Montgomery History & Heritage Day

This summer I was fortunate enough to intern with Montgomery History, formerly known as the Montgomery County Historical Society, in Maryland. My internship allowed me to see three different aspects of the organization. One day during the week I was at the newly opened Montgomery County Archives in Gaithersburg, another day I was at the Jane C. Sween Research Library on the Beall-Dawson campus, and the last day during the week I assisted Amanda Elliott the Education and Outreach Coordinator in the office or acted as docent at the Beall-Dawson House Museum and the Dr. Stonestreet Museum of Nineteenth Century Medicine.

Early on in my internship with the organization they were preparing for Heritage Day, a county wide event held in June. Primarily leading up to the event I assisted the research librarian, Pat Andersen, with preparing book donations for a book sale they would be holding as well as assisting Amanda with anything that she needed, such as cataloging and organizing the “Craft Closet.”

The research library occasionally receives a number of book donations throughout the year as people downsize their households or move away. Some of the books donated are deemed unfit if they were improperly stored. We had one box of book donations that were moldy enough that we could smell it. Those were immediately disposed of. Pat went through the other boxes of books and chose which ones would be sold at the book sale. For the high dollar books I used the internet to determine what a fair price would be.

I arrived at a rainy Beall-Dawson House early on Heritage Day to help set up. I was stationed in the “Old Kitchen” at one of the craft tables for children. I assisted them in painting cardboard flowerpots and planting basil seeds. This was meant to tie into the medicinal garden outside the house. We found out early in the day that a number of other events in the county were cancelled due to the rain. This was incredibly beneficial to us as more people than we expected came to the event. While I was assisting the kids paint their flower pots – and they were certainly more interested in painting than planting the basil seeds – I found that a lot of the kids had wanted to come to the event. They told me that history was their favorite subject in school so I was able to chat with them about what parts of history they enjoyed the most. 

Overall the day was a success and I was able to witness another aspect of public history. It was disheartening to see that they didn’t anticipate many people coming to the event, but small historical societies and house museums can definitely have difficulties with garnering interest as well as with finances and funds.