Settling into the Smithsonian

This summer, I am interning with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, DC. As a blog editorial assistant in the New Media Department, my responsibilities include helping to update the museum’s active blog as well as assisting with all of the museum’s social media platforms. On a typical day I can be found on the computer editing, formatting, or tracking down images for a blog post as well as researching and writing social media content that relates to a historic anniversary (“Today in 1964…”), a special event (whether a holiday like Father’s Day or a happening at the museum) or new artifacts on display (such as this jersey worn by soccer superstar Pele). Because I am not terribly familiar with the museum’s collections, I’ve also spent about 1.5 hours a week exploring the exhibits alongside museum visitors.

The museum, looking rather intimidating to me on my first day.

My initial impression of NMAH was that it was SO huge. The building itself is two city blocks long and can resemble a maze to those of us who lack a great sense of direction. At the orientation, the museum’s internship coordinator estimated that there were about 400 full-time and/or year-round staff members who worked in the building in addition to about 75 interns and fellows at any given time. A staff of 400 seems unimaginably large to me considering that I’ve mostly worked at institutions made up of two to 10 full-time staff. What I’ve observed, however, is that my daily workflow is mostly related to about a dozen individuals. While there are literally hundreds of NMAH employees and interns who I never interact with, there are others I’ve worked closely with in just a few weeks’ time.

The New Media Department is made up of only three people. I was surprised to learn that such a small group is responsible for maintaining the website, blog, and social media presence for such a large institution. Although I’m sure their daily to-do lists would be lightened if the office were equipped with more manpower, they seem to manage a high volume of work quite efficiently. This relatively intimate environment is ideal for an intern, of course, because I have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience. Instead of just brainstorming content for the blog, I am writing posts. Rather than only monitoring the museum’s Instagram account to keep track of analytics, I am taking photos, writing captions, posting the content (sometimes live at events), and answering constituents’ questions.

And on the subject of live events, it’s an exhilarating time to be at NMAH with a flurry of activity in recent weeks. I’ve worked on content related to a naturalization ceremony on June 17 (which I unfortunately couldn’t attend because I forgot my ID badge at home—I learned my lesson!) and National History Day on June 18. The biggest event, however, was the nationwide Flag Day celebration on June 14. Raise It Up! Anthem for America was part of the museum’s War of 1812 bicentennial commemoration (which happens to be the subject of my thesis). As the stewards of Mary Pickersgill’s iconic Star-Spangled Banner, it makes sense for NMAH to mark the 200^th anniversary of the song that made the flag so famous. The flag and the original manuscript were united for the first time, where they will be on display together until early July. NMAH celebrated this occasion with a performance of American musical classics on the national mall, which was streamed online, and by inviting organizations and individuals across the country to join together in singing the national anthem at a designated time.

Among the special guests at the Raise It Up concert on Flag Day were country musician Carlene Carter and Governor Martin O'Malley. Secretary of the Smithsonian G. Wayne Clough is pictured just behind them.

In the days before the event, I combed through the museum’s Star-Spangled Banner blog series and website to generate (very) brief facts about the flag and song, which we posted on Twitter every 15 minutes throughout most of the day. Thankfully, this is one subject area I feel confident about considering I used to work at the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House. If the content had to relate to, say, World War I, it would have been a much more nerve-wracking challenge. It was a delight to see these facts retweeted because I felt connected to these other individuals across the country—who care, as I do, about the War of 1812, conserving the flag, Francis Scott Key’s original four stanzas, etc. The most popular tweet I composed is below:

The original Star-Spangled Banner flag sewn in 1813 measured 30x42 feet--school bus sized! #raiseitup #FlagDay pic.twitter.com/I6fcP5Opat
— amhistorymuseum (@amhistorymuseum) June 14, 2014

On the day itself, I attempted to keep track of what was happening in person as well as online. Throughout the day I was glued to my iPhone to take photos/video and communicate with these national partners through social media. To a casual observer, it probably looked like I was paying no attention to the United States Air Force Band or the other esteemed performers—but I was indeed working the whole time. Time is of the essence for any event, especially ones that are simulcast, so my supervisor and I were trying to post as quickly as possible on Flag Day rather than waiting until Monday to sort through pictures, thank partners, answer questions, etc.

New Media is just that—new—so it seems like customs, norms, expectations, etc. around it are still developing in the museum field. How museums develop, maintain, promote and envision both their websites and social media platforms vary. I appreciate that the museum categorizes New Media as part of the Education Department. The museum’s website and social media are meant to contribute to “the increase and diffusion of knowledge”—the mission, after all, of the Smithsonian Institution. Instead of viewing Twitter as an afterthought, it was at the heart of the Raise It Up campaign. For the majority of their social media followers, who do not live in the DC metro area, the only way to engage with the museum is online. Many of the Twitter followers and Facebook fans are looking for historical expertise, and seek NMAH’s social media to learn new information about the past. Thus, almost all of the posts I create are not promotional but educational. Expectations—both internal and external—are high for every single word published by this institution of national prestige, so a great deal of care must go into each of the 140-word tweets, Google+ posts, Instagram photos, Facebook updates, Pinterest pins, and Flickr captions that I write.

My complete social media summary of Raise It Up can be seen on the NMAH blog, O Say Can You See (sensing a theme here?).

Backstage at Raise It Up with some of the staff members I work mostly closely with: from left, educator Tory Altman, researcher Patri O’Gan, and my supervisor in New Media, Erin Blasco.