This summer, I will be working at Tulane’s very own Amistad Research Center! Because it is one of the world’s largest independent archives specializing in African American and minority history, I believed it would be the ultimate guiding force to aid in my independent research with a Tulane professor. Over the course of the summer, I plan to develop a deep understanding of female missionaries and educators during the Civil War and Reconstruction era. Due to the nature of dealing with women and minorities, I believed that the Amistad Research Center would be the ideal place to expand my knowledge and make it publicly available. While doing research in my topic, I ( as well as my sponsor, Chris Harter) are placing a special emphasis on archival digitization in order to make private collections and exhibits available to the public. By doing so, we hope to expand the knowledge of often overlooked social classes and ethnicities.
For the first one to two weeks of my internship, I will be learning how to use the machines and software of the center. Because one of the main goals of the Amistad Research Center is to digitalize archives and exhibits to make them available to the public, Chris has been teaching me how to efficiently publish existing exhibits as practice. Since I am the only intern at the center as of now, I have been quickly learning how to use the machines and systems from Chris. Ideally, I will be able to work independently on my publishing and additional research while the employees of the center work on other exhibits. I am really looking forward to self-management and research this summer! I know it will be extremely useful in the future and give me insight to a potential career!
During last school semester, Chris came to speak to my Graphic Novel class about minorities in Graphic Novels. He explained some of the stereotypes, inspiration from artwork, and the evolution of ethnic representation in literature. I was very intrigued with his presentation and contacted him a few weeks later about being an intern for the summer. He explained the difficulties of hiring interns and due to budget cuts, he was not sure that he could provide me with an internship. After pestering him for many weeks, I finally received an invitation to work at the center for the summer as an unpaid intern! Despite the hardships of budget cuts, Chris seemed very thankful and excited about our summer work. Once he explained what I would be researching, I was even more excited because it tied into my independent research.
My first week was quite sporadic. Due to many last minute meetings, conventions, and overall stress of running the center, Chris and I only met for a few hours. He briefly showed me some of the scanning machines and how to digitalize collections. We discussed basic operations of the Amistad Research Center and how my day to day activities would occur. Because Chris will be running the center with fewer employees that he is accustomed to, I was told that I would be operating on a self-driven plan. While it seems a bit scary at first, I believe it will be fantastic once I fully understand how to use the resources at hand.
In addition to reading manuscripts and diaries, viewing photographs and artwork, and researching artifacts, I really hope to provide a different perspective on the Civil War. In addition to doing research with Dr. Rebecca Mark, the internship at the Amistad Research Center will provide me with information to create a more well-rounded and complete documentation of live during the Civil War and Reconstruction Era. Instead of focusing on battles and male-dominated military efforts, I plan to include aspects of women, minorities, and duties of every day citizens living in the United States. In addition to compiling this information, the publication of this information of the Amistad Research Center’s website will make this information public to expand the education of a historic topic.