It is my first week here at the Luzerne Historical Society. This week the archivist/librarian took me on a tour around the Luzerne Historical Society’s archive/library building. She showed be the numerous areas where there are many shelves of archival material, including objects that either have not been inventoried yet or have but are too large for archival boxes. After that tour, I went over to the society’s museum and one of the full time employees took me on a tour. On the tour, there were numerous areas of objects, such as clothing from numerous decades, antique military helmets, etc. One interesting object I found on the tour was a container that held a hat from the 1920s. The employee informed me that this specific hat had traveled around the world in the 1920s. I thought that was pretty amazing.
During this week, I had the opportunity to help the Luzerne Historical Society put up an exhibit on the Agnus flood of 1972. I helped another employee place some of the framed pictures on the walls. The unveiling of the exhibit to the public was this past Friday, so I came to the event to help them out. It was interesting seeing people from the public come and listening to their memories of the flood. Additionally, the unveiling of the exhibit was featured on Fox News and some of the employees from the Luzerne Historical Society were interviewed. If you are interested in watching that, you can find the video on Fox’s website.
Lastly, my first project is composing an inventory of the Welles collection. The Welles Collection is an assortment of object such as photographs, deeds and other documents, etc. The Welles were a large, wealthy family who resided in Wilkes-Barre, PA. Many of the objects I have come across so far belonged to Edward Welles Sr. who was active in many parts of Wilkes-Barre. For instance, he was the director of the Second National Bank for eight years and then made director of People’s National Bank. Edward Welles Sr. was a part of other companies such as the Hollenback Coal Company as well. I will be working on this project for quite some time during this internship and I am excited to discover more interesting facts about this family.
