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.    

A Public History and The Civil Right History of Maryland: Part 3

Upon nearing the end of my internship, I found most of the work from start to finish to be quite influential towards my journey of sparking more within the work of public historians. One of my biggest takeaways from this internship was that it has allowed me to learn about difficult times in Baltimore and why the Civil Rights movement scene is so unique compared to the other states. It shows me that there are many out there with a voice and a story waiting to be heard or who just need the inspiration to do so. Perhaps with the fact that I was able to create summaries of past interviews, there was still a creation of theme within the summary that would let someone know that this can be their story too. Another important thing to note is that the internship helped me understand the connection between history, museums, and communities.

Even so, I was already introduced to public history and have worked with history professors to craft new perspectives about the past. This internship solidified my understanding of public history and sort of brought me into a whole new field that I did not know before as a history major. Though I have done oral history in the past, this internship helped me go deeper by translating and transcribing copies of oral histories that were created by others. When I started studying history, it wasn’t always doing public history work or getting into fieldwork and such, but the MCHC allowed me to see different aspects of history and how we do history. Whether it is critical analysis, or the use of different media to look into the bigger picture.

Though I wasn’t able to attend certain events and exhibitions, I still had a memorable experience at the MCHC. I think that with the COVID-19 pandemic and getting through another year without a spike of cases, I truly understand the reasoning behind working virtual. I think that it would have been better to be there in person to learn more about the different ways that we do history but still appreciate the small moments we had to be able to do certain works. It was an experience that I didn’t imagine to happen but I truly enjoy every little moment at the museums and having to witness the doing of history. It was a momentum to remember. Who could have thought that the MCHC was a place for a public historian or the broader spectrum of history? I am glad to be a part of that movement to reconnect with the past. It was an amazing experience to engage and work with people that share the same passion as me. We are the future when we collectively work together as historians.

Overall, my work with MCHC truly taught me the importance of inclusion and why we must acknowledge certain dark histories of the past. For example, the topic of slavery and racism towards African Americans is not fully taught or explained at its greatest truth and so I think that it is also the job of the public historian to do so. I can’t wait to be that someone who will be teaching others about the marginalization of black, brown, and Native American history. I truly enjoyed this internship and the fact that it has given me the opportunity to work on the McKeldin Project, which opened doorways to learning about Maryland's Civil Rights history.

Internship at the Archives of the Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church #3

    This internship experience at the Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church has been not just enjoyable, but extremely enlightening as well. I finished the internship with not only a better understanding of the history of my parish, but also with a new, robust skill set. As a consequence of this internship, I now know how to properly preserve and maintain archival materials. I now possess the tools and training needed to preserve some of my family’s own historical treasures. Yet, most importantly of all, I finally realize what it means to be a historian.
    We all learn in our classes that history is everywhere, but personally I did not quite comprehend the omnipresence of history until after I dove into this local archive. Letters, bureaucratic forms, audio recordings, and meeting minutes might seem unimportant in the grand scheme of things, but put together, these small records weave a rich story of the people who created them. But even in archives, these materials risk being lost or forgotten in storage. As part of my internship, I worked to ensure that would not happen. 

Photo of my work station in the archives.

    During the 160 hours I spent working with archival materials, I worked at two tasks which should help preserve these treasures. The first was an archival catalogue, documenting around three hundred unique items within the church’s archives and creating a system to catalog the rest of the archive’s materials. The second was the successful digitization of over a hundred documents, audio recordings, and vinyl records housed within the archives. In the process of completing these two tasks, I found such treasures as gorgeous letterheads and stunning vinyls, hidden in the little basement room where the archives were stored. I learned so much about the beginnings of my parish and the difficult process of building the stunning church of the Holy Trinity.

Album cover for a vinyl record of songs from the opera Bohdan Khmelnytskyi.

    The items in the archives of the Holy Trinity contain the tales of how a small parish strove to build a church of its own. Were it not for the heroic efforts of the church’s head archivist, these stories would have faded away as parishioners relocated, aged, and passed away. Through the catalogue I filled out and the materials I digitized during my 160 hours in the archives, I hope that I helped these treasures survive for generations to come.

Internship at the Archives of the Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church #1

    Hello! My name is Danylo Leshchyshyn. This summer, I interned as an assistant archivist at the Holy Trinity Particular Ukrainian Catholic Church at 16631 New Hampshire Avenue in Montgomery County, MD. This church constitutes a parish of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic denomination in communion with the Pope of Rome. The parish of the Holy Trinity P.U.C. Church was one of many churches established by Ukrainian refugees who settled in North America after the Second World War. I grew up in this parish, so I was grateful for the opportunity to serve by helping manage the archives.  

Holy Trinity P.U.C. Church. Photo by Danylo Leshchyshyn.

    The chief goal of my internship was to organize and preserve the mountains of historical data in the parish archives. Organizing meant individually examining each document or item, and determining its origin. This process was made easier by simultaneously compiling an archival catalog, recording where each document was located. Each day I would encounter documents or other historical material which required immediate preservation work. To preserve the items, I learned how to properly de-crease dangerous folds, clean mold, and delicately remove staples and other sources of rust. The pandemic actually did not hinder my job too much, for my role allowed me to work independently in the archive room.

    The main joy of my internship was discovering all the hidden treasures waiting in the archives. During my time in the office, I had a wonderful opportunity to view hundreds of papers documenting the history of the parish, including many missives with beautiful letterhead and hallmarks from the Patriarch of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. There were also architectural plans related to the construction of the Holy Trinity P.U.C. Church in an authentic Carpathian Ukrainian style. In addition, I stumbled upon a rare collection of Ukrainian songs donated by a parishioner some time ago, consisting of over a hundred unique vinyl records.

Ground-level plans of the Holy Trinity PUC Church, by architect Larysa Kurylas.

    While this might not be an ideal place for most UMBC History students to intern, since it requires a strong grasp of the Ukrainian language, it proved a perfect opportunity for me to conduct quiet research and give back to my parish community.

Collections Internship with Save Our Seminary: Post 2

The newly renovated Greek Revival gymnasium, which now houses 

condominium units, greets visitors when they enter the National 

Park Seminary historic district. Not too long ago, the 

magnificent building was decaying from neglect. (Rebecca Gale)

As I relayed in my last post, I have been completing an internship with the historic preservation nonprofit Save Our Seminary (SOS), based in Forest Glen, which is responsible for the rescue and restoration of the historic National Park Seminary campus. SOS maintains an archive of objects important to the seminary’s history, and I’ve had the chance to aid with organizing parts of the collection to make it more accessible. 

While my first task was filing slides in archivally safe sleeves, my second project was sorting and filing an extensive set of photos depicting the gradual decay and long-awaited restoration of the historic buildings over the course of two decades. The bulk of the photos were taken by my internship supervisor, a historic preservationist and the executive director of SOS, who has been documenting the state of the campus since before most of us undergraduates were even in existence.

The end result of my project: Two and a half feet of binders
filled with hundreds of photos! Each binder houses photos of
a specific building or sculpture, placed in chronological
order to show change over time.

This collection has amounted to hundreds of photos and dates back to 1990. My job has been to sort photos into categories based on what building or object is pictured and place them into archival sleeves in chronological order so that it will be easy to trace the development of each building over time. Going through the photos has been fascinating, and their existence is a testament to the dedication of people who care about the stories that historic spaces tell, even when they no longer showcase their beauty as originally intended. I remember driving past the seminary campus when it was a tangle of weeds; it’s easy to forget the horrific state of the place looking at its pristine, glowing stucco today.

Some of the photos from the collection, depicting one building (a dorm during
the school era) before and during restoration. You can see the historic fireplace
that was preserved throughout the process. (Photos by Bonnie Rosenthal,
courtesy of Save Our Seminary)

This photo collection is a reminder of the victory that has been won in saving one American treasure and restoring it to life. Whenever I set foot on the seminary campus now, I think back to the mind-boggling images of decay – floors falling down, entire walls sagging, stones buckling, roofs caving in, fires being put out – and my heart warms to see a dream realized in front of me, the dream of a group of people committed to a place that spoke to them. The seminary is a reminder to keep fighting for the preservation of historic places because their story deserves to be told and they are meant to be a site of life once again.

• Read my first post on interning with Save Our Seminary.
• Visit Save Our Seminary's website to learn more about the site's history as well as upcoming events, tours, and lectures.

How My Internship Began with Howard County Conservancy

        On a brisk, overcast November day, 64 fourth grade students arrived at Howard County’s Belmont Manor and Historic Park for the first “Rock Hunters” field trip of the season. Filled with excitement and an eagerness to learn the kids were already brimming with questions about what they would experience. This day was months in the making. In September, I began an internship with the Howard County Conservancy to help enhance the “Rock Hunters” lesson, and now we were running it for the first time.

Carriage House at Belmont Manor and Historic Park

            For those that do not know, the Howard County Conservancy is a local, non-profit environmental education center and land trust. Dedicated to educating youth and adults about environmental stewardship and ecosystems, the Conservancy focuses its programs on local animal and plant life found in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The Conservancy has been educating Howard County youth since 1997, and has been an Educational Partner with the Howard County Public School System since 2003.

The Conservancy provides environmental education programs at two locations, one at Mt. Pleasant Farm in Woodstock and the other at Howard County’s Belmont Manor and Historic Park in Elkridge. The second, location at Howard County’s Belmont Manor and Historic Park, is a newly acquired location. Howard County Government purchased Belmont Manor and Historic Park to ensure the stewardship of the beautiful 68 acres, intact with a historic 1738 Manor House, formal gardens, barn and smokehouse. As a new site, the Howard County Conservancy is looking to expand their opportunities at the Belmont Manor and Historic Park. The location holds deep ties to local history and the surrounding community and The Conservancy would like to include these ties in their program offerings.

To give the idea of Iron Smelting.
"Casting pig Iron, Iroquois smelter, Chicago."

As part of my internship, I help tell the story of the Industrial Revolution in Patapsco River Valley, the Dorsey family role in the growth and the lasting environmental impact. Currently, The Conservancy discusses the use of Iron Works through Industrial Revolution in Patapsco River Valley and its relation to storm water run-off, including a professional display board with mineral manipulatives for Charcoal, Limestone, Iron Ore, Slag, and Pig Iron. However, they wish to deepen this connection and expand the history and social studies connections to reach more Howard County Students and visitors.

            

          Over the months since I have started this project, it has taken many different directions and approaches. In the end, we settled on designing the “rock hunters” as the first priority. Working closely with their Education Manager and doing external research, I worked with the curriculum and materials to include ties to the location’s iron forging history and how it relates to erosion and rain runoff. As I began to research the site’s history, and the originals Manor owner’s connection to iron milling, I found myself overcome with information. There is contradictory information in some sources, as well as local lore that I cannot find documentation to substantiate. Even with all of this, the real struggle is how to relate the information in a 2-hour lesson for elementary aged students.
             

Documents, objects, and sites: Considering a moving public history career

Over the past few weeks I’ve been contemplating a question for aspiring public historians: How would you best understand—and feel connected to—a historical figure? For example, you’ve no doubt read extensively about Honest Abe in history books and other popular literature over the years. To more deeply appreciate Lincoln as an individual, however, would you rather see his penmanship on original documents, stand before his famous top hat, or visit the place where he lived as a child? Which would move you the most? Now, beyond your personal preference as a visitor, consider your role in helping the public discover the Lincoln. If you would like to create a moment of inspiration for the public to truly understand him, what tools would you use: documents, artifacts, or sites?

From left to right: Lincoln's boyhood home at Knob Creek, Kentucky, now part of the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park; his July 22, 1862 draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, now held as part of the Robert Todd Lincoln Family Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress; the top hat he wore to Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865, which has been part of the Smithsonian Institution's collections since 1867.

The relative power of these three main mediums of public history seems to be truly personal. Of course, there are many factors that influence how you perceive each encounter, including how clearly the information is presented (whether in person or on paper). Your background, interests, and prior knowledge certainly shape your experience with each as well. As Freeman Tilden reminds us in his classic text Interpreting Our Heritage, visitors respond differently to content and thus interpretation should be customized based on their interests.

It took me 3.5 years of professional experience, a year of graduate school, and a month and a half of interning at the Smithsonian to realize that public historians also have inherently different interests. This is probably a strikingly obvious observation to many, but it’s a new concept for me to articulate. As a consumer of history—someone who loves soaking up history in any form on weekends—I consider museums, historic sites, and archives equally interesting. I certainly believe these three types of history institutions are equally important. However, as an emerging public history professional, it has occurred to me that I do not find documents, artifacts, and sites equally engaging to work with.

Personally, papers do not speak to me in the way objects do. Although Michael Johnson (based on his Denmark Vesey findings published in the William & Mary Quarterly) would likely disagree, I feel that digital facsimiles can sometimes reveal even more than original documents can with the ability to zoom, search, and hyperlink with other rich content. I find sharing a space with original objects that were held, owned, worn, or used by historical actors to be extremely poignant. Objects, however, do not cast the same sense of awe that I feel when visiting a historic building or site. While objects and papers can feasibly be transported, historic sites simply cannot. Instead, they serve as vehicles to transport visitors from the present to the past.

I have long been enamored with visiting battlefields and historic house museums. It recently dawned on me that my attraction stems from the simply matchless power of place. Standing on the very same floorboards as a historic figure almost literally allows you to walk in their shoes. These sites offer an opportunity to become part of where history happened. Historic sites touch all the senses, and they can be deeply affective regardless of age, ability, or language.

Of course, questions of authenticity complicate historic sites. What about buildings that are reconstructed to appear historic or have been significantly modified to come up to code? Structures that have been removed from their original context? Settings that have changed so significantly they would be unrecognizable to the historical actors? Teresa Moyer and Paul Shackel raise all of these questions in their book, The Making of Harper’s Ferry National Historical Park. Although these issues can complicate the interpretation or presentation, I don’t believe they take away from the power of a historic site. The story of a building or site’s preservation can be incorporated into the interpretation to form an engaging and unique narrative. 

Again, these insights are likely obvious to others—but they only clicked with me once I had hands-on experience in each of these main practices of public history. I fully intend to visit archives and museums wearing my “history consumer” (or, graduate student) hat. Moving forward in my career path, however, I will be aware of why my interests lie with historic sites and will seek opportunities that allow me to share my passion for place with the public.