The first week at an internship is like being the new kid at school. You meet everyone, can’t remember more than a handful of people’s names, try to commit to memory every tidbit of information you’re told, and everything is really exciting and shiny and new. At least that’s how it was when I was the new kid. And now it’s like that at NARA, which is fun! Day one included all of the standard administrative to-dos: lots of paperwork, a mug shot for my ID badge, a tour of the facilities, introductions, and learning the basics of the different databases I’ll be using at the National Archives. Plus, we got to sit in on the weekly staff meeting. Jonathan, an undergraduate student at Vanderbilt, is also interning at NARA this summer. I usually work alone in the University Archives at Loyola, so I’m really enjoying the opportunity to complete tasks with another intern. Our work area comes complete with a Downton Abbey calendar.
Life is good.
After all of our administrative stuff was done yesterday, we worked on a small, introductory task for Glenn, one of the archivists at NARA. The Civil War Symposium is an annual event organized by the National Archives and the First Division Museum at Cantigny. Speakers discuss different aspects of Civil War history, and reenactors bring to life Union and Confederate soldiers, and even historical figures such as Abraham Lincoln, Mary Todd Lincoln, and Harriet Tubman. Speaking of reenactors, Confederates in the Attic, anyone? The book was our introduction to public history at Loyola last fall, and is about hardcore reenactors. The world of hardcores (yes, it’s a noun) is just mind blowing. These men even have their own language. “Farb” or “farby,” for example, is the ultimate insult amongst hardcores. It means being fake or false in terms of not doing EXACTLY as real Civil War soldiers would have done. Etymologically it comes from either a reordering of the letters in the word “barf” or a shortening of the phrase “far-be-it-from-authentic.” But I digress. Read the book, or even a chapter. It’s just so crazy how these men make history really come to life, from the food they eat, to the way they sleep, to the buttons on their long underwear (yes, really).
Anyway, visitors are asked to fill out an evaluation form at the end of the symposium. A major component of this evaluation is the “how did you learn about the symposium” section. Jon and I tallied evaluations for the last five years so that NARA and the First Division Museum can more effectively engage with the public about this event in the future. In case you’re interested in attending the Civil War Symposium or other history-related events at Cantigny, I’ve created a link to their event schedule HERE. Fun fact, Loyola’s very own Dr. Ted Karamanski acts as the MC! One of the most important aspects about being a public historian is figuring out the most effective ways to reach out and connect with the public. While tallying those evaluations may seem monotonous, and though data crunching isn’t always recognized as part of what we do, those numbers are going to help NARA and Cantigny connect with new audiences and past visitors, which is super exciting.
Today, we worked on a different project. The National Archives in Chicago is a regional office, responsible for maintaining, preserving, and making available the federal records of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Records are organized into groups of topics or subjects. Record Group 21 (RG21) for example, contains admiralty cases. Article III Section 2 of the US Constitution gives jurisdiction of admiralty cases to the federal courts. As a result, accidents or injuries that occur on the Great Lakes are covered by admiralty law, and the resulting cases are heard in district courts. Because this record group is so large, it is an ongoing intern project. The first subject group to be worked on is cases that were heard in Cleveland, Ohio. We picked up where the last intern left off and are entering data from each case into a Microsoft Excel sheet with the ultimate goal of being able to share this information with historical societies in Cleveland. Since these case files are in old boxes, we are re-foldering the cases and moving them to archival boxes in order to better preserve the documents. Through my brief introduction to these cases, I’ve learned that being a lawyer is code for “I get to write ridiculously long run-on sentences whenever I want.”
Seriously, one sentence makes up almost the entire page.
I’m really looking forward to working and learning at the National Archives. Considering I am in a “public history” program, it is easy to assume that most of what we do and the places that we work would be related specifically to the public. That’s kind of true. While we are taught to always consider our audience, our public, in reality many of us end up working for private institutions or publicly traded corporations (which don’t always have a mission that includes the public). NARA is truly a public institution- in terms of funding, mission, and accessibility. It’s going to be fun exploring the differences between the National Archives in Chicago and the various institutions I’ve worked and interned at previously.
‘Til next week
-J
“The Archivist’s career is one of service. He exists in order to make other people’s work possible. His Creed, the Sanctity of Evidence; his Task, the Conservation of every scrap of Evidence attaching to the Documents committed to his charge; his aim to provide, without prejudice or after-thought, for all who wish to know the Means of Knowledge. The good Archivist is perhaps the most selfless devotee of Truth the modern world produces.” -Hilary Jenkinson
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