to Germany.

    Another tour aspect that did not materialize like I envisioned was my plan to conduct a

scavenger hunt in the house. Due to a number of factors such as preservation and space

limitations, I ended up morphing this idea into allowing guests to explore spaces in the house and

having them point things out that they considered to be technology. The second test tour was

actually quite special as instead of giving it to a closed group, I was given the go ahead to start

presenting my material to the public! I must say, I was rather nervous at the onset of this tour.

For one thing it was only the second time I gave the tour ever and additionally these were TRUE

guests looking for an enjoyable museum experience. Thankfully, both tours I gave that day were

not only very kind, but they were also extremely engaging and interested in having the

conversation that was my tour. I had designed my tour to rely on guest interaction so this was all

I could ask for. At the end, both groups also gave me a lot of positive and encouraging feedback

that boosted my confidence. As a matter of fact, the only negative thing I heard was that the 

guests wished they could stay longer and hear more stories! Before both of my test tours were

even done, I had all of my real tours scheduled for early December so now I have plenty of time

to prepare for those.

    Besides the tour component, I also had the opportunity to talk with a few other members

of the Heurich House Team. My favorite of these conversations I had was with our Collections

Manager, Kimberly Totten. From her, I learned about what it’s like to work with collections such

as cataloging objects, acquiring new items, and her general work experience up to that point.

From her experience, I also learned there was more to collections than I previously considered.

This included tracking the types of bugs that might make their way into the house or decorating

the museum space for Christmas. That latter was very exciting as she showed us many items, I

was previously unfamiliar with. These items ranged from Christmas decorations to Christmas

themed Heurich Brewing Company advertisements.

    Overall, I feel that my experience at the Heurich House this semester has been extremely

enjoyable and educational. Since I started my journey in the world of History, I have wanted to

work with museums in some capacity. While I have visited many museums in my lifetime this

was the first time that I was able to step behind the scenes and see what it’s really like to live the

museum life. Furthermore, I got to dive into my public history skills and take what I have

learned so far and make it a reality. This of course manifested itself in my tour plan as well as the

many learning goals I set with Jenna at the start of the Fellowship. Some of these goals included

running successful programs with limited resources, exhibition design and upkeep, and day to

day museum operations. Above all else, the staff and other fellows at the Heurich House have

been so kind. Not only just sharing their knowledge and time with me, but also by making me

feel like part of the team that moves the museum forward.

Our Director of Preservation showing us around.

The table is set for Christmas Dinner.

Some of the Christmas themed brewery items.

The author telling some stories to some guests.

My Reflections as a Research Assistant Intern Part III

Looking back on my time as a Research Assistant intern, I find that my experience was fulfilling and illuminating. What I liked most about the work was the ability to utilize the skills I learned as a graduate student at UMBC to put into practice as a historical researcher. This experience showed me that this kind of work is not only available after graduation, but can be applicable to numerous careers. This type of work allows you to fully immerse yourself and develop your research skills. As a historian who values and enjoys the research aspect as much as the writing, having the chance to work on different historical projects allowed me to broaden my historical knowledge while contributing to historical education. 

The project I worked on with Dr. Musgrove was a lot of fun. My job was to research the resurgence of Black Power during the 1980s and 1990s. I began by tracing the history of the resurgence from the late 60s and into the 70s. Dr. Musgrove gave me specific datasets to follow that allowed me to search a vast number of conventions, summits, and organizational meetings across the United States in a finite amount of time. Documenting this information required me to search multiple types of primary and secondary sources. I was able to search through archives, video, letters, speeches, political ephemera, and books in order to develop comprehensive details for Dr. Musgrove’s project. This was particularly fun because it gave me a greater sense of the era I was researching. Incorporating details like clothing, music, art, poetry, as well as ideas was important because it encompassed the Black Power movement as a whole. 

The only thing that disappointed me about the internship was that I was not able to finish the project. The second stage of the internship was applying my research to a website that was to be developed for the public. This website was to accompany the information for Dr. Musgrove’s new book on Black Power resurgence. I was asked to continue the work over winter break so I may be able to fulfill that desire yet.  Although it was not part of my assignments or duties, I would like to have visited the local museums in DC and Baltimore on civil rights/black power activism in order to broaden my perspective on writing for the public. As a research assistant, my responsibilities lay simply with research and not framing ideas for the writing itself–that responsibility is solely for the author or creator of the project. However, in visiting museums or scouring websites on subject matter, one sees how information and material objects have been incorporated into exhibitions or may prompt ideas as to what is lacking. It is important for the researcher to ask, “What do I want to see that is not there?” This can allow the researcher to look in archives for material that is not necessarily exhibited elsewhere in order to create a unique experience for the public. 

This internship definitely heightened my research skills, allowing me the confidence to pursue other research positions outside of the university. The skills I have learned directly translate into numerous public history positions that seek quality research and writing skills for museum exhibitions, websites, historical societies, libraries or consulting. I am looking forward to applying these skills to my thesis and to use them after graduation with a fulfilling career. 

Black Conventions and Summits, Datasets and Spreadsheets: Research Assistant Internship, Part II

The first project I worked on this summer as a Research Assistant with Dr. Musgrove was the documentation of Black summits and conventions. While the focus of the project highlights Black Power resurgence during the 1980s and 90s, the roots of this era began in the late 1960s. Starting in 1966, the new epoch of Black Power revolved around a series of national and state conventions and summits in order for Black leadership and activists to discuss and set a political agenda that would address the contemporary issues of Black America.  

The bulk of my work consisted of reading from secondary sources in order to record information pertaining to Black leadership and activists' attempts in organizing for national and state conventions and summits. Besides scouring a large number of books, I searched numerous primary sources, reading contemporary newspapers, articles, and magazines as well as scanned video footage of news broadcasts and documentaries. All of these sources had to be synthesized and recorded into a series of datasets on google docs and google spreadsheets. For the conventions, each dataset consisted of recording pertinent information surrounding its activity: name of conference, location, date, organizers, attendees, quotes, purpose and demands, efforts toward achieving goals, and archives to primary sources or video coverage. Each entry had to be properly footnoted in order to be confirmed later by Dr. Musgrove if needed. One thing we have all learned as History majors is that sloppy note-taking and inconsistent footnotes can get a writer into a lot of trouble. Plagiarism is not only universally frowned upon, but it is illegal. After each convention was recorded and uploaded, I would begin work on another convention and the process of reading and recording would begin all over again. Often, when reading for one convention in a secondary source, I would gain insight or new information into a different summit. In this case, I often had three or four google doc tabs open on my computer in order to quickly access the document I needed. Organization is definitely key. 

One of the most enjoyable and rewarding parts of the research was when I was searching the internet for primary sources and archives. The research databases we have access to as UMBC students is quite impressive and I will miss them dearly after I graduate. JSTOR if you’re listening… I need the hookup. Anyway, enough shameless promotion. I was able to discover key archives that held collections of Black convention information. My work as a graduate research assistant in UMBC’s Special Collections has taught me the importance of utilizing archival institutions and how to navigate their finding aids in order to quickly assess what documents are on file. Part of what makes a great research paper, book or project are the sources that one uses. Finding primary sources in the form of records, personal papers and journals, video and audio recordings, and material objects can bring that project to another level, setting it apart from your contemporaries. 

After these google docs are transferred into spreadsheets the next step is to take the completed series of projects and upload the information into a newly created website. With the help of the UMBC Geography department and a web designer, Dr. Musgrove will be able to capture the history of Black Power resurgence, spanning four decades, for the public to view. In 2021 Dr. Musgrove launched http://blackpowerindc.umbc.edu/, a web-based map of Black Power activism in the nation’s capital between 1961 and 1998. This will not be so much a continuation of that project, but another much needed piece to the puzzle. 

Moving A Museum

    

    For the past month the museum has mainly been preparing to move the majority of its collection to a new location consisting of three rooms, two large and one small, in the basement of the 5th Regiment Armory building. Within the last three weeks, two of the rooms have had storage systems installed so that the museum’s collection can be properly stored. These rooms also provide an extra level of security given that only employees at the 5th Regiment Armory would be able to access these rooms.  In addition, these rooms are less susceptible to fire given the masonry walls and tile flooring, as well as a sprinkler system in all three of the rooms. However, the greatest advantage to moving the museum’s collection to these three rooms is that they provide greater space for storage which will allow the collection to continue to grow. 

One of the rooms contains high density storage units that are on rails and are motor powered. The contents of this high-density storage include uniforms, hats, portraits, medals, and other objects which are the most valuable within the museum’s collection. A bonus of having the high-density storage in this location is that the room is more easily climate controlled and secure than the room in which these items are currently stored. In addition, this new high density storage system has a special cabinet that is going to be used to contain mold contaminated materials until they can be properly cleaned and treated.  One of the main reasons that the museum collection has to be moved to the basement is because the collection’s current location, in a room on the first floor of the 5th Regiment Armory building, does not have a floor which would be able to support the weight of the high-density storage system that was installed in the basement. 

The other large room has had shelving units installed and will contain the museum’s archive. This archive consists of numerous documents, books, field manuals, photographs, etc. In addition to the shelving units flat files are going to be installed to maximize the number of items that can be stored in this room. This room will also serve as the primary room in which the museum staff’s workstations are going to be located. However, given the amount of material and storage units that are going to be in this room, the amount of space that will be available to those working in this room will be minimal.  

The third smaller room will eventually be converted into an area which will hold the museum’s firearms collection. The plan is to have special safes installed in the room to ensure that this collection remains secured and, given the location of this room in an adjoining hallway between the two larger rooms, it will be easier to access than the current safe that is used to house the firearms. However, it is unclear when the new safes will be installed and, as of now, it appears to just be an idea until the appropriate funding and preparations have been made. For now the room will be used as an office and some of the museum’s collection will be stored in it. 

The process of preparing and moving the museum’s collection to this new location, while still in the early stages, has been a point of stress for everyone given the fact that the move needs to be completed by March.  This timetable exists because the room in which the museum’s offices and collection now reside is going to be used by another department within the 5th Regiment Armory and, therefore, it is critical that the move is completed on schedule. However, there are still some issues with planning how objects and archival material will be organized within the new location that could present a bit of an issue as the situation continues to develop. Therefore, the beginning of the move has been relatively slow and methodical as we attempt to ensure that any potential issues with storage are minimized.

When not assisting with this moving process, the majority of my time has been spent continuing to learn how to use the PastPerfect system for cataloguing. During the past month I have catalogued over fifty items in the collection, including field manuals, training circulars, a pen and pencil set, military patches, and award certificates that date back to the 1940s. Overall, this process has been very interesting because, unlike what I may have encountered had I interned at a larger or more well-funded institution, many mistakes were made by previous museum staff in the cataloguing process.  Therefore, coming across these cataloguing mistakes, learning what was done wrong, and what the proper way to catalogue is has been greatly beneficial. In addition, dealing with all the cataloguing mistakes has allowed me to see how much improper cataloguing techniques can interfere with a museum’s operations. Using improper catalogue accession and object ID numbers can make it incredibly difficult for future museum staff and researchers to find objects and documents within a collection. There have been more than a few instances where we may know that an object is in our collection but are unable to determine where it is because, when the object was acquired and stored, the person that catalogued it failed to indicate the item’s location. In addition, improper cataloguing is a big issue when it comes to knowing how and when objects or documents were added to the museum’s collection. There are countless examples within the museum’s collection where it’s virtually impossible to determine who donated items, when they were donated, and if/where those items are in the collection. All of these issues can arise from improper cataloguing and while these issues may not immediately present themselves, they can be crippling for an institution years down the line.