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Mankato, MN paper headlines for the day- in Washington DC

The television studio for ABC's This Week

The Microphones that FDR used in his first Fireside Chat- Notice the WTOP one; that is still a radio station in the DC area today

The Intolerable Acts- I wrote a research paper on these freshman year, so I was so excited to see them in person! :)

The view from the top of the Newseum

Wow....you can tell it's Easter vacation week this week. The Metro is strangely quiet during morning rush hour and there are tourists everywhere! (I'm not kidding about the Metro thing, it was so quiet that I thought I was getting on the wrong train!)

When I came to the Archives on Monday, I was greeted by a line that wrapped around the corner. This line was that long for the rest of the day! I spent my morning in the Resource Room, where I barely had time to sit down, there were so many people in there! I did get to help some really cool people though. One group was two Vietnam veterans, who told me a crazy story about submarine chases across the Arctic Ocean with Soviets. I also had a family come in looking for documents on Pearl Harbor as one of their kids was doing a project on it, and I was able to show him how to find over 100 documents for his school project. There was another family with a teacher in the group who was so thankful for the introduction I gave to her about the educational resources we have for classroom use.

Because it was so busy in the morning, I basically hid in the afternoon so I could get some work done! I am now halfway through the Civil War notebook, which is right on track, as I have only 3 weeks left out here!

Tuesday I was out at A II again. I did my normal routine of document preservation, and came across some cool passport application files and a list of all the American citizen foreign births in Brazil during World War II.

Today's field trip was to the Newseum, the newest musuem in Washington DC. We got an inrotduction to the museum from one of my classmates, who is an intern there. There is a fantastic view of Washington DC from the top of the building, which is where we started. This is one of the best places to view the Presidential Inauguration parade, as it is right on Pennsylvania Avenue. From there, we went through a bunch of exhibits all about the news. The TV studio for ABC's This Week is in the building, so I got a picture of that. There was also remenants from the Berlin Wall, 9/11, and wartime journalism. On the way out, there is a large exhibit that has all the headlines for the nation for that day, and what paper do I run into but the Mankato paper!


Tomorrow will be a very early morning at work. My family is coming to visit me for Easter, and I am taking them through the Archives tomorrow. I hope it's not as busy as it has been this past week!

New Friends, Old Stories

Union Station

Interior of a Mail Car

So the past two days at work have seemed a bit like deja vu for me. We have had a new intern (E) join the group on Wednesday, and since the coordinator has been out of town for the week, she has been my buddy for the week. Luckily my training was not all that long ago, and it has been really nice to have someone the same age to work with. Hopefully she will be able to navigate her way through ARC and the building without getting lost.

On Thursday I had what might just be the quietest lab group yet! They did such a great job working through the Constitution, and even had their parents excited about the lab! E observed the lab, and was thrilled that she was going to be doing this for the next 10 weeks. I also finally (finally!) finished one of my videoconference research projects. The Cold War file is now much thicker than it was before, and hopefully it will be of use for many years in the future.

Friday was a Resource Room day for me. With the Cherry Blossom festival starting this weekend, I expected it to be really busy, but it wasn't. I had a wonderful family come in with their 91 year old grandfather, who is a WWII veteran. I showed him how to retreive his personell records from the Archives, and then listened to a few of his war stories. They were wonderful to listen to; I wish that others would take the time to listen to these tales, they are a dying art.

Sadly, as the semester is coming to a close, there are assignments piling up! This means that Saturday was a homework day; pretty boring for my blog, but I did get things accomplished!

Today I needed to get out of the house, so I went to the Smithsonian Postal Museum and Union Station. It is a smaller Smithsonian museum, but by no means a bad one. There was a great exhibit about Victory Mail during World War II, and a larger exhibit about the development of the postal system, with the Pony Express and Airmail included. This musuem is a little off the beaten path, so I hope that other visitors to the DC area get a chance to peek in here.

Union Station is a mix between a shopping mall and old town promendade. It is where the DC Amtrak lines come in, and it is one of the oldest train stations in the country. I have not been in a mall in almost 3 months, so it was refreshing to walk around in one! :) Once my little excursion was over, it was time to get back to the books. Next week is Easter, and my family is coming out to visit! I am excited to show them DC now that is a bit more familiar than when I left them 3 months ago.

War Time Research

The Cherry Blossoms are on their way ! On my way to work this past Monday, I saw a few blossoms peeking out. By this afternoon, though, many of the buds were out in full glory, along with many of the trees! The National Parks Service says that the peak of the blooming should be on Easter weekend, which is perfect because that's when I have vacation!

So far work this week has been fairly quiet. I have caught a nasty cold this past week, so a calmer schedule was perfect. Monday I spent most of my time preparing a file on Cold War documents for Dave to use in a bunch of upcoming video conferences. Before I started this project, I only knew the basics of this time period, but I have a much better handle on it after a few hours doing research.

Tues I was out at Archives II, also doing research, but on a different war. I was given a mission to look up information pertaining to the Lost Battallion of the 107th and 108th Infantries from World War I. I spent the afternoon going through four boxes of papers, I ended up with way more information than I needed, which was a good problem to have. Just like my time doing research on Monday, I am into this project knowing the basics of the battle and ended up not only finding what I was looking for, but actually learned a lot. I think I can finally say that I know how to do research at the Archives, which is actually a long process!

I also snapped some pictures of WWI research going on at Archives II for my scrapbook. Check it out!

This morning our field trip was to Eastern Market, to look at different styles of Row Houses behind Capitol Hill. They range from the late 18th century to the early 20th century, and are designed in a variety of styles. I have added some pictures from this historic neighborhood to this blog for you to check out- enjoy!

Historic Neighborhood

Have you exercised your rights as an American citizen today?

There is so much going on in Washington this weekend; the Metro was packed with people all day!!

It's really exciting to be in the nation's capitol when such historic legislation (by this I mean the health care vote tomorrow) going on! While the Hill was bustling with people preparing for this vote, there were thousands of tourists, runners, and protesters bustling about.

There are 5 different protests going on this weekend: 1. End the Iraq War 2. Tea Party 3. Anti- Healthcare 4. Pro-Healthcare and 5. Immigration Rally. There was also the National Marathon this morning and it's the nicest weekend since last fall, which has brought all the tourists and locals outside (including what seems to be the entire state of Texas; they have spring break this week).

Of course, I was out and about in DC today, attending the Anti-War protest for one of my classes. I have added some pictures from the protest this afternoon. I have never attended a protest on the large of a scale before, so the experience I had is something I can compare to what protests were like during the hippie era. There were some strange people chanting and running around, but many of the protesters are just average citizens using their protected rights as Americans to tell Congress and President Obama their dislike of the Iraq War. The protest was held at Layfayette Park, which is right across from the White House. Overall, it was interesting to be a part of something so large and important, and part of something I have never experienced before.

Following the protest, I went to the Daughters of the American Revolution museum to take a look at their exhibits. They have a bunch of period rooms, ranging from the early 17th century to the mid 20th century. It takes a special person to appreciate these displays, but I thought they were great!

On top of all the excitement going on in DC this weekend, it is in the upper 70's here, which means that I can't help but be outside as much as possible! I'm sad to say this, but I think that I will be going back in seasons when I get back to MN, which is a sad, sad thought.

Tudor Room in the DAR

Maine Room- early 19th century

Furniture from the White House- Monroe Era

Protesters getting ready to march- note the street hockey game going on in front of them, which is in front of the White House!

One of the signs

Protesters in front of the White House

A Day in the Life of an Intern

So after being in DC for two months, I think the time has come for the coveted blog post on what a typical day for me is. One note though, the nature of my internship makes my tasks and duties vary significantly from day to day, so the following schedule is a compilation of a few different days.

6:15 am- Alarm clock. Yes, it's ridiculously early.

7:15 am- my morning commute begins. Instead of having a a 5 minute walk to class, I have a half hour commute- on a good day. My commute though is fairly simple compared to others that I work with. It's about a 10 minute walk to the metro, a 10 minute metro ride (on only one rail line) and then another 10 minute walk. By the time I get to work, the sun is just coming up, which means that I get to see the sunrise every morning. So nice.

8 am- morning meeting with a few of the members of the Ed department. This is very informal, and just involves stopping by someone's cubicle to see what they have going on for the day. Some days I get specific tasks, and other days they have already emailed me what they need for the day.

8:15-10:00 am- This is my research time. Every day I seem to be working on something different, and past examples include creating and then typing lesson plans, working on index and introduction pages for the newest MASSIVE exhibit, Discovering the Civil War, and just doing research for upcoming video conferences. Every once in awhile I have a meeting, but normally not this early in the morning.

10:00 am- Resource Room time. I spend time in the Resource helping the public learn more about what the Archives has, and how they can access it. People normally either shy away from it, or dive right in. The ones who do jump right in (especially kids) are the best ones to come in!

12:30- Grab lunch quick! Now that it's getting nice out, eating outside is a nice break and a chance to get outside.

1:00 pm- Normally I have taken the afternoon labs, if there are any. These normally take about 2 hours to go through the workshop and then a short tour of the Archives. Sometimes in the afternoon though, I will have a Trolley Tour, which is an hour long tour of the Archives for junior high students.

3;30 pm- By the time the lab is finished and cleaned up, I head back down to my desk to finish up my research for the day, or to work on tasks that I did not finish from the morning. If I put in a pull slip for research earlier in the day, I go up to the reading room to pull records and do research.

4:30 pm- Done for the day. Just another half hour commute back to Rosslyn and then it's dinner and homework time for the rest of the night.

Like I said earlier, my day really varies on if there are tours, meetings, labs, or special events going on that day. Hopefully for those of you who wanted to know more details about what I do are satisfied with this breakdown. Basically, it's one third in the public area giving tours and labs, one thrid doing research, and one third in the Resource room.

So What's the Second Largest federal building in DC?

Anyone, Anyone?? Well it happens to be the Archives building in College Park, MD, on the University of Maryland campus. It really is huge, and I get to work there once a week. What's better, I get to do preservation work here, which really gets at what the Archives is all about.

There are two different types of preservation work that I do at Archives II (the nickname for this building). The first one is called collections management, and I am specifically working with World War I military records. I go through page by page and assess the amount of damage that the record has. Many of them are folded or creased, others have rusty pins and paper clips attached to them. What I do is smooth out documents, remove old clips and pins and then replace them with new ones, put those who are in serious damage into special preservation folders, and refer really worn documents to special preservation archivists. Most of these records look as if they have never seen the face of daylight since they were made over 90 years ago, which is a little disappointing to a historian, but it is really cool to be the first one to read some of these records since they were created! Today, for instance, I was working with records of discharged soldiers, many of whom wanted to return to their native countries in Europe to see relatives.

The second area of preservation that I help with is in the stacks, doing preliminary preservation work. Specifically, the records that I work with are South American Consulate records from World War II. Once again I go box by box, but not record through record this time, and assess the condition of the records. Some are in excellent condition, but others are covered in mold, soot from fires, or are torn or out of order. Should any of these be the case, they are referred to an archivist for preservation. Many of the records that I have come across are bound in volumes, some of which are in good condition, and others that are not. I don't get as much time to looking through these records, but I have come across many classified records, some of which are still so secret that they have been pulled from the file. The best document that I have found so far though, are secret codes from WWII from Brazilian spies! I felt like I was 10 years old again! Hopefully there will be more treasure to find amongst the shelves in the few weeks I have left here; I'll keep my eyes open for more good records on the loose!

Civil War Project

So it has been over a week since I last blogged on my internship, but it has been more on the low key basis than previous weeks. My newest project is designing a binder that will contain all the documents that will be on display for the newest exhibit, Discovering the Civil War, opening in April. This massive project includes finding the right citation and background information on the document, and then pairing it with the educational resources that we have available that would be connected to that document. I think it's safe to say that this project will take up a lot of the remainder of time that I am here, as there are a few hundred documents to go through!

Like I said in my previous posting, the tourist pace has picked up significantly in the past two weeks. With more people comes more time spent giving tours and being in the Resource Room. By the end of today, I am averaging about 3 tours a week, which is much higher than it was in January! It's not a bad thing to do though, and now that I know my way around more and just know more information about the Archives in general, I am really enjoying sharing all my knowledge with those who come to visit.

The lab schedule, which was completely mixed up last month because of the blizzard, is also starting to fill up. As I continue to do these though, I am getting better at training all the little Archivists, and have even figured out how to put a little spin on the job for them!

This week at Archives II in College Park, I helped with the Volunteer Association meeting for the month. We had a really informative discussion about using DNA in genealogical research, which has only recently been a hot topic. I also helped out with more preservation management of WWI records, which is another one of my ongoing projects.

Well last weekend was sunny, and warm, and filled with lots of activities with Ryan being here. This weekend though looks to be cold and rainy and a little bit more laid back. This is not a bad thing though, as long as you have things to keep you occupied!

Tour Guide

Now that we are getting into tourist season in Washington DC, there is a large increase in the amount of people coming to the National Archives. I am partly to blame for this, as my boyfriend Ryan came to visit me for the week. We tried cramming in as many sites as possible, and I think we did a pretty good job of getting around. The first day he was here we visited the Air and Space Musuem, Library of Congress, the Capitol, and the Botanical Gardens. Ryan was like a 10 year old in a candy store looking at all the machinery in the Air and Space museum, which I have no clue about, but he did teach me some good information on it. We also found an old Irish pub that afternoon and ate lunch there in honor of St. Patrick's Day!

The next day we went back to the Botanical Gardens (yes there are that awesome to go back twice!), along with the National Gallery of Art and National Archives. I gave my huge spiel at the Archives, which I'm not sure if he got or not, but that's ok. The National Gallery of Art was our favorite place of the day, as we didn't even plan on going there, but ended up spending over 5 hours in just one of the buildings! Thank you for the tip Carolina! I think Ryan is quickly becoming an art historian though, as he spent some of his time wandering around the building with guide book in hand. :) Of course, a great way to end the night was some cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory!

The last day he was here we went to a bunch of the monuments (Lincoln, Washington, Vietnam, Korean, World War II) . It was absolutely wonderful out, which was perfect because we walked at least 4 miles around DC. After the big monument loop, we went back to the National Gallery of Art, and then off to the White House and Chinatown!

Just as soon as Ryan came though, he had to leave. No worries though, it was all smiles while he was here, and my family will be here in just three weeks and in time for the Cherry Blossom Festival!

Old Friends, New Projects

Oh how fun it is to have friends come and visit!

One of my closest friends from my younger years came for two days to visit DC and me :), and to look at some grad school programs out here. She arrived on Sunday afternoon, just in time for some fantastic sunshine (sorry MN folks!) and lots of tour time. We visited almost all of the major monuments and the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. Even though I have only been in DC for about 7 weeks now, it was strange to be showing someone else my new city. No matter though, it was very nice to have her come and visit, and good practice for when others come to DC while I am here. Thanks Melissa!

Monday was actually a slower day at work. The snow of 2010 is finally behind us enough that things are getting back in order and I am now done with all of my training! My last one was on Monday morning, when I led a group of teachers in a professional development workshop on the Constitution lab and digital resources the Archives has. They were very impressed with the materials and how much was accessible to them! I also got the go-ahead to work on labs as an official Archivist Trainer independently, which completes my official assimilation into my internship. I have had many people in the Archives ask if I was going to become a teacher someday, and they seem to be shocked when I say "Not exactly...".

The rest of my afternoon was actually somewhat "teacher-ish" (if that's a word), as I worked in the ReSource Room with a bunch of little kids, and writing lesson plans. Interesting....

Tuesday I was at Archives II, working on some new, but really awesome projects. Unlike the Volunteer program at Archives I, the group out at College Park works a lot on preservation work, which I got to help with. I was working with World War I records, going through and making sure that these records were still in good enough condition that the public can access them. It is similar to my work with the Brazilian consulate records, only much more in depth. I came across some personal records from Fort Ripley, MN, which is so close to my hometown! These were men who who from my area fighting for their country, and here I was, making sure that their lives in the records would be preserved. The afternoon was even better, as I was sent on a mission to find a letter written by the US ambassador to Greece to the Secretary of State in 1868. Not only did I get to go into the microfilm room ( I know, very cool, but very nerdy), but I also got to go back into the stacks and pull the letter myself! It was so special to see the ACTUAL record, written in ink, upon the many pages of this man's journal.

Today our fieldtrip was to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, which I had gone to before, four years ago. After taking some classes in modern European history, especially my Hitler's Germany, I had a very different experience this time around. It was still very profound and deeply meaning to me, but in a much different sense than the first time I was there. I encourage all who come to Washington to visit this museum, it is an experience unlike any other institution.