NHS Internship Reflection (from Independent Study/Internship January 2009)

After my last day of work for interim, I sat at Hogan Brothers, looking across Division at the First National Bank – the Scriver Building. NHS has become my home, of sorts. Chicago puts it best “You should know, everywhere I go, always on my mind, in my heart, in my soul. You’re the meaning in my life, you’re in inspiration.” It may sound crazy, but I literally love museums, the passion, the learning, the artifacts, the history, the people. No matter what aspect of museum work it is, it still holds an intense flavor of passion for learning, unlike any school environment. When I returned to The Museum of Flight over Christmas break, I wandered around, excited as could be. My coworker sighed to my mom, “you can take the girl out of the museum, but you can’t take the museum out of the girl.”

In working at NHS, I learned so much about Northfield, without ever intending to. I learned the history of the Scriver Building and the James Gang, of course, but I also learned about countless other aspects of Northfield history through pictures. Before September, I hardly knew the way from St. Olaf to downtown to Carleton. I don’t think I even knew the 4th Street Bridge existed. There is a sense of fulfillment I have gotten from working here. I know the area now; I know where I go to school. I couldn’t say I knew that before.

Although the knowledge of history is what is most easily shown to others; I can give random facts about Northfield history and amuse or impress others with it; it is not what has been the most meaningful outcome for me. I have learned about archiving. I learned what it really is. I knew before that I wanted to work with cataloging and inventorying, but I never knew exactly what it would be like. I have learned about accessioning, metadata, Chenhall’s, scanning, Past Perfect, Content DM…most of those words would have meant almost nothing to me mere months ago.

It has been (and continues to be) an amazingly unmatched experience to work my way through the archives. My first assignment after Dale Ness (simple scanning and data entry of 495 photos) was to “pick out pictures of education in Northfield.” I went through the cabinet, not knowing at all what I was looking for, or what the heck this whole project was. Jeff (archivist at St. Olaf) had told me that NHS was doing something new, this online collaborative project. More than that though, it was all a mystery. We didn’t really know what we were doing at the beginning. I inventoried and scanned…approximately. The NHS metadata sheet, honestly, was a mess, especially compared to NPL and RCHS, simply because I didn’t know what I was doing. I figured it out as I went along, and finally was able to finish scanning and inventorying RCHS’ contribution of a couple hundred images in two days. I have learned about what happens in archives, how complicated it really is, and how the computer database systems really aren’t perfect yet, so the ins and outs of the whole process really must be learned. I have begun to really keep an eye out for new ideas in archiving that I could bring to NHS.

As was often said in my Arts Management class last semester, you always learn as you go. On-the-job training is the only kind of training you really get in the arts world. That is indeed true, and nothing I could have ever learned in any other situation could have equaled what I have learned in the past five months, especially January.

It has also been an amazing experience just being around the Historical Society! When I was in MWF 10-12, I got the opportunity to meat Joan a few times before she left, and I also met Mrs. Ripley. However, in working mostly full days for a month, I have gotten to meet/know researchers (Sue), archivists (Sue), Gloria at the front desk, the accountant, and many others. I have gotten to actually see a larger part of the workings of NHS, which is exactly what I had hoped. It is true, I do not exactly want to run a small historical society, but ideally I would work at a small-medium sized museum, and if nothing else, I would be aware of the different aspects outside of focusing directly on archives. This is why I want to go into museum studies and not directly through a library science/archival track. Archives are awesome, rare book collections are impressive, but the atmosphere of the museum is really what makes it all come alive.

Whenever I see a need, I am drawn to fix it. The photograph cabinet is a good example: there is so much potential in there, but it is not particularly organized, not kept track of, and about 40% non-accessioned. It is going to be almost painful to only come 6 hours a week. The complete inventory of the photograph cabinets will be a very long and tedious process, and I can’t wait until I can see it completely through.

I am a planner; I am future-oriented. I am always looking toward something or other a few weeks or months away; I am rarely content with the present. However, even though I would be heading to California over interim break, or diving back into Latin second semester, going to finally see the Smithsonian in April…I was content to live in the present. I did not want the future to come. My parents and friends have heard it far too many times; I did not want interim to end! They thought it was crazy, but it is true. I am still sad that I won’t be able to go to NHS on a daily basis (until perhaps senior week!). It feels strange writing this – my time at NHS is by no means over, so I should use the present tense, but it will feel like I am indeed leaving, simply because I will only work on Thursdays, instead of every day of the week. I just mean to say, this has been, and will continue to be, the best not only preparational, but also one of the overall best experiences in my life up to this point.