Archives and Public History at NYU

This past spring semester (2019), APH student Abbey Wilson interned with the New York City Municipal Archives in New York City. Below you’ll find Abbey ’s blog post about his experience.

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During the 2019 Spring semester, I made the trek once a week out to Sunset Park, Brooklyn, where the New York City Municipal Archives houses one of their offsite storage facilities. The New York City Municipal Archives operates as an independent agency under the umbrella of the Department of Records and Information Services. In 2012, the archive saw an increase in interest which led to increased staffing and funding. They recently undertook a survey of all of their holdings, including offsite storage, and discovered that the majority of collections were unaccessioned and unprocessed. In the course of this survey, they discovered three collections of records from the Department of Transportation that appeared to have come into the archive’s custody at around the same time. My task for this internship was to determine if they were all the same collection, and whether or not it should be accessioned.

A typically-sized room in the Municipal Archives warehouse, though they’re usually fuller! (Photograph courtesy Abbey Wilson)

In order to gain more information about the materials, I needed to appraise them. I did this by physically gaining control over the collection, which entailed creating a detailed inventory in Microsoft Excel and rehousing them as necessary. I also filled out an appraisal form which required information such as who the creators of these records were, what topics the records covered, and whether or not these records were unique. I also had to determine whether or not the records fit with the collection policy of the Municipal Archives.

The process of appraising the DOT collection was incredible. I had never appraised anything before and was surprised by how much of the work I was doing would be critical to subsequent processing. My inventory had started out as something that was only supposed to be for me, written down in a notebook so as to make filling out the appraisal form easier. My boss, Rachel Greer, encouraged me to turn it into a spreadsheet which then made it a generally useful tool for understanding the collection. There are so many wonderful and supportive people working at the municipal archives, and I always felt that the work I was doing was important and would be helpful to them in the future.

The DOT collection numbered, labeled, and shelved. (Photograph courtesy Abbey Wilson)

This past spring semester (2019), APH student Theresa DeCicco interned at the Museum of the City of New York in New York City. Below you’ll find Theresa ’s blog post about his experience.

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My internship experience occurred at the Museum of the City of New York in their curatorial department. The museum’s primary focus is the teaching of New York City’s diverse history through immersive exhibitions and programming. My time with the curatorial department highlighted the museum’s mission, as my experience was divided between the ongoing show Activist New York and the upcoming New York’s Got Game. Activist New York showcases the metropolitan area’s social activist history with case studies ranging from Dutch New Amsterdam to more contemporary movements, such as Black Lives Matters. In working with the exhibition, I gained insight into the work involved in keeping up an existing show. My tasks involved  updating the show’s object list, a master list which holds information on past and present objects included in the show, and finding future objects that could be rotated through the exhibit. In addition, I helped to research new case studies like the Trans Activist Movement of the 1970s. I drafted online content for the Activist New York website portal, as well as selected relevant magazines articles to be displayed on an iPad in the gallery.  

Working with New York’s Got Game, I was able to explore the components that go into creating a new exhibition. Set to open in early 2020, New York’s Got Game focuses on the history and development of basketball culture in New York City. I researched and annotated the show’s historical timeline, fact-checking dates that were gathered through different sources. Furthermore, I worked with online archives such as the 92nd Street Y’s collection to gather articles and photographs on the Jewish community and their influence on basketball in the city. As part of my internship, I was invited sit in on museum meetings. An important take away from my internship, the meetings offered a glimpse of how cultural institutions function within the professional realm of public history.  My time with the curatorial department and MCNY as a whole has been instrumental in my professional growth as a graduate student and an experience I have truly enjoyed.

Article on the Queens Liberation Front from Drag Magazine displayed in Activist New York (Photo by Theresa DeCicco)

This past spring semester (2019), APH student Megan Downey interned with Towson University Special Collections and University Archives in Towson, Maryland. Below you’ll find Megan ’s blog post about his experience.

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For the Spring 2019 semester, I was an intern at the Towson University Special Collections and University Archives in Towson, Maryland.  I had not had any archival experience prior to this internship, and it was an excellent placement to learn the basics of processing an archival collection.

Towson University opened its doors in 1866 as the Maryland State Normal School and moved to its current location in 1915.  After several changes in name and mission, the school became Towson University in 1997. 

My project for the semester was to process the collection from the Center for Student Diversity.  The Center for Student Diversity was created in 1969 as the Office of Minority Affairs.  The Center for Student Diversity is an umbrella office for several other groups.  The collection I processed was from the African American Cultural Center, which is one of those organizations.

The collection came to the Special Collections and University Archives in an assortment of binders with the materials in plastic sleeves.  The materials include event flyers, correspondence, and community arts information, and newsletters.  In addition, there was a records carton box which contained an assortment of audiovisual materials.  Some challenges I faced through my project included the major learning curve that comes with learning any new thing.  For instance, creating my finding aid was my first time using Archive Space and that was quite a challenge at first. 

There is a great sense of accomplishment that comes with processing an archival collection.  It is a very important chance to use the skills learned in the program in a practical way.  Being an archivist can encompass many different things from processing to outreach and the internship is an opportunity to examine these various facets and discover where you would like your career to go.

“Before” (Photograph courtesy Megan Downey)

“After” (Photograph courtesy Megan Downey)