Smithsonian Freer|Sackler Internship 2

Smithsonian Freer|Sackler Internship: July Wrap-Up

This last month at the Smithsonian Freer|Sackler galleries has been quite busy, which is why I am writing this blog post so late.

On July 4^th the Sackler Gallery closed one of our most popular exhibits, Filthy Lucre. Filthy Lucre, also known as Peacock Room REMIX, is an exhibit by Darren Waterston. It is Waterston’s interpretation of James McNeill Whistler’s (original) Peacock Room. Supposedly, it was a commentary by Waterston about what happens when money and art collide. The Peacock Room (original) is known for its decadence; the paintings, porcelain, and colors used in the room are considered to be iconic. Filthy Lucre is the Waterston’s honest opinion of Whistler, going to such lengths to produce such a luxurious room.

On July 10^th, the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery closed for a 3-month reinstallation period. On October 14^th, there is a reopening weekend in which the Sackler and Freer Galleries will be open to the public again. The two day event will celebrate the renovation of the Charles Lang Freer Gallery and the new art that will be available in both Asian Art Galleries.

Because both museums are closed now, and I am employed as an intern working with Visitor Experience, my job has changed drastically. Last month, I was working out in the Gallery mostly, spending very little time in the office with my other co-workers. Now, I spend every day in the office, working on statistics for the museums, coordinating with volunteers for the reopening event in October, and doing research in the other Smithsonian Museums. It is not as active and exciting as last month, but this month I am really getting to show off my office skills. It is a bit lonely without being able to talk to the visitors and interact with guests, but it is nice staying at the desk and finishing all my work in a day. Currently, I am working on the September newsletter for our Docents and Visitor Information Specialists.

I have been attending lots of meetings and talking about preparation for the IlluminAsia Reopening event. I also attend lots of lunch meetings with the other interns from the disabilities program I am employed with. I like meeting with other interns because they are stationed in different museums and are having completely different experiences than I am. One intern named Sam is stationed at the Natural History Museum with Visitor Experience as well. His museum is much larger than my museum and has way more visitors per day than my museum. He says it’s a bit stressful because lots of children and school groups visit the Natural History Museum and children have a lot of energy. The Natural History Museum has lots of interactive things for children to experience.

During my internship, I’ve noticed how different History Museums are from (fine) Art Museums/Galleries. Personally, I find I enjoy art museums more. History museums are so informative and educational but they are very straightforward. In art museums, the kinds of art displayed vary from being historical pieces to abstract pieces in which the audience can interpret in a variety of ways. However, both history museums and art museums present culture and history in a way that everyone can learn from.

Internship at Casais & Prias PLLC Law Firm

I have completed the first part of my internship at the law office of Casais & Prias PLLC. I have primarily filled a research role in the operation. Using resources pertaining to law I have been diving through statutes and case law. It is in this type of work the relationships between being a historian or a lawyer share many similarities. For law cases, you must research throughout judicial history to then structure arguments which are then reviewed by peers through the legal process. This type of work closely mirrors the process of source research, argument construction, and peer review found in the History discipline.
Since the 24th of July I have been preparing research for one of attorney Prias' cases. She is representing a defendant who was charged with 7 counts relating to civil theft, breach of contract, and conspiracy. My research would dictate whether we would go forward with a motion to dismiss the complaint altogether or at least dismiss some of the counts and prepare to contest the ones that remain. The motion she will be filing is only in response to the complaint she received at this time, so any research or argument made had to be bound by the information in the complaint itself. Reading the complaint itself and statutes surrounding bankruptcy and alter ego, I discovered the following.
Unfortunately for plaintiff, he had purchased goods from the defendant who then filed for bankruptcy which cleared the company of any possible debt it faced. To try and retrieve what he paid, this customer included a count of alter ego in their complaint. My research discovered that alter ego is the practice of mixing your company and personal finances, as well as practicing complete control over a company to the point where it's simply an extension of yourself. If you prove this against a company it allows you to "pierce the corporate veil" and pursue payment from the owner who would normally be protected. This was established in the Broward Marine Inc. V. S/V Zeus Florida case.
I was able to use my research skills from History courses and they helped greatly in digging through case law. Although the resources are more specialized for law, I was able to extract pertinent information for my notes. I then brought the case law and my reasoning for all 7 counts to attorney Prias. Using my research, they drafted their motion to dismiss 3 of the counts (pertaining to alter ego) and began their arguments. It was exhilarating to see research turned around so quickly into action.

National Electronics Museum 2

Going into July I was not entirely focused on Pioneer camp since we had 1-2 other groups coming almost every single weekday of the entire month.  But I did finalize the agenda for the 16 hour period that I would need to fil with content. I managed to partner with the museums own HAM Radio station and they took up about an hour on the second day. One of the HAM operators also put me in touch with a group based in Columbia, MD that has their own satellite in orbit. The group also was interested in having more outreach and agreed to come do a demonstration on how satellites work and how you can communicate with them. That allowed me to fill up two of the sixteen hours with a real world demonstration, one on each day. Once I had these two demonstrations worked out it allowed me to place the other activities around the two demonstrations and finalize the agenda.

                However, just as I was finishing the agenda the internet in the office went down for nearly two weeks just before Pioneer Camp. This meant I could not email anyone that registered or keep track of people registering for the camp. It also posed a problem for ordering the materials I needed for the camp. Thankfully I managed to link my email to my phone and use data to monitor registration and order the supplies needed. At the time the internet went out there were only 12 registrants for the first session, so I figured I would prepare supplies for 20 campers just in case. Luckily we only had 19 campers for the first session so I had ordered just enough supplies. The only actual problem in supplies that I encountered was that I had ordered prisms for a visible light and infrared experiment and they never showed up. Luckily since I had the two demonstrations I had actually over planned activity wise, and did a RADAR mapping activity instead.

                Thankfully the internet came back online the week before Pioneer Camp, because Alice had told me I needed to send out waivers to all of the parents/guardians and I had no idea that was necessary due to a lack of information on how the camp was done the year before. Alice then told me I could actually access the 2014 and 2015 Pioneer Camp files that my predecessor’s predecessor left. Kirsten’s notes were a huge help and allowed me to just change the dates to her waiver form, and she even had a prepared email to send out the week before camp to all of the parents. This was a huge help because I was not able to focus on Pioneer Camp as much as I probably should have due to the high number of other groups coming into the museum. I even had groups coming in the day prior to the Camp and the two days after with no break in between, which really wore me out this past week.

                The afternoon of July 25^th was devoted to setting up our hall and preparing the materials that we would need the following two days. While I was in charge I had two education assistants and another intern to assist me with the preparations and running of Pioneer Camp’s first session. The 26^th and 27^th went fairly well, we never ran out of activities to do, I think the kids learned a few things, and I hope some of them even had a lot of fun. One of the Campers even told us that they wished it lasted a whole week, and all of the parents were happy. This was a huge relief, since I was very stressed out about how well the camp would go, but there were defiantly some problems that I believe I can fix in time for the August session of the camp.

                The first thing I am changing is that I am ordering a different model of the crystal radio that I hope will be more reliable. Around five or six of the crystal radios we put together didn’t work at all, and there were three parts that were extremely fragile and were easily dropped and broken. We also had only set up one antenna to test out the radios and each radio took a few minutes to test. This meant that eighteen kids did not have much to do. I am debating two solutions to this for the second session of camp. One possible solution is to set up two antennas so that we can test out multiple radios; the second is to incorporate it into a rotation of events/activities so that only 5-7 campers are trying out their radios at a time, while the rest of the campers are doing a completely different activity. A separate issue is that two full days of science camp is a really long time for 8-10 year olds to focus on experiments and activities, regardless of how interesting said activities are to them. During the first session one of the campers brought a ball, which let the kids get up and move around while throwing ab all back and forth during breaks. But even with that by the last half of the second day most of the campers had shortened attention spans and could not really focus on any projects. Thankfully I had inadvertently planned simpler activities for the last part of camp that let them color and see how colors can blend together, and use diffraction glasses which break up white lights into all the colors of the rainbow.  I think I want to incorporate an additional break into each day where I can show them some cool experiments or educational videos on the projector, and hopefully the weather will be more cooperative and we will actually be able to go outside for an activity or two in order to provide them with a change of pace.

                Overall putting together and running Pioneer Camp was extremely stressful for me, I have to admit I actually lost some sleep over it which is unusual for me.  The camp did go well and ever camper got to take home multiple projects and their own set of diffraction glasses. Sadly I will have less help and more campers for the second session, the other intern and one of my education assistants won’t be around anymore. But myself and Stephen now know the activities better and what steps the campers will likely have problems with, so that does help to offset the amount of help we will need. One of the museum’s volunteers has also told me that he may be available, and I am in the process of hiring another education assistant later this week. So hopefully with some new helpers and one session’s worth of experience the second session will go slightly better.

Howard County Historical Society 2

During my time at the Howard County Historical Society I have been working on the Joshua Barney Collection. My work on this collection has prompted me to do further research on one of Maryland's earliest naval heroes. While the collection itself contains a handful of primary sources, the director encouraged me to utilize secondary source research to further my understanding of the documents.

The career of Joshua Barney started with a tumultuous early life. Barney was born in 1759 in the port city of Baltimore. At only 13 years of age, Barney left his hometown on his first voyage at sea. Barney traveled on an English-bound merchant ship that ran between Baltimore, Dublin, and Liverpool. What he expected to be a reasonably simple round trip turned out to be a several year long expedition when he the crew was dissolved in Liverpool.

Now trapped in a foreign city, Barney was forced to search for work on his own. He found his way onto the crew of the merchant ship Sidney. The Sidney was an American trading vessel that ran routes along the major Atlantic ports. Barney entered into the crew of the Sidney hoping to return home to his port city, but was surprised when Captain Drysdale, the owner of the ship and fellow Baltimorean, began running several merchant mission before the return trip. During this time, Barney visited many of the great Atlantic port cities including Cadiz, Genoa, and Nice.

After partaking in a series of merchant adventures, Drysdale resolved to return to his home port. Launching off from Spain, Drysdale began the journey towards the colonies. Early into the trip, however, Drysdale fell ill. Normally, under these circumstances command of the ship would have fallen to the ship’s first mate. The Sidney’s first mate, however, had stayed in Spain, angered over a monetary dispute. This left the position of captain to the then 15 year old and second mate Joshua Barney.

After facing poor weather, Barney was forced to return to Gibraltar to repair his ships. The repairs left Barney in debt, prompting him to carry out a series of merchant venturers to repay his loans. Continuing to run the routes his former captain had taught him, Barney was able to make enough money to fund his return trip.

In late 1775 Barney finally departed from Europe, now bound for his home city of Baltimore. Barney successfully traversed the Atlantic, crossing the ocean before the year’s end. As Barney approached his home port by sea, the Sidney was stopped by the British ship Kingfisher. It was much to Barney’s surprise when the captain of the Kingfisher informed Barney that the colonies were in rebellion. The captain proceed to confiscate some of the ship’s cargo and all of the ship’s weapons.

Barney was let go by the officer, and quickly docked in the port of Baltimore. There, Barney met with the Sidney’s owner and explained the situation. Although hesitant at first, the owner of the Sidney graciously thanked Barney for saving the ship after realizing the hardships Barney had faced.

After having settled his ties to the merchant company, Barney wasted no time in finding a way to serve his country. Barney traveled to Philadelphia where he offered his service to Commodore Esek Hopkins aboard the sloop Hornet. This marked the beginning of Barney’s exceptional career as a naval hero for the newly founded United States.

Learning To Be a More Responsible Historian at NDC

This summer I have been interning with the Neighborhood Design Center in the Station North neighborhood of Baltimore City. NDC is a nonprofit with offices in both Prince George's County and Baltimore. They specialize in providing pro bono design, architectural, and grant assistance for individuals and communities looking to revitalizing blighted or dilapidated spaces in their neighborhoods.

NDC has been around since 1968. The company was actually founded after the Martin Luther King riots of that same year, in the aftermath of the profound damage done to large swaths of Baltimore City. Given the recent unrest of 2015 and the systemic and institutional failures which precipitated the Uprising, it goes without saying that there is still much work to be done. I've only been at NDC a few weeks but I have already gotten a strong sense of just how important their role is in undoing these historical inequities, regardless of the relative size and unique scope of any individual project they have taken on.

Given their nearly 50 year existence, NDC has worked with quite a lot of people in the city. To that end, my specific role has been primarily focused on documenting the lives and work of those who have more recently partnered with NDC. These range from individuals who were looking for design assistance to construct unique and aesthetically pleasing urban gardens in their respective neighborhoods, to community efforts like the Duncan Street Miracle Garden which is a lovely year round multi-acre public farm in the Greenmount East neighborhood of Baltimore City.

My first task was to develop an oral interview protocol which essentially lays out a set of goals and guidelines for acquiring a successful oral interview. I drew up an equipment checklist, tutorials for the equipment, consent forms for interviewees, questionnaire, contact spreadsheet, and overview of basic techniques for an effective interview. At this point I have basically laid a solid groundwork for the process, one which would be easy for another intern to pick up and quickly go out into the field to conduct interviews. My first actual interview is actually scheduled for this friday!

It's been pretty interesting interning for them since pretty much everyone who works at NDC comes from a strictly urban planning, design, or architecture background. At first I felt a bit out of place as an historian. However I quickly realized that in a similar way to how Baltimore's diverse multidisciplinary art/music scene (which I am so very familiar with) is so engrained within the larger social fabric of the city itself, the people at NDC sort of fold into that larger tapestry of individuals looking to move Baltimore forward without succumbing to any of the pitfalls of irresponsible urban planning, so much of which has been plaguing Baltimore for generations. In this sense, I feel very much at home.

My primary role this summer has been to develop a new section of their website which will be devoted to profiling the lives and work of the various peoples and communities that NDC have partnered with over the years. My boss Jen basically explained it to me as a mechanism for those who don't necessarily live in Baltimore, or do live here yet have a very myopic image of the city,
to get a better idea of the important community building work being done on the ground everyday in neighborhoods often written off and derided as bastions of crime and poverty. Given the complex legacies Baltimore's traumatic past and present, it goes without saying that there is obviously still much work to be done on this front. However, it's important that the good work done thus far not be lost in the predominant narrative of Baltimore as being a dysfunctional and broken city.

My first task was to develop an oral interview protocol which essentially lays out a set of goals and guidelines for conducting a successful oral interview. I drew up an equipment checklist, tutorials for the equipment, consent forms for interviewees, questionnaires, contact spreadsheet, and an overview of basic techniques for an effective interview. At this point I have basically laid a solid groundwork for the process, one which would be easy for another intern to pick up and quickly go out into the field to conduct interviews. My first actual interview is actually scheduled for this friday!

It's been especially fun interning at NDC because it's sort of made me realize how small Baltimore is and how so many people I've known for years are actually pretty civically engaged. For instance, I've had at least three experiences thus far of learning that people I usually only see at parties, shows, or bars have also worked in some capacity with NDC. It's really reaffirmed in me a sense of local community and obligation to help that community.

My tasks at NDC have not been limited to the community partners interviews. I have also been brought on in various support roles for a number of other projects that NDC is currently working on. These include documenting the usage and role of public urban spaces in an effort to properly identify how these spaces currently function and how they could be amended to more properly function as inclusive and welcoming public spaces.

One such space is the Ynot Lot, which is conveniently located 2 blocks from my house. Here the goal is create a comprehensive collection of anthropological data on the usage space so we can submit the findings to the renowned Gehl Institute. The eventual hope is that Gehl will lend their expertise in developing beautiful and engaging public spaces to further develop the Ynot Lot in a conscious and responsible manner.

This also underscores a larger point and issue which has recently become a concern as parts of Baltimore begin to redevelop. Specifically the recent waves of outside capital which has begun flowing into the Station North neighborhood of Baltimore City, which houses the Ynot Lot. Interning at NDC has really made me aware of the importance of working with the people who actually live in neighborhoods to develop spaces according to their needs and desires. Furthermore it has made me aware of the fact that just blindly throwing money at something is hardly ever the right course of action. Thoughtful urban growth requires comprehensive and deliberate consideration.

In this sense I see many parallels to doing effective, and responsible, social history. For example it's important to really get invested, or immersive, with the peoples and communities you are documenting rather than just assuming the awkward role of the ambivalent outside observer, which is an oxymoron in the first place. If we are not careful, we run the risk of vacating the community's voice and superimposing our voices and our desires, despite our noble intentions. The latter perspective is the kind that assumes that whatever I would want to see in a neighborhood is what is best for the neighborhood. To give an actual example, who wouldn't want a big white tent over the Ynot Lot?

After all no one is ever truly impartial, so why pretend to be. To this end, historians possess a powerful tool in the form of narrative. We have the ability to create and crystallize a lucid image of the past, one which can impact the way that past is utilized, or in some cases weaponized, in the present. If we fail to adequately hear the voices and concerns of those individuals who have to actually keep living in the places we merely write about, we run the risk of interpreting their stories in ways that might make sense to us but ultimately does damage to them. All of which is to say, interning at NDC has made me acutely aware of the responsibility incumbent upon any historian, especially those whose work deals directly in the often opaque and complex realms of social justice.

Beyond the Display Case: Preserving a Museum's History, as a Museum

During the month of July, my internship at the B&O Railroad Museum, Ellicott City Station is beginning to undergo new developments. I originally developed an internship plan with my advisor and site manager to design, research, and plan an exhibit to display this month. However, Howard County has made a press release that they will now be directing this museum come August 31^st. This means that the employees of Ellicott City station will be without jobs, will need to do an immense amount of work in the next two months, and that my internship plan needed to change. I remind you of my last post where I asked: at what point does the history of the museum itself become part of the history to be preserved? Under past management, files upon files of newspaper clippings, advertisements, and photos were kept that concerned the museum and its role in the community. To answer my question, I would say that these things became part of the history to be preserved at the inception of the museum. This means that the first tickets from 1976 should be kept and so should opening day advertisements. But do we keep record of correspondence between the management and various persons for finances, events, and maintenance? What deems a document to be historic and worth preserving? We are really lucky that prior management decided to keep everything that they thought worth preserving. Soon this museum won’t exist in its prior state and it is up to the B&O Railroad museum coalition to preserve the part of history when they were involved with the Ellicott City Station, beginning in the 1990s. This is just a small fraction of what runs through my mind on a typical day at my internship. If anything, this unintended experience has helped me prepare for my professional goals more than my original plan could have ever done.

Howard County Historical Society 1

Over the past several weeks I have had the distinct pleasure to work at the Howard County Historical Society. This organization manages an archive and museum dedicated to preserving the history of Howard County. During my time working as an intern, I have worked in the society’s archives taking inventory and preparing collections for accessioning.

I have spent the majority of my time in the internship working on the society’s Commodore Joshua Barney Collection. I was given this collection on the first day and have been working to prepare it for accessioning since then. The collection was donated to the society by Bob and Wava Skaggs, the previous owners of the Howard County Joshua Barney House.

The Skaggs purchased the house in the early 70’s when the only thing denoting the house as historic was a small plaque. When the Skaggs finally found this plaque, several months after purchasing the house, Bob and Wava began to research the history of Joshua Barney. Contacting historical societies and content experts by mail, the Skaggs produced a large collection of primary and secondary research on Joshua Barney and his family. They continued to collect information from 1970 to 2003.

The collection that the Skaggs produced contains over 500 items spread across 4 boxes and 97 folders. One of the first jobs assigned to me was to take inventory of all of these items. It was incredibly engaging to be the first person at the society to go through all of these items. Included in the collection was a wide array of different items.

Generally, items fell into three broad categories. The first was primary sources relating to Joshua Barney. In their years of research, the Skaggs had accumulated copies of a multitude of journals, letters, maps, and works of art from Joshua Barney and his family. This included fascinating documents like the original ledger of plunder from Barney’s Flagship Bessie and Barney’s personal account of the catastrophic Battle of Bladensburg. The second category of items was secondary sources pertaining to the remembrance and restoration of events and locations related to Joshua Barney. The Skaggs had collected countless newspaper stories detailing the 150th anniversary of the War of 1812 and the excavation efforts of the Flotilla of the Patuxent in the mid-80’s. Finally, the third category of items in the collection was personal letters between the Skaggs and content experts on Joshua Barney. These letters highlighted the dedication that the Skaggs had for their research.

While going through this collection, I have learned many things, both about the period and about the field of public history as a whole. Perhaps one of the most educational experiences was my creation of a spreadsheet report that contained every item in the collection. During the sheet’s creation, I learned to use conditional formatting and formulas to speed up and automate some parts of data entry. Using these new skills, I was able to create a highly functional spreadsheet that allowed me to quickly sort and summarize the entire 500 item collection.