Hikes and History: An Adventure in Iceland

Hello! My name is Evan Royston and I’m a senior studying history and political science with a public history minor. This summer I had the incredible opportunity to intern with Global Treks and Adventures, an international travel company that hosts research expeditions and produces travel publications for areas around the world. My research expedition was based in Iceland to help develop a hiking magazine but before I continue with the internship itself, some background on how I discovered the opportunity is necessary. 

Discovering the internship was actually the easiest part of the process as I found it while looking through Handshake for job and internship opportunities. I had been in search of an internship opportunity for a while, knowing that I would need one to complete my public history minor and also to gain real-world experience as I head toward the end of my college career. While finding the opportunity was relatively simple, deciding to apply for it was not. While it seemed like a fantastic opportunity, I wasn’t sure what application, if any, helping develop a hiking magazine would have with public history but as it turns out, there was a very clear place for it since one of the sections of the magazine would focus on Icelandic history and culture. Knowing that there was a clear place for my interests gave me the confidence to apply and it has turned into one of the best decisions I’ve made.             The internship was split into three sections, pre-trip research, the expedition, and the post-trip writing phase. Pre-trip research and post-trip writing were both done remotely with the highlight of the internship coming in the middle phase, the actual expedition to Iceland. The expedition to Iceland was eight days in total during which I lived in an Icelandic research base with the other interns from across the United States and Canada. Each day was different as we went on hikes, explored Reykjavik and other cities, met with locals, and so much more, all to help research our different areas of the publication. Reykjavik was the most helpful area to my research as I was able to explore museums and interesting sites throughout the city to research Icelandic history, but they also had personal value as I was able to get insight into what public history in Iceland was like compared to in the United States. The week in Iceland flew by. Soon it was time to return home where I used the information collected in Iceland along with additional research to develop my sections for the magazine. Over the rest of the summer, I wrote my sections, got edits from the Global Treks team, and sent in my final draft. The process of producing my content was incredibly smooth as we were supported by the Global Treks team when necessary but had large amounts of freedom over our topics and what would be included in our sections. Overall, my time with Global Treks was an incredible experience in which I was able to grow personally and professionally while exploring a beautiful country and I can’t wait to give more details on the experience in future posts!

 

Voices of a Church, an Oral History internship

 Hello. I am Jessica Heckart, a senior with a minor in public history and MEMS. I recently completed an internship that involved taking the Oral History of Hope To You Community Church, a small community church in Bowie, PG County. This internship was independent, with me working by myself and creating the questions, setting up the Oral history interviews, taking notes, and creating a document to organize everything. Even though I was working mostly alone, the head pastor of Hope To You Community Church was my overseer, he and I would check in every other week to check the progress of my work and to see if I needed anything from his end. 

The Oral History internship with Hope To You Community Church was formally conducted from the beginning of June to the beginning of August, so I had three months to complete the interviews of the members of Hope To You. Each of Hope To You members had a significant role in the construction and life of this small community church. The reason why I chose to make an Oral History focused on a small community church is that it sounded unique but it also I was inspired by a project that was and still is happening in Montgomery country called The Immigrant Experience in Montgomery County, which is a online exhibit sharing the experiences and personal story of the immigrants. This is relevant because Hope To You Community Church was originally founded by an immigrant couple from the Philippines for Filipino immigrants and their families. So, this internship was a multi-layered study of the birth and longevity of a community church and the community of immigrants.

The ultimate goal of this internship was to collect the individual stories and memories that correlate with the history of the church and how it had impacted and still impacts the community.

A Summer of Ducks

 

                This summer I did my internship at the Havre de Grace Decoy Museum, a small museum dedicated to the history and craft of duck decoys. These decoys were initially used in hunting, but quickly evolved into their own folk art. They are traditionally made of wood, but many were manufactured out of other materials such as cork or cloth. Today, most decoys are made as decorative pieces, and as a show of skill, rather than for practical use.

The museum itself is primarily dedicated to the decoys produced in the Havre de Grace area, but does also feature decoys from the broader Chesapeake region, as well as a few from further reaches, such as Louisianna. Havre de Grace is located on the Susquehanna Flats, a meeting spot of the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay with a lot of shallow water where lots of water celery used to grow (much of it has since died because of algae blooms), making it a prime stop for migrating ducks. Because of that, it also became a prime spot for duck hunting, and therefore decoy making. The museum is dedicated not only to the display of past and present decoy artists, but to the history of duck hunting in Havre de Grace and beyond. It includes multiple exhibits showing the history and making of decoys, the adaptation of hunting techniques over time, and the works of various decoy makers.

My official title this internship was Curatorial Intern. Though, with a museum this small, the title of “curator” includes a very broad range of responsibilities. Working under the main curators Nathaniel Heasley and Ginny Sanders, I was assisting in a variety of tasks including mailing and filing loan renewals, cataloging and creating digital records for donations and loans we received, setting up, cleaning, and repairing exhibits, and checking in and directing visitors at the front desk. My main job was working in setting up the new exhibit about African American decoy carvers in the Chesapeake region. Overall, I learnt a lot about how museums, especially small scale museums are run, funded, and upkept.