The semester is flying by. It is hard to believe that my internship is almost over and that I will be graduating from GMU’s Digital Public Humanities Graduate Certificate Program next month.
Over the past few weeks, I have continued to work on the project about African-American soldiers and mail during World War I. I’ve attempted to get information from several different angles, so I have been able to give Calvin some ideas about repositories where some letters from soldiers may be. I’m going to take one more look at African-American newspapers to see if there are any other references.
One of Dr. Brennan’s questions was “Did you enjoy something in particular?” In addition to the African-American soldiers project, I’ve been researching references to images of race, class, and gender in the works of artist Felix Octavius Carr “F.O.C.” Darley. I have learned quite a bit about Darley and his work through my research, and I have enjoyed this project very much. I found several scholarly sources and sent these to Calvin. Since one of these articles was by someone I know, Georgia “Gigi” Barnhill, Curator of Graphic Arts Emerita at the American Antiquarian Society, I asked Calvin if he would like me to contact Gigi for him. He replied that he would like to have a conference call with her and Peter, so I reached out to Gigi. Always gracious and generous, Gigi replied affirmatively. Calvin plans to set up the conference call over the next week or so. I was glad that I was able to connect these two esteemed curators.
I’m not sure what Calvin’s next project for me will be. If time permits, I’d love to be involved with the digital exhibitions related to the projects that I have been working on. I look forward to my last month as a virtual intern with the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum.