Pictured above is a photocopy of the payment record for sailors aboard the ship Columbia, an American ship of the late 18th century that travelled to Canton, China and was the first American ship to circumnavigate the globe.
My second week as an intern proved to be only slightly less exciting than the first. Due to the National Endowment for the Humanities program that the MHS will be hosting this summer for teachers, I spent a lot of time this past week sorting applications from teachers nationwide and preparing them to be looked at by the admissions committee. Still, this gave me insight into how many different types of teachers are out there, and it showed me that even as a history teacher, there are options. On Monday, I got to spend some time in the reading room with a photocopy of the papers associated with the ship Columbia. An excerpt from the ship's log is pictured above. This was a fascinating experience, because I was doing research for the MHS's upcoming Maritime program and it was my first time doing research with a primary source in a cultural institution. I transcribed several interesting letters from the book and took pictures of some paperwork to bring back to my supervisor. I also took time this week to create several email lists to inform local communities of upcoming programs. I have learned from my time here that a lot of the public programs' work is getting the word out to the community. I also became very familiar with the MHS's library search engine. I feel very lucky so far to always have a task ahead of me. My office skills have improved greatly, from copying to creating spreadsheets and starting to learn mail merge programs. Each day has me looking forward to the tasks that I will face next week, which usually combine my interest in history with the classic work of an intern.
My second week as an intern proved to be only slightly less exciting than the first. Due to the National Endowment for the Humanities program that the MHS will be hosting this summer for teachers, I spent a lot of time this past week sorting applications from teachers nationwide and preparing them to be looked at by the admissions committee. Still, this gave me insight into how many different types of teachers are out there, and it showed me that even as a history teacher, there are options. On Monday, I got to spend some time in the reading room with a photocopy of the papers associated with the ship Columbia. An excerpt from the ship's log is pictured above. This was a fascinating experience, because I was doing research for the MHS's upcoming Maritime program and it was my first time doing research with a primary source in a cultural institution. I transcribed several interesting letters from the book and took pictures of some paperwork to bring back to my supervisor. I also took time this week to create several email lists to inform local communities of upcoming programs. I have learned from my time here that a lot of the public programs' work is getting the word out to the community. I also became very familiar with the MHS's library search engine. I feel very lucky so far to always have a task ahead of me. My office skills have improved greatly, from copying to creating spreadsheets and starting to learn mail merge programs. Each day has me looking forward to the tasks that I will face next week, which usually combine my interest in history with the classic work of an intern.