| Students and Public History at WMU
Frederick S. Upton Fellowship in Public History
Jennifer Gaydos, a second year master’s student in public history, was awarded the Frederick S. Upton Fellowship in Public History for 2004-05.
The fellowship enables a graduate student in public history to work with the Fort Miami Heritage Society in St. Joseph, MI, a regional history center for southwest Michigan. The fellow will gain valuable experience performing community outreach by working with local schools and cultural institutions, as well as developing professional museum skills. The Upton Fellow will also engage in research and professional development activities in the course of his graduate studies at WMU.
Jennifer Gaydos is starting her second year of public history
study at Western Michigan University. She received her B.A. in geology and
geography from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1998. At the Fort
Miami Heritage Society, she accesses collections, assists
visitors with research, and helps with the planning of the
next exhibit.
Student Professional Participation and Training
 Since 1997, WMU Public History Students have worked with the following institutions and organizations as part of their classes or internships:
- Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum
- Fort Miami Heritage Society
- Michigan Maritime Museum
- Kalamazoo Aviation History Museum
- WMU Archives and Regional History Collection
- Kalamazoo Valley Museum
- Gilmore Car Museum
- Kalamazoo Institute of Arts
- Kalamazoo Nature Center
- Public Museum of Grand Rapids
- Detroit Historical Museums
- Studebaker National Museum
- College Football Hall of Fame
- Historic Deerfield
- Battle Creek Art Center
- Kellogg's Cereal City, USA
- Holland Museum
- Office of the Grand Rapids City Historian
- Michigan Historical Center
- Battle Creek Historical Society
- San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum
- National New York Central Museum
- Mackinaw Historical State Parks Commission
- Liberty Hyde Bailey Museum
- Montgomery County (Michigan) Historical Society
- City of Kalamazoo Historic Preservation Office
- Northern Indiana Center of History
WMU Public History Alumni
Students who studied Public History at WMU since 1997 were employed at the following institutions:
- Studebaker National Museum, South Bend, Indiana
- Fort Miami Heritage Society, St. Joseph, Michigan
- Star Spangled Banner Flag House, Baltimore, Maryland
- Northern Indiana Center for History, South Bend, Indiana
- Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum, Baltimore, Maryland.
- National Park Service, Harper's Ferry, West Virginia
- Mackinac Historical Parks, Lansing, Michigan/ Mackinac Island, Michigan
- Gerald R. Ford Museum
- Monroe County Historical Society, Bloomington, Indiana
 WMU alumnus Matt Anderson (l) is pictured while working as a fireman on a live steam engine at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. Currently, Matt works as curator of collections at Fort Miami Heritage Society.
WMU Alumnus Hallie Brignall graduated with a B.A. In Public History in Spring 2000 for WMU and is currently completing her Masters at San Francisco State University in Museum Studies. So far, she has completed an internship at the Cohen-Bray Historic House. She also has interned at the California Historical Society where she worked on the exhibition, California Labor that opened in September 2003. For Hallie’s thesis, she is curating an exhibition on the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915 for the National Park Service that will be showing in the Presidio in 2004.
WMU alumnus Cindy Olsen is currently working at the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, Indiana. While a staff member at the Star
Spangled Banner Flag House in Baltimore, Maryland, Cindy headed a committee to pick the dresses and write and fabricate the labels for a Women's History Exhibit at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland (r). The exhibit featured women's traveling dresses of the 19th century.
WMU Public History alumni may contact the History Department to share their experiences with their fellow students at hist_wmu@wmich.edu.
WMU Public History Internships
 Christina Smith spent June-August of 2003 working as a docent at the Custer Battlefield Museum in Garryowen, Montana. The Custer Battlefield Museum is a privately owned museum on the Crow Indian Reservation, about four miles from the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. Garryowen is located on the site of Sitting Bull's Sioux camp, where the famous battle actually began. Christina reports that museum has an impressive American Indian artifact collection, as well as many 7th Cavalry items. The museum is also home to a controversial tintype believed by many to be the only photograph of the Sioux chief Crazy Horse. Her main duty for the summer was answering “many, many” questions about the battle, Custer, and Montana in general. Christina also organized display cases and wrote some display labels.
Tom Vance, pursuing an MA in US History, interned at the Portage District Library during Fall semester for HIST 712, Professional Field Experience. Tom worked on Portage Public School materials at the library's archive, The Heritage Room, under the supervision of PDL local historian Steve Rossio.
 The collection consists of a wide variety of documents and photographs donated primarily by Portage Schools, but also by former faculty, staff, and by alumni. The collection is unique in that it spans the entire history of the school district, including education-related materials pre-dating the establishment of Portage Schools in 1922.
Tom devoted his 80 contact hours (for two credits) dividing the collection into key content areas: board of education minutes, news releases, district and individual school documents, student newspapers and literary magazines, photographs, educational resources (record albums, microfilm, teacher guides), newspaper clippings, and documents preceding the establishment of Portage Schools. The collection also represents materials not organized into the 63 Hollinger boxes, such as yearbooks, over-sized photographs, and attendance records.
Once materials were organized and a series for the material was established, Tom developed a nine-page Finding Aid to assist library patrons and also school librarians at the district's elementary, middle and high schools. The Finding Aid will also be shared with social studies teachers at middle schools and high schools at Portage Schools to encourage student use of the collection.
|
|
