Imagine walking into a village in 1830’s New England. You can see the shoemaker at work, take a horse-drawn ride around Mill Pond or see what a cabinetmaker was capable of producing. This kind of history may not seem within reach anymore, but at Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts, that is exactly what one SHPRS student got to help create.
The Old Sturbridge Village is a history museum and learning resource that allows its visitors to experience and explore New England’s past. For twelve weeks over the summer of this year, Sydney Gay, a graduate student working towards a master’s degree in history from the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, was an intern in the Museum Education department of the village.
“When I started my master’s program and it was time to do an internship, my advisor suggested that interpretation alone wouldn’t be rigorous enough for a graduate-level professional experience,” said Gay. “The Museum Education program gave me the opportunity to work with children, be in costume part-time, learn interpretation skills such as cooking over an open hearth, and design curricula. I felt that it was the perfect combination of personal interest and professional skills for me.”
The Fenno House and Fenno Barn located in the village.
The internship was a wonderful opportunity for Gay to combine and strengthen her passions. She has always been interested in history. Growing up most of the books she had were history related, such as the “Dear America” diaries and “American Girl” books, and she loved every chance she had to visit historical homes and museums.
During her time at the village she had was able to juggle many responsibilities. She started out as an in-costume helper and worked with different age groups to support the main teacher with lessons for the campers. She then aided in gathering research for the department director, which included the task of linking the studios to state curriculum standards and she volunteered to put back together the department’s defunct library.
“I became more determined to continue working in a school library, where I believe I can help kids improve their literacy and research skills and I love organizing things,” Gay said.
The library after Gay had finished the project.
This became her biggest project as she organized, catalogued, labelled and shelved all of the books and magazines that were available. Gay also took it upon herself to set up the library space to be a comfortable and organized area for the museum education teachers to use as a research workspace. The projects that she helped on were particularly beneficial to the skills Gay would like to develop for her career.
“While completing this internship, I realized that I am most interested in developing low-tech, portable, highly interactive history lessons which can be used in a classroom by teachers who are unable to bring their students to a museum,” said Gay. “I think social studies classes can benefit enormously from history activities that don’t solely involve reading from a textbook and memorizing dates.”
Her time at the village was not always easy-going. There were many challenges that Gay faced during her time.
“I struggled particularly during camp, because walking around the over 40 acres of village, in costume, while politely wrangling children for five or more hours a day, four weeks in a row, was absolutely exhausting and I often became moody,” she said.
By the fifth week she was quite exhausted and chose to be a helper instead which made her duties much lighter. She did supply prep, got lunch supplies and helped supervise here and there. This switch opened up more time for her to finish the library before she left.
Her time at the Old Sturbridge Village is one that she will not forget. She was able to develop her professional skills and work towards her degree all while engaging with material she enjoyed. Learning about history is one thing, but getting the opportunity to step into it is something else entirely.
“I enjoyed opportunities to teach and learn from other teachers,” Gay said. “I had an excellent supervisor and director who were both flexible and receptive to any concerns that I had. I loved learning historical skills such as braiding straw and the chance to teach kids how to knit or embroider; I absolutely loved putting together the library and am very proud of it.”