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. 

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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.

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Internship

I am Jennifer Ford, a senior at UMBC-Shady Grove enjoying my final few months of undergraduate life. My internship this semester is with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as a writing and editing intern for their blog, VAntage Point. Through working in this capacity, I am able to combine my passion for writing with my deep appreciation for U.S. service members. My internship is perfect for Public History because I am doing direct work finding ways to make large historical concepts accessible to the public in a captivating way. Not everyone knows someone serving in the military or has a personal interest in Veterans. Through writing for the VA’s blog, I am able to peak public interest in individual Veteran stories, allowing important history to find an meaningful place in everyday life.

The majority of my work focuses on Veteran of the Day blog posts. These are posts highlighting a specific veteran and their service. Many of these are written about whomever we are personally interested in featuring from the archives, but we also write about veterans nominated by friends and family. I was even able to put together a piece about a friend who died serving in the Navy this past year. We also work on some sensitive projects, putting together a piece ahead of time for well-known veterans that may pass away soon, so it is ready to go on the blog at a moment’s notice. The internship requires working knowledge of Slack (a communication platform), and Trello (a group project coordination platform). There are over one hundred of us working on multiple parts of a project each day, so effective communication is vital.

There are so many things I love about this internship! First, the experience I am getting to practice my writing and editing. Second, the opportunity to learn about collaborative platforms. These communication skills are going to be vital in any work environment I come across in the future. Third, did I mention that this internship is completely digital? As someone who works two jobs and goes to school full time, this digital internship works perfectly with my schedule since the writing and editing work can be done on my own time. Fourth, and most importantly, it is extremely gratifying being able to write meaningful pieces that act as a memento for friends and family of the veterans. Knowing that the service and sacrifice of your loved one is honored and appreciated is no small thing. I am grateful to have found such a gratifying and flexible internship.

Please take a moment to view some of my work in honor of Kevin S. Bushell:
https://www.blogs.va.gov/VAntage/53085/navy-veteran-kevin-s-bushell/