Working with Local Communities and the Patapsco Heritage Greenway

For my internship, I am working with the Patapsco Heritage Greenway, located in old Ellicott City. This nonprofit organization is committed to the sustainability of the Patapsco river valley and watershed, as well as working to appreciate and further explore the history and culture of the region. My goal for this internship is to create a list of thirty historic sites in the towns of Relay, Halethorpe, and Elkridge, Maryland. In addition to the list of historic sites, I am developing research guides in order to help students conduct the necessary research on their chosen site(s). The list of sites and the research guides will serve as the basis for the project for the the public history graduate class that will take place in the fall.

On June 7th, I had the opportunity to attend a board meeting held by the members of the Patapsco Heritage Greenway organization. It was important that I attended this meeting, as I was able to be introduced to the board members, many of whom have lived in the area for most of their lives. That said, working with this organization and meeting the board members has made me aware of the organization’s values and vision for the future.

Patapsco Heritage Greenway is devoted to the sustainability and continued revitalization of the Patapsco Valley. Board members have expressed that not only is PHG committed to the environmental integrity of the Patapsco region, but also they are motivated to celebrate and highlight the heritage and history of the region. By doing research and exploring these three towns, I am realizing that the values of the PHG organization are also very important to the local residents. Residents are very invested and proud of the history of their town. In my next post, I will discuss more in detail the ways in which residents and community leaders perceive and continue to use community institutions and meeting places.

Although I am researching the physical historic sites that are located in these three towns, it is important that I, as well as the students who take the class in the fall, take time to connect with community members and leaders. These local residents, since they are from a small town, are very proud of their local history. Therefore, students have to take the time to build relationships with members of these communities in order to learn more about what the town and its residents mean to them. Part of being a good public historian means building trust with community members and becoming an “adopted” member of the town you are researching.

In my next post, I will discuss in more detail how meeting with community members and institution leaders has helped me in understanding the history and changing dynamics and institutions that are occurring in these three distinct small towns.

What would the public historian do?

Over the summer I am doing my internship at the B&O Railroad Museum, Ellicott City Station. Initially, my internship plan was to read and research aspects of Dining and The B&O in order to create an exhibit at this location to run from the beginning of July to the end of September. I have been researching this topic since mid-March of this year and have since interviewed a chef for a historical food event to tie into the possible exhibit.  Through this process, I gained a lot of curatorial, management, and archival experience. This internship has helped me so immensely in the short amount of time that I have been here that it is difficult to describe. However, interning at a small, local museum has its costs and benefits. I have worked in multiple sectors of the museum field all in one place so that means that I could go into the workforce with a variety of experiences. This puts me in a very good position for my future goals. At a small museum like this one, you can also reach a lot of people in a closer way than you could at a large national museum. Of course, they both have positives and negatives but I think it has been a gift to be able to have interpretive conversations with visitors on a smaller level.  But recently, this museum has had to handle challenges and uncertainties that face most state and local museums at some point in their history. While most museums will have to ask themselves similar questions, every answer will be different. Going forward I must ask myself the following: what is the appropriate moral response in times of difficulty? At what point does the history of the museum itself become part of the history to be preserved? And lastly, what would the public historian do?

My time as a Judicial Intern

I spent my spring semester working for Judge Wanda Keyes Heard of the Circuit Court in Baltimore City (I don’t have any pictures because sadly you aren’t allowed to take pictures in most court rooms in Maryland). My internship was an amazing experience. I learned a lot about not only the legal profession but about professional etiquette and the importance of networking. When I first started working with the Judge I had no idea what I was doing. On the first day the judge handed me a file and a letter from a defendant who was in jail. She told me that I had to read through the file and advise her on whether or not his sentence should be reduced. This is called a motion for modification or reduction of sentence or MMRS.

 I rushed to make my recommendation. The guy seemed like a nice man. He regretted his decisions and was ready to go out into society. It couldn’t be too hard. Why would the judge give me something difficult on the first day? Man was I wrong. As soon as I told the Judge that he should get out she immediately went to the back of the file and pulled out this long list on bright yellow paper. It was full of charges. I learned that you have to read carefully. If you think that your professors grade harshly, it’s nothing compared to what you experience in the real world. In college your grade is on the line, in the professional world it’s much more serious. On the bright side, I did get a lot better at my critical thinking skills and I made the right decision more often.

Working at the Courthouse taught me how to do EXTENSIVE research. A lot of times in school you just rush through your papers and do just enough to get by. In the professional world you have to do more than what you feel is necessary. I spent so much time going back and forth to the law library and the judge’s chambers; grabbing books, looking up laws, writing and then going back and looking up more laws. Books are much more useful than the internet. You have to understand something in order to look it up in a book. It’s a lot easier to just cut and paste information that seems relevant without internalizing what you are citing. Citations in the legal field are different from the Chicago style citations used by historians. However, the general concept is the same. Do not make a statement without backing it up with evidence.

Now you are probably wondering what working in a court house has to do with History. Well here is the interesting historical part. The judge I worked with is an alumni of UMBC. She has been practicing law for over 30 years and next spring she will be the first female chief judge of the Circuit Court in Baltimore City. The judge was mentored by Judge Nance, the current Chief justice of the Circuit Court in Baltimore City. Judge Nance was mentored by Joseph C. Howard. Joseph C. Howard was the first black judge to be elected to the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City in 1968 and he was also the first black judge to serve on the bench in the U.S District Court for the State of Maryland in 1979. I met Judge Nance and got a chance to see his extensive collection of legal books. Some of the books were from before 1868, the year when African Americans were legally considered to be citizens. The experience was surreal. We have come far as a nation but must never forget the past. It is honorable to be in the presence of African-American judges when we were considered property less than 150 years ago.

This internship with the Circuit Court was a life changing experience. I met leading attorneys in Maryland as well as other judges and legal professionals. One of these professionals was Jose Anderson, a legal professor at University of Baltimore and University of Pennsylvania. He offered me an opportunity to attend the Charles Hamilton Houston Legal Scholars Program this summer. I would not have gotten this opportunity or any of the other opportunities that I had if I did not intern with Judge Heard. 

It is important to do internships as soon as possible. They allow you to get real world experience and discover your true passion. They also allow you to network and introduce you to new opportunities that you most likely would not have sought out on your own. I believe that completing internships and getting involved in your field is just as important, if not more, than studying and getting good grades. Being an intern is a worthwhile experience which requires a lot of discipline. You have to balance between completing assignments at the workplace, completing your schoolwork, other prior obligations and having a social life. There will be many days when you feel extremely tired but if you create a schedule, complete your work early, and remain consistent you will be able to succeed. I would recommend that every student complete at least one internship while they are in college. 

Post 2: Jason Aglietti's experiences as an intern at the Maryland State Archives

Previously, I spoke about my internship with the Maryland State Archives and my project of redesigning their website for their research project called Finding the Maryland 400.  I knew it would be a large undertaking and it would require thinking about the website in a radically different way. 

Tim Grove’s article “History Bytes: Website Redesign” talks a bit about the importance of website redesign that was particularly helpful.  “An organization should be conducting ongoing usability testing to remain aware of challenges its users experience on its website.”[1]  Making the “user experience” more intuitive became the focal point of my project. I did this in a few ways. 

First we tackled aesthetics.  The old website was boring and looked dated. I also wanted to address issues like the cover image for the website and by creating a new theme.  The image that was on there (see screen shot below) was a low-quality photograph of the memorial at the battleground of the Battle of Brooklyn.  While this might be a touching tribute, the image did not look great nor did it depict what actually happened. The image I wanted was a painting by Alonzo Chappel, The Battle of Long Island (1858) whose rights were owned by the Brooklyn Historical Society.  This is the only color rendition of the battle itself, and it looks much more pleasing than the previous photo. My supervisor, Owen got in contact with them and they granted us permission to use it for free. Next, we launched a new and inviting theme.  

Screen shot of previous website design.

Another problem was that the blog page was overrun with clutter from previous employees that we agreed looked overwhelming. We knew we needed to make it much easier for visitors to find the best and most relevant information quickly. So we removed clutter, switched around some of the menus (including deleting pages that people no longer were clicking on), and designed an intuitive experience that people would not get lost exploring.   (See photo of the new design below).

Screen shot of new theme, cover photo, and design.

I then started cleaning up the blog, which is most visited part of the website, with over 7,000 unique visitors last year.  Over the next couple of weeks, we transformed it from being a non-searchable endless sea of posts, to a much more engaging experience.  We changed the way the blog page looked in the new theme. We also wanted to figure out a way to highlight the best and most informative blog posts from the previous three (almost four) years. I did this by creating a “featured entries” page. I designed the page so that it would have a "post of the month" to highlight random posts throughout the year.  The intent is to try and make them thematically relevant (like highlighting a post featuring women's role in the Continental Army during Women's History Month).  We also created sub topics, each with three attached posts that tend to be more popular with users.  At the bottom, we created 10 genre categories and tagged every single post (of well over 100) with different labels to so that they coincided with these genre labels.  Within two weeks, we saw an immediate response from the public, with many older posts -- most of which have not had any clicks in years -- receiving attention.  The featured page also quickly became one of the top three pages clicked on since it launched. 

In my next post, I will focus on the biography and education pages that we created, and how the rest of the project wrapped up. 

[1] Tim Grove, “History Bytes: Website Redesign” History News, Vol. 66, No. 2 (SPRING 2011), pp. 6.

Sine Die

Sine Die

           

Welcome back to the third and final installment of the 2017 Legislative Session

This session has been one of the best experiences of my life. I have learned about so many different issues and have seen the passion that people bring to the table on each of these issues. I have learned the significance of strategy and the ways to go about getting legislation passed. For this post, I will show some of the stomping grounds during session and also provide some end of session results.

First, this is an image of the mural that is located in the House of Delegates Building. It is in the “circle” which is the middle area that is between the committees. If you are in this area during session you will see it filled with lobbyists, concerned citizens, delegates, and legislative staff. I must say that this area becomes loud and intense during bill hearings. Some of the staff found this area to be intimidating due to the limited space and loudness. I just channeled my days as a football player and found it a walk in the park. It was much more pleasant than someone trying to hit me on the field.

As you can see, there is a phrase that is in Latin. I took two years of Latin when I attended private school and it was my favorite subject. I had someone walk by and tell me that it meant “Friends and Family.” I knew that was incorrect before they said it as I guessed its translation from my prior knowledge. It actually means “Increase and Multiply.”

Is anybody a baseball fan? Specifically, an orioles fan? Well, yes that is me and yes that is superstar first baseman Chris Davis to my right. The Baltimore Orioles do an annual visit to Annapolis to tour the grounds and meet with state representatives. I was able to attend because I was staff and meet each of the players. Davis is hands down my favorite because I like his style of play. I played first base a lot in my career and also we have similar hitting technique. Plus, I can now say that in person he is just as cool off the field as he is on the field. This was an awesome experience for an avid baseball fan like myself.

This next image best represents our legislation from this session. HB 1325- Hydraulic Fracturing Ban. This was a ban that I could fully support. Maryland is important to me and fracking would tear it apart and ruin wonderful places such as Garrett County and Allegheny County. Here we have the official bill signing in the State House on April 4^th. I am in the far left side of the room. I was able to be in this photo because I was a staff member of the primary sponsor on the bill, my delegate, David Fraser-Hidalgo. I was also able to meet Governor Hogan and receive an official pen from this signing. It was a great experience and ending to such an exciting legislative session. For those who are wondering, my delegate is in silver, standing directly behind Governor Hogan. This bill and now law was one of historical significance. We are the third state to legislate a full ban on fracking. Delegate Fraser-Hidalgo and the office did a wonderful job working to get this legislation passed.

I have posted this picture to represent the feeling of the end of session. It is a crazy looking person on top of an eighteen wheeler. It is meant to demonstrate our mindset through the final portion of session. We knew that we would go crazy and we were driving full force into it. These little stress toys brought some much needed relief to the office at the right times. The crazy looking person says to Relax when you squeeze it. Overall, it was crazy and I felt that this image best depicted the feeling of the end of session.

  

I wanted to conclude with a picture of my desk. This is where I did a good portion of my work during my internship. I did a significant amount of research sitting at this desk. I also spoke with constituents over the phone about their top concerns. This was also the area where I coalated testimony for the daily committee meeting. It was a nice little area that I had to work to help the office. I enjoyed working alongside everyone else in the office and as you can see Kelly and I worked directly next to each other. She was a great person to work alongside as she was always in a good mood. I do want to mention that my chair was broken when I first arrived and it had been broken for a couple years. I fixed that chair on my first day and that set the tone that it was going to be a good year to get things done. We were successful and were able to legislate progress for Maryland.

All in all, I loved my experience working in Annapolis. I can sincerely say that I have found my passion. I intend on continuing to work in the political department of public service. I feel that there are many issues and challenges that need to be addressed. I want to gain experience and learn more tricks of the trade before one day making a run at politics myself. I will say that my momentum will continue as I have accepted a Fellowship/ Internship in Governor Hogan’s office for the summer. I am looking forward to that and to doing my best to make a positive impact by listening to the people. Thank you for reading these posts and following along my journey in the Maryland General Assembly.

Post 1: Jason Aglietti's experiences as an intern at the Maryland State Archives

Last November, I was offered an internship experience at the Maryland State Archives to work under a Research Archivist who is actually a graduate of the Historical Studies program at UMBC. The goal was to work on a special project that the MSA have been involved with since 2013.  The project is called Finding the Maryland 400 and it publishes new research conducted at the MSA on the soldiers who served in the First Maryland Regiment at the Battle of Brooklyn during the American Revolution.  The project is financially sponsored by Maryland Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and they have been heavily invested in this project since its creation.  Over the last few years, the Maryland State Archives have had paid staff members conducting research on the soldiers who fought in the battle and writing blog posts and biographies on these men. I was hired to revamp the way people can access the information to make it more user-accessible and ascetically pleasing for future people who visit the website.

The research has been published through a WordPress website and while it is stuffed with relevant and well-researched information, it was incredibly unintuitive and bloated.  The focus of this website was to present detailed biographies of each men who served in the regiment.  They also have a running blog that updates visitors on interesting stories, useful data, or other bits of information that they uncovered along the way.  However, after nearly four years of being constantly updated with information but no upgrades to its usability, new problems had overtaken the website.

The "biographies"page just became an endless list of names and links that did not provide any reason for visitors to click on them, thus it was a part of the website that was largely ignored by the public. This is unfortunate since this part of the website is the key reason the Maryland Society of the Sons of the American Revolution funded he project in the first place.  The blog, while it received heavy traffic, was very bloated and users had no way to access past content easily.  This is a problem because the website is growing in popularity every year.  It went from 2,400 unique visitors in 2013 to over 9,000 in 2016.  So the archivist in charge of the project new that something needed to be done.

This is where I came in. I have a background in computers (I worked for Apple for almost six years) and the period I’m studying for my Master’s thesis is on the American Revolution — making this position a perfect fit for me.  The goal set out before me was simple: revamp the website and make it easily searchable, more intuitive, and more accessible for readers.

I spent my first few weeks doing a combination of things.  On the research side, I tried to read or partly read every single blog post on the website — which is quite a feat considering how many posts were on there. I also spent considerable time learning about the early continental army. This was important because my studies on the revolution mostly focused on economic, social, and religious aspects to early American society and I spent very little time examining America’s struggling military.  This enabled me to get a firmer grasp on scope of the project heading forward.

Before I made any changes to the website, I created a “test” website that mirrored all the major components of the actual website. I did this so I could experiment with formatting, HTML, and other design components that way myself and the lead historian on the project can decide what we like without making constant changes.

I set up a plan for our future. First we would focus on fixing the aesthetics.  Next, we knew we would handle the usability and search ability of the blog while creating more inviting ways to encourage exploration of the rest of the website.  And finally we knew we wanted to add a stronger educational component for people who might visit the website for academic reasons. What we changed, why we changed it, and how it was received will be found in the next blog post.

Internship at USG's Priddy Library Update

Since the completion of my “Women on the Money” Exhibit, I have primarily been working on two projects. The first being the Rosenwald Exhibit and the other was working on the consistency of Neatline, Omeka, and the Excel spreadsheet backup of that data. As of my last post, I had created a prospective outline on the exhibit on Julius Rosenwald that will be paired with the screening of the Rosenwald documentary by Aviva Kempner.

Julius Rosenwald

 Leah Rufus and I compiled more primary and secondary sources for research on the exhibit and I went through the various sources and pulled what I thought was the pertinent information. Also, a great learning experience that I gained from this was reaching out to other libraries and special collections throughout different states to request information and images that they had on Julius Rosenwald. Surprisingly, quite a few librarians and special collections were more than happy to provide information and resources for the exhibit.  The information I assembled seems like it will be far too extensive to put on posters. Therefore, I began looking for the most important aspects of the information I gathered to make it as concise as possible. From there, I put the information into the outline I created and asked Nickolas and Irene to help me edit it and see how it flowed. As well as creating the exhibit to pair with the screening, I was tasked with creating a list of invitees for the screening. This list included parts of the community that would be interested in a documentary of a Jewish immigrant philanthropist that worked to help promote education for African-American youths in the American South during segregation. The list of groups and people to invite included: local synagogues, local youth groups, local historical African-American churches, and Montgomery College Rockville History, Anthropology, and Social Sciences Department Faculty. Creating this list and drafting an email to send with the screening poster gave me valuable experience in community outreach.

Screenshot of Omeka

However, my progress on the Rosenwald Exhibit had to be put on hold as I began to work on proofing Neatline, Omeka, and the Excel backup.  Working on this was very time consuming as there are over 200 items that I had to go through and make sure that they were identical on all three places. Unfortunately, there were items missing in the Excel spreadsheet backup and I had to go through each exhibit individually to locate the missing items. Once I found those, I had to enter in the metadata and make sure it was consistant in each place. Also, I had to upload a handful of exhibits that were missing from Neatline. Eventually, I completed this process and had to move to editing the titles and text descritions of the exhibits in the Priddy Library History Collection for spelling, grammar, syntax, and overall consistancy. The items in this collection totaled to 95, so it was a little easier than going through all 250+ items stored in Omeka. The Priddy Library History Collection is a set of events, exhibits, and community outreach programs that reach back all the way to the beginning of the Library at this location in 1992 when it was called the Shady Grove Library/Media Center. By editing the collection, I was able to learn about the origins of the Priddy Library and the Universities of Shady Grove Campus. I am currently waiting for Irene to complete the final round of edits on the collection so I can begin to focus more on finishing the Rosenwald Exhibit. I am looking forward to seeing the completed product for both the Neatline and Omeka sites, as well as the Rosenwald Exhibit.