My name is Gracie Forgie, and this past summer I worked as an intern for the Black Watch Museum and Archives.
This coming fall, I will be entering my fourth and final year at 捆绑SM社区. I am very excited to soon be graduating with a major in History and double minors in Canadian Studies and Political Science. Over the past few years I have been focusing on a field I find to be incredibly interesting: Canadian history. In the Winter 2019 semester I took HIST 330: Themes in Canadian History with Professor Donald Nerbas. It was in his class that I first realized my fascination with the 鈥淪cottish factor鈥� of Canadian history. It was also through this class that I learned about an internship opportunity with the Black Watch Museum and Archives. Fortunately, I was offered an internship with them for the summer of 2019. I feel very grateful to have been selected to work with them again this past summer because the position has been very educational, and it has granted me the opportunity to see how archivists work.
When I learned I would be interning with the Black Watch Museum and Archives this summer, I was very excited to learn about what archival discoveries had been made since my absence. Further, I looked forward to continuing to develop a professional relationship with my supervisor Bruce B. Bolton who has taught me a lot about the history of the Black Watch, and about the history of the Scots in Canada.
Another reason I am very proud to have been an intern at the Black Watch Museum and Archives is because it is a very impressive and exciting organization. I learned that the Black Watch are Canada鈥檚 oldest Highland regiment. They have been involved in many wars and overseas conflicts including the Boer War, WWI, WWII, various peace keeping and peace-making operations around the world, as well as the war in Afghanistan. Through their involvement in these historic events, the organization has amassed one of the best regimental archives in Canada. I cannot stress enough what a pleasure it was to work with archives dating so far back into a period of history I find very interesting.
Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I was not able to work in an office environment while completing my research this summer. However, I was still able to work with the archives which are of great interest to me. My responsibilities this summer included finishing the work that was begun by an intern who worked for the organization in the Winter 2020 semester. I was given nine boxes that the previous intern had been working on, and I was charged with inputting information from the archives I found in each box into an excel spreadsheet. I organized my entries according to date and what could be found inside each box (ex. 1914-1918, Equipment Orders). I was also responsible for working with digital photos of archival scrapbooks and indexing them. I added page numbers to each photo and described what was on them in an Excel spreadsheet. At the end of my internship, to make it easier for future interns, I put both spreadsheets onto a USB drive which I left with my supervisor.
Despite the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, which made this summer much more stressful from last year, I was still able to find small moments to enjoy throughout my internship which I now look back on as fond highlights of my summer. I liked receiving new boxes of archival material which were delivered to my apartment by my supervisor throughout the summer. I also very much enjoyed being able to visit my office and speak to my supervisor in person (socially distanced) about the work I had completed and what I would be working on going forward. These meetings reminded me that I was not completely alone, and also made it easier for me to gain a sense of direction in my work without having to rely solely on email correspondence.
Finally, I did not choose to receive school credit for my internship, but I believe this experience has had a positive impact on my understanding of history and what I may want to pursue in my future. I believe that learning how to properly handle and index old and fragile materials will be a very beneficial skill for me in my future studies.
I would like to offer my tremendous thanks to the Dean of Arts, Antonia Maioni for financing my internship. I would like to also thank the Arts Internship Office and my supervisor Bruce B. Bolton for helping me achieve this position and supporting me through it. I am looking forward to bringing what I have learned from the Black Watch Museum and Archives this summer into my final year at 捆绑SM社区 and beyond.
