For my graduate internship, I knew I wanted hands-on experience in an archive. I know that archival work is crucial work in the field of historical research. Having not spent much time in archives, I knew that working in one would be excellent experience.
I found two unrelated collections of slides and several artifacts that I found fascinating, but was too preoccupied with helping to accession the collection to do as much research into these items as I would have liked. I worked on accessioning a box of mugshots, three sets of projector slides, and finally on locating and re-entering the location for the items that had been improperly labeled in a previous move.
Mazie Adams, the executive director of the museum, was kind and helpful, not only to me but to all of the people I witnessed coming to the museum, many of whom were asking her for information on the infamous 1930s Torso Murders.
I spent my time at the Cleveland Police Museum accessioning items, that is, designating them with a number, marking them in a non-destructive way, and putting them, along with a short description, into a computer to be entered into a database. This way, if someone requests the items or documents for research, they will be able to locate them.
Above are some of the slides I accessioned, the first being indicative of many of the slides, just equipment, while the other two are some of the interesting ones I found. One shows a stuffed Barney being hung by a tiny noose and the other detailing a gruesome crime. Other slides that were of interest to me included a series of slides of a Nazi organization’s rallies and posters.
I am grateful for my experience at the museum and hope that my work to assist the museum has made a significant difference. While I did not have a single focused theme or project to work on, I found helping a small organization and learning about archival work fulfilling. I worked with archival software and honed my organizational skills. It was an honor to work with the museum.
