Internship wrap up

The last few weeks have been crazy with school and the internship. One would think because the internship was online already nothing would change but it did and it was a lot to deal with. I was given a few small projects, and one big one.

The biggest project I worked on was the most time consuming and was continuous through the whole semester starting when Maria Adebola went on maternity leave. For this project, I had to attend a seminar on how to use Social Studio. Everyday I had to log on to Social Studio and review all comments on the VHA Twitter and Facebook pages, and by review I mean read them all, select a category to tag them in, and either assign them to be replied to or close them out. I had to go on several times a day Monday through Friday and I realized that it consumed a big chunk of time. I discussed with Robin and Debi to go on three times a day while school was in session. When everyone went on quarantine the comments nearly doubled with everything that was happening, so I had to go on more and more to get it all done. They were more than understanding if  I couldn’t be on at a certain time but I always got all the comments done by the end of the day and made sure the ones that needed to commented back were assigned as soon as possible. 

Overall this internship was a wonderful experience and I am so thankful I was given the opportunity to work with the VHA team. I am excited that they offered me a volunteer position with more access to their systems until I finish school. I am excited to hopefully continue my role with in the organization and hope that it leads to a full time employment opportunity once I am finished with school. 

Week 11

During the eleventh week of my internship, I completed 1852 and stopped after completing 1859. One of the names that appeared frequently was St. Stephens Church. This got my attention because I remembered how the historical society was only next door to a church, so I did a quick google search and found out that they were the same. I am unsure if Maxwell was in frequent correspondence with the church was more for business and/or his own personal beliefs. Although I did find out that Maxwell was a lifetime member of a group called the American Christian Union, so it is likely he was rather religious. That said it was interesting and it reminded me of Wilkes-Barre. Another unfortunate problem from the pandemic was that after learning that the historical society opened in 1858 I could not look through any articles that discuss this. I could not find the name of Nathan Dennison, one of the founders, in the 1858 section. Another topic that I found interesting was that in 1857, Maxwell had been in correspondence with a group known as the Scranton Republicans. At first, I thought it meant that Maxwell might have been a Republican. However, after doing some research, I learned that it had nothing to do with the GOP, but was actually a newspaper. I have been unable to find any information regarding what party the paper generally supported during its publication, but I have found another important piece of information. During the late 1850s, the town of Scranton was growing into a full-blown industrial city. Due to this, I have learned the Republican was most likely a newspaper that revolved around businesses, not unlike Business Insider today. On a more personal note, I am rather disappointed that I will be unable to read the documents because of the buildup to the American Civil War. Something that will also play a part in next week’s journal.

Week 10

For the tenth week of my internship, I continued to copy names down from the list onto the word document created by myself. Last week, I managed to complete 1846 and stopped towards the end of 1852. Throughout the list were insurance companies with the most common of these being the Franklin Fire Insurance Company. I have noticed it throughout week 10 and the preceding weeks, my assumption as to why it is so common would probably be that Maxwell was an associate. From what I can gather about the company is that was opened in Philadelphia in 1829 and eventually shut down in 1873. As to why it shut down, I am uncertain, but coincidentally the company closed down the same year Maxwell died. It is possible that Maxwell might have been a very valuable member or associate, but due to my lack of resources, this is an assumption. Another notable name that got my attention was a group called the Proprietors of Plymouth from 1849. This garnered my attention because of the name Plymouth, which brought to mind the colony founded by the Puritans. However, this was more than 200 years after the town was fully founded in 1620. A proprietor is someone who owns a business, so it would appear that Maxwell had some associates in Massachusetts. It was interesting to see that Maxwell had potential business associates in a historical town. It would also appear that Maxwell had been regularly associated with the Wyoming Bank. By Wyoming, these letters would refer to Wyoming Valley, which is not far from Misericordia. Throughout my time at Misericordia, I have gone to Wyoming Valley to purchase items. However, it would seem that the Wyoming Valley Bank is no longer around, but I have been unable to find any information on a Wyoming Valley Bank. Finally, one name that got my attention was the Staffordshire Coal & Iron Company in the year 1850. This mostly relates to the history of coal mining and steel manufacturing in Pennsylvania.

Week 9

During my ninth week, I worked in intervals throughout the week. I managed to get ten hours done and managed to get through the years of 1844 and 1845 before stopping partway through 1846. Again due to the recent issues that plague us all, I am unable to go into detail about what document interested me the most. Instead, I have to find a couple of names on the sheet and theorize what it means. One recurring name was the Pine Forest Company, which grabbed my attention. I could not find any information about it, but considering Maxwell’s history of property dealership, I am inclined to believe that the company was responsible for the construction of homes. Pine Forest was either that or at the very least just supplied the wood needed for these homes. Another company that caught my attention was the Baltimore Coal Co. Considering Luzerne County’s history of coal mining and the fact Maxwell wrote a book about the subject fourteen years later it was nice to see a reminder of it. There were also the names of various banks such as the Wyoming Bank and the Philadelphia Bank. Considering Wyoming did not become a state until 1890 at least eighteen years after Maxwell died, it highly is likely this bank was referring to the Wyoming Valley not far from Misericordia. Regarding Philadelphia, it was interesting to know that Maxwell had correspondence with one of the most famous cities in American history. Finally, there was a letter from someone or someplace called Larkins of London. I was unable to find any information on whether or not this was a person or was some sort of business back during the 1840s. If it is referring to a person than it is interesting to see that Maxwell had been in contact with someone from London. I am rather disappointed that I was unable to read the document physically because it would be fascinating.

Week 8

For the eighth week of my internship, after Dr. Black told me to try and work a little more than ten hours for a week or two, I decided to do just that. I managed to get twelve hours done that week. My strategy was to work in intervals throughout the day, usually, I’d work for an hour and then try to do another hour sometime later in the day. Like last time, due to certain conditions, I have been unable to fully understand what most of the documents are, but there are words on the list that I thought would be helpful. One document that apparently is in the folder for 1842, is a petition regarding a memorial. Despite not knowing the full context of the memorial this grabbed my interest because Maxwell does become a member of the historical society. So seeing a petition regarding something that he may have started or received does intrigue me. Regarding news from Luzerne County, yesterday, Amanda told me she has tried to find me documents relating to Maxwell. One of the documents she planned to send me was an obituary, however, at the time of Maxwell’s supposed death in 1873, there was a newspaper strike. So it is rather likely Maxwell never got an obituary due to this strike. I also did find some information about Maxwell from the “History of Luzerne County Book” he was apparently admitted into the society in 1831. I also found some general historical information that relates to Maxwell about how he and some trustees helped secure state appropriations after the Civil War. I also learned that Maxwell had a daughter who eventually got married. However, I could not find the daughter’s name, nor could I find a birth and death date for her. I also could not find the name of her husband.

Week 7

Despite the sudden changes from the pandemic, I was still able to get ten hours of work done for the week. I have also been sharing my progress with Amanda, by telling her via email how much work I have gotten done each day. Despite just typing names I was still able to uncover some things from the list I was given. I now have more time to get work done by working in intervals throughout the day. For the past few days, I would try to work three hours a day. One of the documents in the folder for 1838 was a Republican newspaper, which I found curious. The party formed in 1854, sixteen years before. The only thing that I could assume from this was that Maxwell was probably an abolitionist or was at least a sympathizer. I was rather upset to miss this because I have always had an interest in the lead up to the Civil War. There was also a letter from a man named George Scranton. This got my attention because of the man’s last name, and it made me wonder if he had any connection to Scranton the city. After a quick web search, I found out that he was a former US representative of PA and is recognized as one of the founders of Scranton. This letter was before George Scranton got was elected in 1859, while the borough was formed in 1856 and the city was founded in 1866. With that said, I believe that Maxwell talked to George Scranton because his family was wealthy and well-known in Pennsylvania.

Internship 7 & 8

These past two weeks have been a whole new type of stressful, with internship and without internship. I fell ill and was quarantined for a few days on top of everything that needed to be done, then everything was transferred to online work for school and the VA has been super active combatting the new pandemic.

So I still haven’t attended weekly meetings because I feel like learning psychology is more important and they completely understand and agree. But, the stress comes with checking the online comments for both Facebook and Twitter. With the new pandemic and my team working in healthcare, the comments are more active and plentiful than before.  I reached out to my advisor and cut my hours down to only check it three times a day, but there are still too many to handle. So, Robin, my boss, started going on assisting more and all I have to do is let her know when I can’t and she helps and understands.

I also had a nice conversation on life with Debi about everything that has been happening. She wanted to gauge my stress levels and make sure I wasn’t being over burdened with work during this time. Everyone is so nice and understanding, even though they themselves are stressed to the max and in meetings all day long.

I was assigned half of a project with Blake and Jenny as lead. I was to take 134 websites and use Site Improve to find all the broken links, create the report and send it to them. They are losing access to the tool to find the links so it was a rushed project with no time to waste. I was working with Issac, another intern, who had his own 134 websites to do. I was panicked because Blake said mine didn’t look like previous ones done by Issac. So I did them all and submitted and compared to Issac’s and looked for the issue. I followed directions perfectly and it looked weird in the report, but Issac’s report was cleaner. I found after messing around in the site, that if I didn’t check mark a box it would look like his, so either the instructions were wrong or one of us messed up. I was stressed out and wanted to know if I needed to redo them, because it took forever. After discussing with Blake, we realized that mine had slightly more information within it and that is better, so I was good.

So, in turn all my projects for the VA are completed and submitted and I can continue checking comments and wait for the next project to come!