So I finally started! Here's how it has gone down so far....
Unsurprisingly, I spend my first day getting to know the park and some of the staff. Right away, I got a behind the scenes tour of the Visitor Center and the displays there. My supervisor was very involved in creating the exhibit, and was able to tell me all the stories of how it was planned and how the plan was changed as the exhibit was developed. It highlighted the difficulty of doing public history, where many different people want to assert their influence on the exhibit, and how many different voices can insert chaos into even the most perfectly designed exhibit. However, from the visitor's perspective seeing the exhibit today, it would be impossible to know how many compromises were made and to realize the full extend of the struggle that went on over word choice, fonts, colors, layout, etc. After hearing the story of exhibit development, I got to see the vault and take a look at Valley Forge's collections. Of the collections spaces I have been in, this was the most professional, organized, and secure. Most of my experience has been with small museums with few resources, so it was nice to finally see what a collections space can be when properly funded. I also got introduced to the Neumann collection of weapons that I will be working with for my exhibit. To finish my day, I took the park's audio tour to get familiar with the scope of the park and experience the park the way most visitors do. I found that the tour did a very good job helping visitors visualize what was on the landscape in 1777-78. However it would have been better if I wasn't also busy driving at the time. I also took training to learn proper care for historic objects. I did 8 hours this day. On day 2, I helped set up a vault tour, which involved moving collections objects from storage onto a table for a makeshift display. This helped me practice correct moving and care of fragile objects. We also went out to Varnum's quarters and Washington's headquarters to clean, which is done weekly. Even though the majority of the objects in those houses are replicas, we still treat them as originals for good practice and to help preserve them. After this, I took a tour of Valley Forge's library, and looked for books that might help with my exhibit. The library is a multiple use building: the NPS allows a wedding company to use the rest of the building for weddings in exchange for restoring the building to NPS specifications. It raises the ever-present public history questions of: what uses are appropriate for a historic site? Are commercial uses ok if they result in improving the resource? The final task of the day was to place objects into the officer's hut at Muhlenberg's division. The officer and soldier's huts have been furnished according to items listed in letters, expense reports, etc. from officers and soldiers at Valley Forge. However, those aren't the only considerations we had to make when placing objects. The huts have glass walls to keep visitors from stealing the replica objects, but they don't go all the way to the ceiling. Which means we have to be careful not to put objects too close to the glass and within visitor reach. I did 8 hours this day.
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One of our class assignments for these internships was to write a short paper comparing our internships to each other. I had not started mine yet, but comparing my classmate's internships can show the similarities and differences inherent in various types of public history work.
One major similarity for all of the internships is also shared across the entire history discipline—performing historical research, in one form or another. However, the type of research varies from internship to internship. Derek, Ted, and Cynthia are all doing some traditional archives-based research. Ted is busy researching the accounts of Elizabeth Willing Powel and organizing Chamounix’s archives. While he is looking at many records, Cynthia is focused entirely on one object, a “Post Office Account Book.” She will get a deep understanding of that while Ted will have a broader understanding of at least the archive he’s organizing. Unlike Ted and Cynthia, who have pre-defined records to work with, Derek needs to find research material to support his nominations of historic buildings. He will probably face more difficulty in finding relevant material and may get stuck in going down rabbit holes and into dead ends (I know I would). Also, he will also have to do site research by physically visiting the buildings he might nominate. Charlie will undoubtedly do research too, and it will probably be the most varied of the group, as it could take any form that supports the tasks the AAMP gives him. Meanwhile, John’s research will include oral histories, which are quite different with their own set problems. While I have not yet started my internship, I know I will have to do research to create an exhibit for Valley Forge. This will probably involve in-depth research on specific firearms in the Neumann collection. Some of my peers have encountered communication and logistical problems. However, they stem from slightly different sources. Ted simply has been busy with work and life, impeding his ability to communicate effectively. Derek initially had problems getting responses from the NPS, and now will have to navigate communicating with various stakeholders from the NPS to other government offices and to various members of the community. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia airport is a massive organization, so John is already experiencing the communication headaches that brings. He has to coordinate with different departments at the airport (such as the IT department). However, Cynthia and Charlie have reported no issues with communicating, which is not very surprising at this stage since they are both working within smaller institutions where they can probably communicate face-to-face most of the time, and so far have not needed to communicate much beyond their institution. Of my peers, Derek seems to have the most direct contact with the public so far. He discussed his involvement with the William Way community center, going to public meetings, and reaching out to various other organizations and individuals. John will of course have substantial contact with the public once he begins his oral histories, and indeed has already coordinated with members of the public to convince them to be interviewed. In the end, all my peers will complete projects that are directly accessible to the public, whether that’s a database or an exhibit or a preserved building or an interpretive plan. My peers fit into their host institution in different ways. Cynthia’s situation seems the simplest to describe: she has a clear task, with a fairly straightforward and obvious approach to doing it, and probably needs very little supervision. Charlie seems to have many different tasks ahead of him. Ted has different tasks to complete simultaneously. Derek has many many subtasks to complete all on different timetables that all support each other and his end goal. It will take a lot of project management and prioritization skills for him to complete them and hit his goal. John is in a similar, but perhaps less complex situation. Finally, some of my peers are in familiar territory while others are not. Charlie has experience in museums, but does not specialize in African American history. Cynthia likewise has experience with conservation, digitization, and archives, but is not a specialist in Franklin or colonial America. John is very familiar with digital tools and online exhibits, but not with 1900s art. Conversely, Derek is very keen on LGBTQ+ history, and has been studying it alongside preservation for some time now. He wrote about it for last semester. Meanwhile, Ted has studied and written about Chamounix already, but is also engaged in a new area with Powel and her Citron cake. Even with such a small sample, it’s clear that public history work can vary quite a lot and require the public historian to be adaptable and have varied skills. For my summer internship, I will be working for Valley Forge National Historical Park. Valley Forge is where the Continental Army camped in the winter of 1777-78. Today the site is run by the National Park Service, which operates a visitor center and museum there, as well as maintaining and interpreting the rest of the encampment grounds. I will start as an intern on July 13, and my responsibilities will include working with the collections (especially the Neumann collection of firearms), experiencing how the park operates, learning collections management, conservation, and preservation practices, and finally creating a physical or online exhibit for the park. This will be my third museum internship, and will help continue to challenge and develop me as a professional historian. I will be posting weekly work logs here. I'm ready to go and looking forward to getting started!
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