Week 1: Introduction

Hello and welcome to my Public History internship blog! My name is Danielle Crosby, and I’m a senior at the University of Central Florida, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in History. Since middle school, discovering more about the past has been an absolute passion, but it was not the only part that captivated me. Whenever visiting museums and libraries, they felt like a home I constantly longed to return to, which ultimately helped my decision to continue my education to achieve this dream of eventually spending my life in environments I enjoy the most.

Beginning over a year ago, I spent much of my time trying to condense my interests into a sole research focus. I knew preservation and public outreach were a part of my ultimate career goals, but it all began to come together when I realized I wanted to work with various communities and find accessible ways for them to share their stories; a great place to start was with Native American nations. Not only would this cement their narratives during the colonization period and even thousands of years prior, but it would also raise awareness of the concerns about today’s problems that aren’t often covered widely in the media, along with their successes. With this, I declared my minor in Native American Studies, where I took courses beyond my previous studies, and applied concepts such as archaeology that will help a lot in future research concerning the early North American colonization period that don’t consistently rely on written records from an indigenous person’s point of view. Currently, I am spending a lot of time getting various pieces of background information that catalyzed the expansion and conquest of the Americas, including the societies of countries like England and Spain during the mid-1500s to early 1700s, providing better context to their narratives.

Closer to home, I wanted to learn more about who initially inhabited areas nearby, taking on some local history and the neighborhood names they inspired, including the Timucua tribe. An internship in public history is an excellent opportunity to collaborate with local members of Florida communities from different backgrounds to learn more about what events or people have shaped them.

The personal goals I hope to gain from this internship will go a long way in taking my first serious steps towards my career in the history field. One of my strengths is learning through practice and hands-on work with materials; therefore, I plan to strengthen my skills through workshops and familiarize myself with handling archival collections and understanding their organization. It will also be great to have the opportunity to participate in another History Harvest with a better insight into the behind-the-scenes work of the event and training for oral history interviews to conduct at this summer’s harvest. In doing so, I will challenge myself and fulfill my passion for the preservation of stories because it builds the understanding of the community and helps future generations with familial records. Knowing how to digitize different types of artifacts and create interactive online exhibits for public use will be a vital learning goal to keep up with the fast-paced growth of technology. Above all, as an online student, I have not had the chance to meet many of my peers or professors, so I hope to make long-lasting connections with the faculty and the other interns by sharing this unique experience with them and contributing to this project.