The Problem Cast; Baseball by the Beach Internship #2

           Podcasting is a digital media that has only recently come about.  With the advent and popularity of the original iPods a new medium to spread news and stories was created.  Podcasts, in their simplest form, are prerecorded episodes of shows or other content that tried to tell a story.  The best way to think about them is to think of podcasting as the modern-day equivalent to radio shows and radio serials.  In fact, it was a podcast that took its name from old radio serials that really broke open the medium.  In Fall 2014, the podcast Serial was released, and with it the podcast craze took off.  According to a CNN story, Serial is the fastest podcast ever to reach 5 Million downloads and has an estimated 40 Million downloads by the end of 2014 and with the series second and third season, in 2015 and 2018 respectively, that number has only grown.[1] 

I started listening to the show in the fall of 2016, and from that moment on I have been glued to the feed of not just Serial, but also the hundreds of other podcasts that available to listen to.  It was while I was listening to a podcast one day I started to think about how I could get involved, have my own podcast and what I would talk about.  Eventually I came up the idea to launch a show dedicated to the Hyannis Harbor Hawks, the collegiate summer league team I interned with this summer and in the fall of 2017, I pitched them the idea.  After several months of waiting to hear back, I got some good news.  The team had signed off on the idea, we were a go.  And thus, my internship for the summer of 2018 really began in January. 

When you are starting a podcast there are a handful of things you have to think about, like how will I record this? What equipment do I need? Where can I get it and how much will it cost? How do you get your podcast listed online?  And perhaps the biggest one I faced, how do I do this?  Like most people of my generation was my stop was Google, and that turned out to be very helpful as there are dozens of guides on how to get started and what equipment you would need.  Most of the guides said something different, but they all agreed on one thing, to host a show and to do it well you had to get your show listed on iTunes, and to do that it cost money.  In my initial pitch to the Harbor Hawks I had made the point that starting a podcast did not cost any money, therefore there was no reason not to try it.  Now I had to go back to the team and tell them I need almost $200 just to get the show off the ground.  Now $200 may not sound like a lot of money, but the Harbor Hawks are nonprofit business that has tighter profit margins that one would think for one of the best summer league teams in the country, so I was worried.  This is a similar position that a lot of public history and history related organizations find themselves in, ideas knocking at the door but all requiring money, and some, like my show, with little chance of making it back.  Now in early May, I went back to the team and pitched them on the idea for the second time, this time asking for the money, and to my shock and surprise they handed it over no problem and the show was rushed into production.

One of the other big problems I ran into when starting the show was coming up with a name, and then once you do come up with a name how do you create a logo and get people to listen to the show?  The original name we had for the show was “Hawk Talk the Podcast”, named after another YouTube show the team already produced, but after doing some research and talking to other people that proved to be way to confusing so we were back to step one.  Eventually, and after months of thinking inspiration struck, the show was now named “Birds the Word” after the Harbor Hawk bird mascot, and I was finally able to move onto the next problem, how do I create a logo for the show?  The answer for this came from my mother, who used a site called Canva to create the graphic design work she does for her volunteer position with the local youth baseball league.  With Canva and mouse in hand I was able to create a professional looking logo for the show in as little as five minutes and finally I was able to move onto the very last problem. 

I had managed to find the equipment needed for the show, raise the money needed to fund the show, and had a name and cool logo, but now I had to focus on the hardest part; what exactly was I going to talk about and how would I get people to come on the show?  Upon reaching this point in the process I reached out one of my professors at UMBC Shady Grove, Dr. Melissa Blair, who had taught my public history class that was a key experience that led to the podcast idea.  Dr. Blair advised me to do two things, go back and read an article she had presented in class written by noted oral historian Donald Richie about how to do oral history, and to research the Oral History Association (OHA) and follow their guidelines for interviewing and creating the show, which relied almost exclusively on oral history.  Not only did I follow this advice (I have my deeply annotated copy of the article to prove it) but I also became a student member of the OHA and developed my interviewing craft around the guidelines I found therein. 

The podcast and the interviews therein are far from perfect, not every interview had a historical bend to it or told a story just how I thought it would, but each interview was unique, and in the end created an oral history was previously there was none.  There are now oral records available for public consumption about the Harbor Hawks 2018 season, the personal stories of those I interviewed and how they ended up with the team, and commentary about what exactly this team and the Cape Cod Baseball League in general mean to those on the Cape, those who play in it, and who get their start there.  Birds the Word is available wherever podcasts can be found and has just recently been approved for three more seasons, starting this spring, to take a deeper dive into the history of the team that we were unable to cover this summer. 

---

[1] CNN, By Amy Roberts. “The ‘Serial’ Podcast: By the Numbers.” CNN. Accessed October 31, 2018. https://www.cnn.com/2014/12/18/showbiz/feat-serial-podcast-btn/index.html.

Public History Intern at the Priddy Library

This semester I’m interning at the Priddy Library at the University of Shady Grove. My role at the library is particularly unique this semester as I’m tasked with creating a report for the university system as a whole. The library wants to push the universities to provide more teaching of digital tools and methods that are often used in the humanities. In today’s market, many employers want their candidates to have digital skills before they are hired, and the university is currently not doing a good job of teaching students these skills. Unfortunately, there is no system in place to research and begin teaching the digital humanities, so my job is to do that research and create a report that would provide recommendations for the implementation of digital tools into the curriculum. 

            Currently I am doing that research through reading as well as visiting local digital humanities centers. Those centers, so far, have been the Maryland Institute of Technology for the Humanities (MITH) at the University of Maryland at College Park and the Imaging Research Center at the University of Maryland – Baltimore County. At MITH I attended a series called Digital Dialogues where guests across the digital humanities field were invited to speak about their current work. This particular series was about EcoDH, or the ecological impact of the digital humanities and how we can use digital scholarship to aid in the protection of the ecological system. Adding to this is the importance of being self-aware in regard to the impact of technological use. There is a basic understanding that technology is a necessity of modern life, but digital humanists must also act as advocates for research into the impact of technologies on the ecosystem. 

            The visit to the IRC at UMBC was different in the sense that it was more based on technological advancements and uses of that technology in the humanities. The IRC is a high-tech center where they, among other things, recreate historical places and things.

Telling Stories from the Past at Monocacy

When one thinks of the Civil War the names of battles like: Manassas, Antietam, and

Gettysburg are always at the fore front. It is often battles like these that get the most notoriety

and are popular to visit. But other battles, like The Battle of Monocacy, are sometimes lost

in the larger story of the Civil War.

            For my internship I have the honor to be working at and with the National Park Rangers

and Volunteers at the Monocacy National Battlefield. After being there for a few weeks I can

certainly say that I am learning a great deal about battlefield interpretation and the many jobs that

Interpretative Park Rangers usually do while having a lot fun in the process.

            Just recently I have given my first battlefield overview program to Monocacy visitors.

This program is the basic overview of the Campaign and Battle of Monocacy and why the battle

is so important and why it is known as “The Battle That Saved Washington”. This program is

given to visitors who come to the battlefield twice a day during the week. I was given the ability

to research and design my own program. My supervisor gave me input and reviewed my work  

before I was able to present . This meant I had come up with an outline of the major points I

would be talking about. For me, it is pure enjoyment being able to spend time in the battlefield’s

library and achieves going through books and memoirs in order to create my program. Strong

research is vitally important in being able to give a strong presentation to the visiting public. All

of this work helps me to tell the stories from the past to those who are not as familiar with Civil

War history.

            After I gave my first program I had people coming up to me asking more detailed

questions and discussing with me in detail things I had said during the talk. Everyone who went

on it seemed to enjoy the program and that is part of the fun of this internship. I really enjoy

being able to share and tell the story from this battle to those who visit so that the story  

continues to be told. Also many are fascinated to learn about what happened at Monocacy and

the stories that the site holds. It is really an honor to be an intern at such a historically important  

site.

The Maryland Room: Local History Archive Keeps Frederick's History Alive

My name is Chris Ragen, I’m a senior at UMBC and I spent the summer working at The Maryland Room at the C. Burr Artz Library in Frederick, MD. The Maryland Room is a local history archive and genealogical research center designed to maintain Frederick’s colorful past and to allow people from all over the country to trace their roots back to the colonial period. The Maryland Room is headed by Mary Mannix, who specializes in genealogical research and possesses a Masters in Library Sciences from The University of Delaware.

Throughout my tenure there I was honored to work on an array of projects including cataloging collections that have gone unprocessed since the 1930s, organizing and reviewing a large oral history collection donated by Dr. Bruce Thompson at Frederick Community College and performing research for remote clients. Every day brought new challenges including handling documents from as far back as the 1860s, searching through microfilm, accessing Sanborn maps and processing obituaries. Throughout the experience I was able to learn proper document handling procedures, library shelving, genealogical research techniques and I was able to sharpen my own research skills.

The joy of working in the Maryland Room was that every day was different, bringing different clients with different focuses and new questions that necessitated different approaches. There was a curious mix of digital and physical research required that included searching Maryland land records online while cross referencing the information with old city directories to find the previous owners of a client’s property for example. All told the Maryland Room was an ideal place for a history student to intern, a quiet place for research with a little bit of socializing and a distinct lack of monotony.

Baseball by the Beach Internship Post #1

For those of you who have met me before it is obvious that baseball runs my life.  From the daily work that goes into my involvement with the local youth league, the Rockville Baseball Association, even to the clothes I wear, baseball is almost always the constant.  So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that for my History 391 internship I would do something baseball related. 

This past summer I had the great honor to work with the Hyannis Harbor Hawks, one of the 10 teams that make up the Cape Cod Baseball League.  The Cape Cod Baseball League, or Cape League as its more often referred to, is the premier amateur baseball showcase in the entire country, having launched the careers of hundreds of professional players.  The league estimates that out of the 750 players on current rosters of Major League Baseball teams, one in six spent at least one summer on the Cape, including current stars like Aaron Judge, Jackie Bradley Jr, and Kyle Freeland.  The reach of the Cape League isn’t just current either, for more than 100 years the league has consistently been sending the very best of collegiate players onto the pros like Robin Ventura, Jason Veritek, and Frank Thomas . 

Reading through this post you might be asking yourself, how does a history major end up in sports?  How is it possible that history and sports go together?  The field of sports history is one of the fastest growing in historical research and preservation.  Places like the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, or the Football Hall of Fame in Canton, need historical researchers the same way more traditional fields do, perhaps the Halls of Fame need them more than traditional fields because the field is trying to catch up.  There are several main skills that historians offer that these organizations take advantage of, one is the ability to do critical research and determine facts, presenting false stories and narratives from taking root and permeating through the entirety of the organization (and possibly sport) in question.  Sports history organizations also exist to tell the stories of sport and to relate it to the public at large, since this is what public historians excel at it is a natural fit for them to become involved with these organizations.  Another way these organizations need historians is to help preserve the actual documents and artifacts themselves so that they can be seen by generations down the road and not just those who were there to see the history happen. 

               As a baseball fan it is a tremendous opportunity to be able to observe the best of the best in college baseball, many of whom will soon play at the next level.  But it is an even more tremendous opportunity to work with one of the 10 teams, as the league not only has a reputation for sending players to the ranks of the professionals, but also their interns.  This summer I worked as an adjunct broadcaster creating a weekly podcast about the team and its history called Birds the Word (available wherever podcasts can be found), a photographer documenting the season, a researcher putting together the team’s history, and also one of the team’s main scorekeepers.  All of these duties led to the creation and discovery of a trove of artifacts and documents from the teams history that had never before been seen publicly.  Even after my internship concluded, these items are going through the process of preservation and are to be released to the public within the next few years, or become part of the Cape Leagues Hall of Fame collection when it eventually reopens, meaning my work over the summer provided a direct impact on the history of the league and what we know about the teams within it.

               This experience was one like no other, working in close quarters with the best of the best form around the country and being under the direct supervision of the Director of Interns Laurie Pfeffer, and Judy Walden Scarafile, one of the most well-known baseball executives in the country, a tireless advocate for women in the sports world, and a baseball Hall of Famer.  It was an experience to build connections with people from all across the country (and at home, a player from the UMBC baseball team played on the Cape this summer!), with Major League Baseball Scouts and Executives, and learn more about the team that I have rooted for over a decade.  It was truly a formative experience, and I for one am glad that I had the opportunity to participate in it. 

---

Mount Vernon Post 1

This semester, I am working at Mount Vernon as a historical interpreter. While my primary function is giving guided tours throughout the mansion, I am also working with the manager of interpretation to analyze and help improve how slavery is interpreted at Mount Vernon. When I began, I was pleasantly surprised by the interpretation of slavery.

All historical interpreters receive an Interpretation Handbook, which contains all of the basic information interpreters need. Included in the handbook are suggested scripts for each room dependent upon the tour mode. Mount Vernon has two main interpretative modes, Mansion Tour and Post. During Mansion Tour mode, one guide takes a group of 25 people through each room of the mansion and the tours last about 45 minutes. Post mode is used when a high volume of visitors is expected. During Post mode the visitors move throughout the mansion and a historical interpreter is posted in each room and gives an interpretation of a single room. Post mode is then broken down into closed-door mode, open-door mode, highlights mode, viewing mode, and occasionally Colonial Days. These modes are once again dependent upon the number of visitors with closed-door being a minute and a half interpretation per room and viewing a thirty second interpretation. Colonial Days is designed for younger school groups who book their times in advance. The Interpretation Handbook gives a suggested script for each room during each of the modes mentioned. In each room, historical interpreters are required to hit certain objectives or facts outlined in the handbook. Slavery is an objective for every single room in the mansion door. More specifically, the jobs of the enslaved people as well as their names, if known, are mentioned. For example, Frank Lee, the enslaved butler, is required to be mentioned in the Central Passage, where guests in Washington’s time entered the mansion. Before being cleared as a historical interpreter, new interpreters have to give the tour to the manager of historic interpretation. He will not clear guides if they leave out the slavery objectives in each room.

After interpreters have been cleared for a time, they encouraged to move on to specialty tours. One of the specialty tours is the Enslaved People of Mount Vernon tour. This tour is offered two times a day during the peak season, and one time a day in the offseason. Tickets for specialty tours are not included in general admission. The Enslaved People’s tour is a 60-minute tour that highlights slavery at Mount Vernon. Once again, historical interpreters are given a basic script of objectives they have to hit but can add to the material as much as they wish.

There are also first-person character interpreters including two portraying two of Washington’s enslaved people, Christopher Sheels and Caroline Branham. The character interpreters are in a different department, so I do not know their script, but they are not required to stay in character if visitors are clearly asking a present-day question.



While I was pleasantly surprised with the current interpretation of slavery at Mount Vernon, I have stilled noticed areas where it could be improved. Fortunately, the manager of historic interpretation is also aware that slavery’s interpretation can always be improved. In fact, he was one of the principle figures behind changing the previous interpretation to what it is today. Each month, he hosts what’s called an Enslaved Huddle, where historic interpreters as well as character interpreters discuss interactions they’ve had with guests and what works and doesn’t work within the current interpretation program. As I am working at Mount Vernon, I am going to continue to analyze the current interpretation of slavery, compare it to the previous interpretation, and then offer my suggestions to make the interpretation better. While all of my suggestions may not be logistically feasible, my supervisor is always open to new ideas to interpreting an essential aspect of Mount Vernon’s history.

Larry Hogan Campaign Internship

Cristina de Araujo

Larry Hogan Campaign Internship

The skills in public history that helped me succeed working for Governor Hogan was mainly conducting research and analyzing data. As I explain below, I researched each county in Maryland in order to learn their voter history. Public historians also have the skill of interpreting different pieces of history to the public they are targeting. We shared certain information and data points to different parts of the county depending on the percentage of Republican voters. Also, while working at my political internship, I analyzed data and calculated percentages for how many people voted for the Democratic or Republican candidate in the election of 2016.

I interned for the Hogan Campaign in order to become more politically active.  The main goals we had to achieve were to get around 300 people registered to vote, persuade people to vote, and calculate the overall turnout to prepare for the upcoming election. We also canvassed using an app called Advantage. I canvassed around the Bethesda/ Kensington area. With this app, we were able to download walk books and research the overall political party affiliations in each household. When canvassing, we would select the voter response. If there were no answer, an observation survey would be done, judging by their party affiliation.  The observation survey was intended to record observations about the home, for example, flying the American Flag, displayed a yard sign or bumper sticker etc. If a voter did want to do our 5-second survey, then we would save it and send it to the database. We canvass using the advantage app because people are significantly more likely to answer honestly, and we can guarantee that we are talking to the correct person. We would also cut through the small talk of politics in order to take information directly to our target voter.

Collecting data was an essential part of the internship. As said above, we spoke to people face-to-face. Every survey response and observation is a data point that tells us something about the person we are talking to and how they will vote on Election Day. We also had data buckets, which is information we collect from our conversations with voters via the phone, determines how we approach communities through television, ads, direct mail, and earned media. We would also attend Hogan fundraisers and his weekly press conferences in Annapolis. Below is a photograph I took of Governor Hogan and his wife at an event.