KENNESAW, Ga. | May 14, 2021

Two KSU students bring their experience in anthropology and art history to internships with the KSU Archives.

The Archives was delighted to host two wonderful interns during the Spring 2021 semester. Morgan Bendzinski (Anthropology, Spring ’21) and Abigail Mead (Art History, Summer ’21) each completed internships related to their areas of study using materials from the KSU Archives and Bentley Rare Book Museum. Their projects allowed them to experience multiple aspects of archival work, such as processing new materials and working with rare books.

Morgan’s interests led her to pursue a general internship rotating through all facets of archival work. These included processing new materials, digital archives, working with rare books, and outreach activities. She and Abigail worked together to process portions of the Cobb Landmarks Collection and identify a series of hand tools from the Ruth Zuckerman Papers.

In her Digital Archives unit, Morgan migrated files containing SPSU course catalogs from their original CD-ROM format and made them publicly available via our Scholarly Online Access Repository. She says that this experience allowed her to consider how essential it is for archives to keep up with ever-changing technology in order to collect and preserve records in various formats. In her work with the Bentley Rare Book Museum, Morgan examined texts printed by and about the Cherokee Nation and drafted exhibit panels on the Cherokee Phoenix newspaper. She also presented to a session of Coffee with a Curator on the topic of the BRBM’s collection of books on human anatomy.

As an Art History major, Abigail originally sought out an internship to gain experience with paper conservation. Through her work with the Bentley Rare Book Museum, she was able to gain experience with preventative conservation such as the creation of phase boxes and mylar covers. In her words, it was “satisfying to give needy books a safer home.” For her outreach deliverable with the BRBM, Abigail created an exhibit panel on books of the handpress period, including titles such as Gesta Romanorum (1489), Qvadraginta Sermones (1685), Riflessioni Armoniche (1701), and Lettres Persanes (1789).

Abigail was also able to use her background in Art History to provide recommendations to the Archives regarding the description of materials in the Southern Graphics Council International (SGCI) Records. After examining the collection, she identified materials likely to be of high research value to art historians. She then suggested ways to improve description of these items, such as adding artist names to the description of artist files, so that they are more likely to be discovered by researchers. She also created descriptions of digital material, including video and audio recordings, to further enhance the SGCI finding aid. 

Spring 2021 was the KSU Archives' first semester hosting interns majoring in Anthropology and Art History, and we thoroughly enjoyed their points of view and their contributions to our department. While many people come to the archives field through History or English, just about any major can provide a useful background to our work, and the archival profession benefits from a variety of perspectives.

If you are a KSU student interested in a future internship for course credit, please contact archives@kennesaw.edu for more information.