Below are links to finding aids that I created for collections that I processed at The Pennsylvania House of Representatives Archives. At the House Archives we used Archon as our primary finding aids database.
Office of the Speaker of the House: Protocol and Special Events, 1970-2010
Project “Dear Diary” is a blog based on the 1945 diary of Madalyn Meals-Seitz. She recounts her last few days in California as a Rosie the riveter, her trip across the nation back to Pennsylvania, getting married, and F.D.R.’s death. This project is classified under an archives 2.0 blog.
A brochure for the Rutherford County Archives that I created after the old one became antiquated. It shows an update of what collections are in the repository, a new map, and the services that are provided.
Rutherford County Archives Information Brochure
The Community Photograph Collection brochure was created to bring attention to our new and expanding Community Photograph Collection, and also to inform people on how they could donate their photographs.
I processed two boxes of the former Rutherford County Mayor’s Papers from 1996-2004 for the Rutherford County Archives. I took the files removed any metal or unnecessary items, indexed them, and placed them in acid free folders so that they could be preserved for future use by patrons.
(Click title for document)
I presented a paper entitled, “The Public Side of History: ‘This Cruel War’: Rutherford County Experiences the Civil War” at the Phi Alpha Theta 2012 Biennial Convention in Orlando, Florida. The paper was about the experience of creating an exhibit for the Sesquicentennial Civil War in Rutherford County and what it takes to be a public historian.
(Click the title to view the paper)
Wynnewood is the largest log structure in Tennessee. In 2008, this National Historic Landmark was hit by EF4 tornado, which caused extensive damage to the property and structure. The Tennessee Historical Commission approached the Middle Tennessee State University Public History Program to create two new exhibit spaces after the restoration of the structure was complete.
With the assistance of the site director, Rick Henderix, and archaeologist, Dr. Kevin E. Smith we developed two narratives, one is for the orientation space, and the other is for the house exhibit. We had several challenges with the exhibit narratives, one was that Wynnewood has 12,000 years of history, starting with the Pleistocene Era, prehistoric mounds, to the resort era at Wynnewood in the early 20th century. The other challenge was what story were we going to tell in the house? With a vast story, we decided to focus on the slave narrative because it was not told in the past. The exhibits are to open in the Spring and Fall of 2012. To view the exhibit narratives click on the links below.
The official website for Wynnewood: http://www.tn.gov/environment/hist/stateown/wynnewood.shtml
2010 Audrey-Beth Fitch Women’s Studies Conference was entitled “The Arts and Activism: Equality for All.” I assisted in the planning and organizing of the panel sessions. I reviewed the papers and proposals for each of the presenters, from there we assigned the presenters to one of the five sessions. We conducted and ran each of the panel and breakout sessions. The conference was attended by 2,000-3,000 individuals from across the country.
Press Release for the Conference
This project was completed for the 150th Commemoration of the Civil War in Rutherford County Tennessee. This nine-panel traveling exhibit was developed to travel around the county for four years. One of the goals of the exhibit was to interpret the Civil War in Rutherford County through the civilian experience, something that had not been done previously.
My job was to design all nine panels using Adobe Photoshop. We wanted a design that evokes the viewer’s feeling. The color scheme was based on the blue and gray of the uniforms. Here are just a few of the panels that you can download to see finer details in the design and interpretation.
The Ransom School Strategic Plan was put together for the Rutherford County Historical Society. They requested the Public History Program at MTSU to develop a strategic plan for the Ransom School building that they had just acquired. They also wanted us to research the history of the school and building, and the people who interacted with the building. As part of my Museum Management Seminar class with Dr. Brenden Martin. We worked with the historical society to develop a plan that fitted their needs. Part of their needs was also a security system that would help protect the building and their collections. I wrote a State Farm grant for a security system that will cover the installation and equipment for the system. We presented the information to the historical society and developed an overall summary of our final recommendations.
(click the title to view the document)
York’s Architectural Styles Brochure
One of my projects at Historic York, Inc. was to help develop an architectural styles brochure for York. This brochure is to help people identify architectural styles of York and give them key characteristics of each style. I walked around York and took pictures of prominent architectural styles that can be found in York. As a result, the director was able to put together an educational brochure for the public. The draft can be viewed here: York’s Architectural Styles
As part of my internship with Historic York, Inc. I spent much of my summer helping to complete the Lancaster County Historic Resource Inventory: Boroughs Initiative. I spent the summer walking and driving the roads of Lancaster County surveying and cataloging all structures in Manheim and Mount Joy. Every building that was over fifty years old was cataloged and photographed. For the survey we included build year, architectural style, foundation, building materials, roof type, roof material, any special architectural characteristics, and if it was contributing or noncontributing. Every building was photographed by a GPS camera, which provided coordinates of each house. Lancaster County will use this information to create historic districts and also to update their GIS database with the cataloged information and picture of each structure.
Inglewood Historic District
The Inglewood Historic District property survey is in partnership with the MTSU Center for Historic Preservation, the Tennessee Historical Commission, and the Inglewood Neighborhood Association. This project was part of my Essentials in Historic Preservation class with Dr. Van West. We were assigned different sections of the neighborhood to survey. An example of a National Register description from the project is:
1. 1102 Eastdale Ave. (c. 1932, contributing)
This dwelling is a northeast-facing, is a one-and-a-half-story Tudor Revival style cottage with a continuous stone foundation with brick and stuccoed gables with half-timbering, a composite shingle cross-gable roof, and a front facing brick chimney with decorative brick pattern. There are original six-over-six double-hung wood windows. It has a recessed gable porch with a rounded arch entrance. The wood door is original and has a fanlight.
Outbuildings: Garage (c. 1940) framed structure with aluminum siding, nine-pane casement windows, composite shingle front-gable roof, with stable style doors.
The outcome of the project is to “identify potential historic districts within Inglewood that have the architectural integrity and reordered history to qualify for the honor that the National Register listings would provide them” (source: Inglewood Neighborhood Association”.
“A Work Worthy of a Great Nation”: The Bicentennial of the National Road (Click to view online exhibit)
This project was completed for the bicentennial of the National Road. The exhibit, is a counterpart of the on-site exhibit at Fort Necessity National Battlefield. This Fort Necessity National Battlefields’s first online exhibit, which was part of their overall strategic plan. I developed the exhibit to allow visitors to further explore the National Road. I included more pictures and artifacts that are not normally viewed by the visitors on site. We also decided to include more text and information so that visitors could learn more in-depth stories and facts than they do when they visit the site.
This class project was done in collaboration with the MTSU Center for Historic Preservation. We developed a Heritage Development Plan for the Clay County Courthouse. Clay County was faced with a problem because they were building a new courthouse, but did not know what they should do with their old historic courthouse. Under the guidance of the Center for Historic Preservation we developed their heritage development plan, which includes the history of the building, needs assessment, maintenance recommendations, adaptive reuse possibilities, and funding and assistance sources. We took several trips to Clay County where we assessed and researched the building and talked with the locals to see what the community’s needs were. My main role in the heritage development plan was the “maintenance recommendation” section. I researched the maintenance needs and developed recommendations and a timetable that they could follow to keep the building in use and safe for visitors.
“Heritage Tourism and the Nashville, Chattanooga, and St. Louis Railway” Online Exhibit (Click to view online exhibit)
This exhibit focuses on heritage tourism and the Nashville, Chattanooga, and St. Louis Railway beginning in 1845 with the founding of the railway and ending in the 1940s with the decline of passenger travel on railroads. The exhibit will specifically detail the history of the railroad, the role the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway played in battlefield commemoration of the Civil War, and finally, the railroad’s involvement in community celebrations.
The exhibit was part of a larger class project that dealt with the Stones River National Battlefield. This project was completed for Dr. Rebecca Conard and her Intro to Public History Class.
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