Wow. I can't believe that it's already Wednesday night! So much for updating every day...I am going to try, I promise. Since my last post from Kentucky I made it safely to Cola and am settling in. I have yet to find a job but I'm pretty sure that half of Cola restaurants, stores, and country clubs know my name, address, and three references. Most places I've tried unfortunately aren't hiring for summer but have asked me to come back in August which isn't exactly going to fit in with my plans. Even though I haven't found a paying job yet, my internship is AMAZING. I started yesterday (May 18) with a little bit of a hiccup. The email I had read before going to bed said that I was supposed to be at the office at 8:00 to meet with my Dr. Sherrer but when I got thee the place was deserted! I wandered around confused until my phone vibrated to let me know that the meeting time was actually 10 o'clock and that the reminder had been set for two hours early. After going back home for some breakfast and a short nap I headed back to try and start my day a second time. This time I was greeted by about 6 people all busy at work and Dr. Sherrer apologizing for having to check his email. I was about 5 minutes early so as I waited I looked around his office. Its pretty amazing how much he has in his office. There are books upon books upon books and more maps than you would believe. I'm pretty sure that I could spend hours just looking around in there and not get bored. With his email check Dr. Sherrer started off with a general overview of my responsibilities with the Historic Columbia Foundation (HCF). Then I was introduced to pretty much everyone I would be working with this summer and taken on a tour of the Mann-Simons site where I will be spending most of my energy and time. It was originally called the "Mann-Simons Cottage" but recently the name has been changed to better reflect the property's history.
The Mann-Simons Site has had a lot of different uses and it's history is so much more complicated than historians had thought. One of the main findings that needs to change is that the house museum that is used today was never actually used by Celia Mann (the matriarch of the family). The house we see today was actually built in about 1870 not 1837 as the story had gone. Although the general story is true and will stay the same, the interpretation of that story will be getting a major face lift based on the archaeological findings from 2005-2007. All in all 60,000 artifacts were found and they have helped to fill in a lot of the gaps that the original interpreters had...glazed over? ish?...in the beginning. One of the main ways that this will be changing is the creation of ghost structures. There will be 4 or 5 new structures that will show the basic skeletons of the buildings that were on the property before it was sold by the Mann-Simons family. This is where I come in. I will be creating panels or "wayside sign-age" to accompany each of these ghost structures. The signs I will be creating will be completed in PDF format by the end of my internship and will be installed in their physical form in late summer early fall. I am so incredibly excited to be doing this project. It is absolutely mind boggling to think that in a few short months, my work will be part of a real exhibit.
After my tour of the cottage and meeting Dr. Jake Crockett whom has made the project at Mann-Simons his baby. John (my supervisor, Dr. Sherrer) took me to see the other site I will be working with. This site is one that I feel very fortunate to be working with. The Woodrow Wilson Family Home!!! Can you believe it?! It is so amazing to know that I am working to bring this incredibly historic site back to its original glory. The site will in no way be even close to done by the time I am heading back to Iowa but my little piece of it will be complete and ready to be installed whenever the time comes. Just like with the Mann-Simons Site I will be working on the wayside sign-age for a portion of this reinterpretation. I will not have nearly as much responsibility with this site as with the other but I don't mind. I am not exactly sure which rooms of the house I will be working with or if part of my duties will be with the gardens and to be honest I'm not sure if John even knows exactly yet. My first day I did not get to go inside of the house but today I did and let me tell you, it's fantastic. The inside is not in good shape. there are cracks in the walls, peeling pain, and until recently you could not walk upstairs without fearing that you would fall through to the first floor but it's easy to imagine just how beautiful the house was in its prime.
I'm getting ahead of myself...the end of my first day should come before my second day. I ended my first day by beginning to read the 3 inch binder of information on the Mann-Simons Site. I only got about a quarter of the way through the binder before it was time to go and meet Wes for a late lunch and some more serious job hunting. It was during this job hunt that I accidentally walked into a casting for the bad girls club. Needless to say, I turned in my application to the restaurant and the high tailed it out of there as fast as I could!
My second day started much smoother than my first. This time I met with everyone at 8 o'clock for real and we promptly made our way to Mad Monkey. Mad Monkey is the firm that HCF uses with for their web based work and will be working with in creating a virtual museum for the Woodrow Wilson Family Home. I wasn't sure what to expect when I walked into my very first meeting as an intern and can't even begin to tell you all of the things I learned. There I was in this super cool office space (it was something like you would expect Pixar studios to be like) watching the creative process take place and actually being brought into the conversation! I had figured that I would be sitting on the side taking notes and getting coffee but I was actually a part of the meeting! It was CRAZY PANTS!
After the Mad Monkey meeting we headed back to the HCF main office for about a half our and then went off to our second meeting. This meeting was for the Woodrow Wilson Scholarship Committee and to me was more like one giant brainstorm than a meeting. The discussion began with going over what had been decided and taken place thus far and moved into what should be done moving forward. This time I did stay back to myself and take notes but I don't think I could have asked for a better experience. The research that has been done and the direction that this project is going is really exciting. It is going to, in the end, be like no other museum I have ever been to or heard of.
After the meeting we broke for Lunch (at a place called Pitas that I will without a doubt be taking anyone who comes to visit) and reconvened at the Woodrow Wilson Family Home for a walk through. This time rather than looking from the street I got to go inside. The house is AMAZING. I know I already said something of that nature but I can't shake the feeling that I just spent an hour in the house that Woodrow (then Tommy) Wilson lived in! The Wilson family lived many different places but this house was where they lived when Tommy was in his teens and during the reconstruction period. I don't know about you but I think that's pretty crazy. The walk through of the house was over way before I would have liked but the good news is that I'll get to go back again soon =)
By the end of the walk through it was after 2 and the rest of the day was going to be spent in meetings that have nothing to do with me so I headed home to meet Wes, change clothes, and go for yet another round of job hunting. This time we headed to the mall where I am hoping we'll have more luck. So far I've applied at New York and Company, Francesca's, and express. I will be going back tomorrow to speak with a couple of managers that were not there today and fingers crossed I'll have a job soon!
There are about a zillion more things I want to tell you about (especially more about the food that I've been eating and the awesome little restaurant we found today called Cafe Strudel) but I have to be at the Mann-Simons Site at 8:45 in the morning to help tear down the old basement exhibit and make way for a new one so I am going to pour myself into bed and zonk out hard.
I hope you're all doing fabulously and I can't wait to talk soon!
Kaeli
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