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.

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.

The Civil Rights History of Baltimore at the MCHC: Part 2

The thing about oral history is that you have the opportunity of learning from different people and hear different perspectives on particular topics and issues of society. Baltimore has a rich history that many don’t know or heard about. The McKeldin-Jackson Project showed and explained the history of segregation during the civil rights movement.

Upon reading and listening to the interviews, I was able to get a better understanding of Theodore McKeldin, the people on his team, and civil rights leaders such as Lily May Jackson and her family. The transcription and translation process of these interviews gave us new perspectives on how African Americans were treated in society and the way Governor McKeldin worked with race leaders to bring change into Baltimore. Not just that but most of the summaries that I was able to create from the interviews were concerns about African American disenfranchisement; education and employment of African Americans; black relations with the police and with Jews; public accommodation of African Americans, black political action, and black women. This opened a doorway for me to learn more about Ford and Lyric theatres in Baltimore; desegregation; restaurant discrimination; the Urban League; Gov. Theodore R. McKeldin's appointments. I think it was truly interesting to see different groups of people come together to fight for a common and rebuild a community that wasn’t getting any respect from society.

I think it was quite inspiring to see a black woman like Lillie May Jackson, working closely with the governor of Maryland to create opportunities and change for the black community. It was amazing to see her support Louise Kerr Hines, who was discriminated against at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, as she wasn't offered a position for a free library training course due to the color of her skin. It was quite significant to see Carl Murphy of the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper and Lillie Mae Carroll Jackson of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People suing the library for their discriminatory actions towards the black community.

The most important part of the internship was the opportunity to listen to and transcribe old audio from the 90s. It was a long and difficult process but it was worthwhile for any future historian who was trying to get into the field of transcribing works of others from any time period. Overall, though the internship wasn’t too long of an experience, I still found all the projects and work that we did to be quite interesting and such a contribution to my field of study as a future historian.

The Civil Rights History of Baltimore: MCHC Part 1

 

Public History uses historical skills and getting around communities to learn and study history. I learned public history by making history with people who know and understand the field. From my experience doing a public history summer internship with the UMBC history department, I could fill some gaps in history that I didn’t know about history by doing fieldwork and conducting oral history interviews of those who were a part of the Freddie Gray uprising in Baltimore. The boot camp internship is a history internship, designed as a way for students to practice the work of public historians and the aspect of oral history and why it is essential for us to make history.

The Maryland Center for History and Culture (MCHC) is the internship's location; It was founded in March of 1844.it is an excellent place of history and has a lot of documents that historians can use to conduct a research projects, etc. As the museum was in the process of creating a civil rights exhibition, the translation of interviews done about the history of the Civil rights movement in Baltimore was needed as a way for the public and citizens to learn more about the history of Baltimore.

The internship was designed as a way for students to work on interviews that were done in the past, to create short summaries for the public to see if they have an interest in a specific person. It further taught us how to do the transcription and translation of old interviews as a way for the public to have easy access to information. It was the McKeldin-Jackson Project Oral History Collection that we were working on to create short summaries for the community to have an interest in it. The use of audio recordings to craft a story or a summary can be challenging, and sometimes you might perhaps record information that might not be the truth or not to the extent of what the interviewee said. This internship is an excellent opportunity for history students to practice history and the different ways that historians make history. We tend to associate just being behind a desk with the study of history, but there are many ways that we make history. Fieldwork and the inducting of an oral interview are methods that the internship was teaching us in a sense for us to be great historians in the future.

Tuning Into Baltimore: Internship at the Maryland Center for History and Culture II

 Tuning Into Baltimore II: Internship at the Maryland Center for History and Culture

By: Wyatt Lindsey

From the politically established to the average Baltimorean, the people behind the oral histories I listened to came from a variety of backgrounds. This provided me with a multifaceted perspective of Baltimore in the 1960s, with three main categories of conversation: politics, race/racial tensions, and development of Baltimore.

Discussion of Baltimore’s politics centered around the second mayoral term of Theodore McKeldin from 1963-1967, as well as the immediate effects of his term. From listening to McKeldin’s son, staff members, and advisors, an image of McKeldin as an honest man who got into politics to be among people. Many who knew McKeldin saw him as a rock, holding together Baltimore through his affable demeanor and through his image as someone who listened to whoever entered his office door. Behind closed doors, he was a big-picture thinker who often yearned to spend more time with his family, with a rage that occasionally got the best of him, causing him to act out. It was rare to hear anyone speak ill of McKeldin, and any criticism was often followed by numerous statements of how great of a person and leader he was, leading one to believe that his reciprocated love for Baltimore was genuine.

One of McKeldin’s proudest accomplishments was the development of Baltimore’s inner harbor. The establishment of the Charles Center saw the area rejuvenated under his successor, Mayor Thomas D’Alesandro III. The inner harbor remained an area that McKeldin was involved with until his death in 1974.

Listening to political actors of the time gives a large-scale view of the changes that were occuring in Baltimore, but a more intimate perspective lay in the oral histories of everyday people. Stories about racial tensions from those who witnessed the era of the Baltimore and Cambridge Riots, including efforts at police reform and the struggle of experiencing integration in public schools. Hearing from many members of the NAACP was also fascinating, especially concerning their retrospective views on the rise of black militancy in the civil rights movement. Throughout all, Lillie Mae Jackson remained a powerful influence, being brought up repeatedly by anyone who talked at any length about the NAACP or its efforts. The admiration demonstrated by those interviewed, even if they had once faced pressure from Jackson in the past, was indicative of her influence in the Baltimore community, especially in regards to race or religion.

Internship at the Baltimore Museum of Industry Blog Post #1

 

This semester, spring 2021, I will be interning at the Baltimore Museum of Industry. Currently, I am unfamiliar with local history and although I have lived near Baltimore for most of my life, I know very little about the city. I am excited to learn more about Baltimore's past and I am particularly excited to learn more about the industrial history of Baltimore. For my internship, I will be creating a virtual walking tour of Harbor East consisting of ten sites. The BMI has granted me access to their database and currently I have a large excel spreadsheet which lists all of the companies featured at the BMI to sift through. My supervisor has also input all of the BMI data into a map so that I can see roughly where certain companies were/are located. My task is to choose ten sites for the tour, research each of the sites, and then report my findings in a way that gets the attention of community members. I have been thinking about how to create an interesting tour and will be basing my tour design off of my experience in giving tours for UMBC's Office of Undergraduate Admissions. In addition to providing in-depth research on each of the ten sites, I have to carefully select which information I feel is most vital to the understanding of the history of each site. The tour I create has to be a reasonable length so that community members can actually walk the tour. After the tour is completed, the BMI plans to post the tour on the Baltimore Heritage website. If I finish constructing the tour and still have hours remaining, the BMI is willing to let me perform inventory on one of their exhibits. My personal goal for this internship is to learn how to convey history in a way that interests society. I feel that much historical scholarship fails to capture the interest of the public and I would like to get more people interested in learning about their local 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 #2

    When I volunteered to work in the archives of the Holy Trinity Particular Ukrainian Catholic Church, I never expected that I would be preserving vinyl records. I didn't even know the church had a vinyl record collection until, one day, I found a box and two paper bags together containing over a hundred vinyl records. A family friend told me that a parishioner had donated their large collection of Ukrainian folk and contemporary music on vinyl records to the church many years ago. These vinyl records, however, were stored for years under a stairwell, where damp conditions provided a wonderful habitat for mold. By the time I discovered them, many of the record covers were absolutely covered in that mold, and required immediate attention.
    While I had never worked with vinyl records before, vinyl records before, I dove into the task at hand undaunted. I set up a special table in my garage and assembled a large stash of Lysol® disinfectant cleaning wipes. I bought the necessary equipment to clean and preserve these vinyl records, including a special brush to clean any spores from the vinyl records themselves, archival-quality plastic inner and outer record sleeves to guard against moisture, and a portable record player which would allow me to create digital copies of the songs.

Photo of the cleaning station in my garage, along with my feline supervisor Tosia.

   I developed a routine for cleaning these records. First, I would remove the vinyl record from its paper cover, discard any irreparable inner paper sleeves, and put the record aside. Next, I would wipe down the cover, dry it with a paper towel, scan it with Office Lens, and place it into a plastic outer sleeve. Following that, I would carefully wipe any dirt or detritus from the vinyl record, dry it with a paper towel, and place it into a plastic inner sleeve. Then, I would take the vinyl record inside the house, gently clean it with the special record brush, and appraise the physical condition of the record. If there were no serious scratches or dents, I would then place it onto my portable record player, and let my computer make a digital copy of the songs. By the time I completed my internship at the Holy Trinity PUC Church, I had successfully preserved 43 different vinyl records.. 
    I found the experience of caring for these vinyl records particularly rewarding. Not only did I learn a lot about the vinyl medium, I also had the chance to listen to interesting and unique interpretations of the Ukrainian folk songs I grew up with. It also proved a good activity to do on days when I could not drive to the archives due to adverse weather conditions.

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.

Audra Campbell

December 17, 2015

Vietnam War Commemoration Blog Entry 1

           At The United States of America Department of Defense Vietnam War Commemoration I have been privileged to help in several areas of their mission. There are numerous goals of the Commemoration, but the primary goal is to thank and honor Vietnam War Veterans for their service, sacrifice, and valor for the United States of America. With the history of how the Vietnam Veterans were treated poorly upon their return to the USA and how there was not enough support for them during and after the war both by the US government and the Civilian population, the government has sanctioned the Commemoration in an effort to try to right this wrong and ensure that these veterans and their families are shown the respect and honor that they deserve. The idea that veterans are never to be treated like that again is strong at the Commemoration, and the effort to make sure that these events are never repeated for other veterans is a primary motivation. This is a really great project for me since my Dad was enlisted during the Vietnam War. Although he did not serve in combat, the Commemoration still honors him as well as all service men and women for their service. The project that I am involved in during this internship is helping them with gathering partners for the Commemoration. Partners must be organizations that have at least two events a year that honor veterans. It is free to become a partner and is open to military and civilian organizations. My primary function in the Commemoration has been to help them vet (review) these applications. This involves me researching to verify that the organization applying to be a partner is indeed a real organization and then helping them through the application process by making follow up calls and emails. These partners are supplied with flags, fliers, posters, bumper stickers, certificates, pins, etc. so that they can better honor veterans. I also help make the partner starter kits, the information folders, and assemble the certificate and lapel pins packets. The incredible care and detail that each member of the team puts into every aspect of what they do so that everything is perfect for the veterans is inspiring to be around. A powerful and eloquent statement to summarize their goals and motto for veterans is, “A grateful Nation thanks you.” It is important to the Commemoration that these deeds and these veterans never be forgotten for their acts of sacrifice and valor.

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.

An Overview of My Internship at CECOM

Image 1: Lab Test of cargo courier used by the Signal Corps Antarctic Research Team (1956-57).

     This summer I am an intern with the CECOM Historical Office of the United States Army (http://www.cecom.army.mil/historian/) at Aberdeen Proving Ground. CECOM is the U.S. Army Communications and Electronics Command, which is tasked with the development, testing, and sustainment of C4ISR systems (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) throughout the Department of Defense. CECOM traces its history to the U.S. Army Signal Corps and was originally headquartered at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, but was moved to Aberdeen Proving Ground under the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC). During World War I, the need for a dedicated Signal Laboratories led to the development of Fort Monmouth on the site of a former horse racing track.

     In addition to the laboratories and training school constructed on the site, other facilities were constructed on Fort Monmouth (then known as Camp Alfred Vail) to consolidate the operations of the Army Electrical Development Division to develop and test radio equipment and establish a pigeon breeding and training facility. In 1919, all Signal Corps Schools were relocated to Fort Monmouth, ensuring that the facility would survive the demobilization of the Army following the end of the war. Many of the technologies that would be used by the U.S. during World War II were developed by the Signal Corps Laboratories in the years between the wars. These developments included improved radio equipment such as the “walkie talkies” and field telephones used throughout World War II. Most importantly, the Signal Corps Laboratories worked significantly on the development of RADAR (Radio Detection and Ranging) after the project was transferred from the Ordnance Corps in 1930. The project was top secret, and so in early Field Manuals, RADAR was defined as a term used for communications radio sets.

     During World War II, the Signal Corps played an important role in the U.S. war effort, both in the United States and on the battlefields of Europe and the Pacific. The Signal School trained men for communications roles throughout the Army and the Signal Laboratories continued to develop new technologies for the war effort, including the first synthetically-produced large quartz crystals, a development which eliminated the U.S.’s reliance on imported quartz for use in communications devices. Following the end of the war, the Signal Corps continued to make important discoveries and innovations, such as Project DIANA, a radar antenna constructed at Fort Monmouth that was capable of transmitting and receiving signals bounced off of the moon. This development paved the way for future developments in artificial satellites such as the first communications satellite, Project SCORE. It was launched in December of 1958 and broadcasted a Christmas message from President Eisenhower back to Earth.

Image 2: Sphere Spotter antenna of DIANA moon radar in 1957.

      The Signal Corps as an institution continued to change in the years following World War II, adapting to the challenges faced in the Korean War, Vietnam War, and the overall challenges faced during the Cold War. Reorganization in the military led to new responsibilities and new names for the Signal Corps Laboratories, including ECOM (Electronics Command-1962), CERCOM (Communications-Electronics Readiness Command-1978), and, in 1981, it became CECOM following its merger with CORADCOM (Communications Research and Development Command).

     As an intern at the CECOM Historical Office, I will be working with the digitalization and indexing of a collection of photographs from the Communications-Electronics Museum Collection. These images span the history of the Command, but are primarily from World War I through the 1990s. The collection covers many different subjects, from images of personnel, commanding officers, and buildings at Fort Monmouth to equipment in the lab and in the field. Although I am primarily working with photographic prints, I am also learning about the identification and preservation of photographic negatives. As I continue with my work at APG, I will also learn more about how the Army, and the federal government in general, work with and preserve historical artifacts. I am interested in seeing how the Army’s policies regarding history differ from the policies of the National Park Service, where I had previously held an internship.

Image 3: Mule with radio pack, c1912. (Rear View)

Bibliography:

CECOM LCMC Historical Office, A Concise History of Fort Monmouth, NJ and the U.S.

Army CECOM Life Cycle Management Command (U.S. Army CECOM Life Cycle Management Command, 2009).

Image 1: Image #2605, “US Army Photo collection, C-E Museum Acquisition” from the

CECOM Historical Office archive, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD.

Image 2: Image #2681, “US Army Photo collection, C-E Museum Acquisition” from the

CECOM Historical Office archive, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD.

Image 3: Image #2076, “US Army Photo collection, C-E Museum Acquisition” from the

CECOM Historical Office archive, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD.