Welcome to the first installment of the Week In Review!
I’m Rose, the new Media Intern at the Historical Society of Washington D.C. I’ll be here for the semester as part of the Washington Media Institute through the University of Colorado Boulder’s CU in D.C. program. (Think study abroad-style learning without the abroad part.)
Media is a loose term, but I like to think of it as a term to describe any means used to communicate. During my time at the Historical Society, I’ll be the architect behind social media posts and this weekly blog, plus a few other projects currently in the works. So stay tuned!
If you’ve been following us on social media, you might think we’re busy—and you’d be right! But that’s only the half of it. Since our last blog post, we’ve re-opened the Kiplinger Research Library to appointments and classes alike, and the requests for appointments
and workshops have poured in. These programs allow us to share our unique collections and resources with the public. And it also keeps us on our toes.
But staying busy doesn’t stop us from taking a moment every now and then to admire the interesting items we come across in the collections.
In the Stacks
Yesterday a fellow intern walked over to the break room table, after some time spent re-shelving collections, and without preamble said, “Did you know we have the original autopsy documents for President James Garfield and the bullet that killed him?”
(To be exact, the bullet resulted in septicemia which is what actually killed President Garfield. I digress.)
Indeed I had no idea this was the home of such historical treasures. But I could hardly be surprised because if we had a photo of President Taft’s pet cow grazing on the OEOB’s front lawn, why not the bullet that mortally wounded President Garfield?
But that’s just what’s been going on inside the DC History Center.
Field Trip!
We at the Historical Society of Washington D.C. are only a few short blocks from the District of Columbia Archives (we’re practically next-door neighbors) and paying them a visit last Thursday served an important purpose. We got to find out for ourselves how to conduct research at the archives which will allow us to better assist our patrons who want to continue their fact-finding there.
The D.C. Archives hold “historical and permanently valuable records of the DC Government” according to the DC.gov website, including records of birth, death, marriage, and land changing hands. They even have some notable wills, such as those for Woodrow Wilson, Alexander Graham Bell, and Frederick Douglass. Or one could just go there for the intense old book smell. To each their own.
Research Services Librarian, Jessica Smith, produced a quick guide on how to navigate the D.C. Archives available to any and all who want to access their resources. We even did a test run of our instructions by trying to find land records of historic houses.
Speaking of neighbors…
Welcoming the Anacostia Community Museum’s New Director
On Friday evening we hosted a private reception in the DC History Center to celebrate Melanie Adams’ appointment to the position of Director at the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum.
Adams’ background is in not one, but two historical societies: the Historical Society of Minnesota and the Historical Society of Missouri.
It was wonderful to spend the evening with key staff and administrators from local museums and repositories. We look forward to when the Anacostia Community Museum’s exterior renovations are complete and they reopen to the public!