Jasmine the Intern

During the fall 2014 semester I was an intern at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine. I worked in the programming department, which meant that there were a lot of spreadsheets and Word documents.

Honestly, though, I really enjoyed it. I’ve had internships before; I’ve already been a docent and helped with research at historic sites. This particular internship was a chance to see the business side of a museum. Museums thrive on tours and visitors, but how exactly do you get people not only interested in visiting, but physically there? The answer shouldn’t be surprising to any college student: It was a whole lot of research, scheduling, and planning. And typing.

                                    Sometimes, a whole lot of folders, too.

 I didn’t have an ongoing project per se, but the theme of my work seemed to be tours and events. The Clara Barton Missing Soldier’s Office had recently opened and needed more crowds, so I looked into tour companies that were historically based or that came to the Washington, D.C. area. Later I had to get some data for the tours that took place between April 1 and October 24 of 2014. Another week it was my job to call and email national parks in the area to see if they would be interested in hosting Civil War Talks. For a couple weeks I just looked at tour bus company profiles and decided if they were the right fit for the National Museum of Civil War Medicine. I also updated the museum site’s calendar with some upcoming events. All the events were for 2015. One event was for September, and much of the calendar was already full.

                                             This is where you find all your tour and charter bus needs.

That’s probably not that mind-blowing to any event planners out there, but it was pretty eye opening for me. I’m a history major, and like most history majors I think mainly in books and primary sources. Hands-on research is what I’m used to. Museums are a place to present history and the results of research, but you need to catch the public’s interest to keep a place running. So that’s what I learned over that semester: the amount of scheduling, networking, and planning involved in booking tours and hosting events is a massive amount of work. It also keeps museums going.

Missing Soldiers Rolls of Clara Barton

Hey everyone! It feels like it has been awhile since I last wrote a blog post! Last time I posted I was prepping for my presentation on Civil War nurses.  I was really excited and really nervous to present but it felt like a great opportunity to educate people on something I am very passionate about.  I’m happy to say my coworkers and people who listened said I did well and they enjoyed the content.  Otherwise on typical days at the museum though I have been working, among other things, on the Missing Soldiers Roll that Clara Barton published.  Spread over five different lists, it has close to seven thousand names on it with soldiers of all ranks and state origins who never made it home.  The NMCWM had me transcribing it so that it could be placed online and used by other historians for research.  It has taken many weeks but I can happily say I finished the very last name early this morning.

Roll #3, May 1, 1866.  Photo credit to National Park Service Museum Management Program.

                I have to say though that working on the list was a little sobering though because I spent a lot of time thinking about the men on it.  Of those roughly seven thousand names, how many were found and made it home alive? How many died in some place unknown and were never discovered? They were all people who had mothers, fathers, siblings and friends.  How did those people move on with the uncertainty and when did they stop hoping their soldier would come home? Each of these men vowed to protect their country and gave the ultimate sacrifice but I fear that many historians and modern readers don’t see them as people but as numbers.  I guess since I spent so much time looking at that I began to really think.  I saw trends such as the name George Washington being very popular along with James, Cornelius, Albert and John.  I saw names that stood out like American, Pius Blessing, and Alpha.  I saw that they came from states in large numbers such as New York, Pennsylvania and even one from California.  I saw brothers in the same companies, officers, privates and wondered about how they passed the time before they went missing.

Unknown Civil War soldiers graves at Gettysburg.  Photo credit to Beth Cioffoletti*

                The Missing Soldiers Roll was an appeal to the public, to soldiers, to anyone who had information about the men on the list.  Unfortunately, I don’t have information about whether or not any of these men were ever found and I really wish I did.  Sometimes I would see the same name and I  knew the family was still searching but I wonder what happened to the rest.  I know Clara was able to eventually locate twenty two thousand men in three short years but of the seven thousand I have come to know, how many were found? I don’t know but perhaps I can work with the museum staff to try and find out. 

                I hope that soon the list will be up and viewable by everyone so that they can see these names, look at how many companies there were, the names and think about it all as something more than a big list.  It is a big list with almost seven thousand people on it that gave their lives for the Union.  Anyway, until next time everyone! Happy Wednesday!

*   

http://anotheramericanadventure.blogspot.com/2011/04/soldiers-national-cemetary-gettysburg.html     Beth's blog.   

Merry Christmas

Hey everyone! I hope you have all been having a great holiday season so far! The museum has been buzzing with activity of all sorts lately.  We are still in full holiday mode here and have working hard to talk to people about what Christmas was like during the Civil War as well as doing all of our regular medical education.  Soldiers don’t stop getting Dysentery and surgeons don’t stop doing amputations because it’s Christmas so we’ll keep on educating everyone we see.  We’re also very festive here though and we have decorated our main entrance with garland, wreaths and a Christmas tree.  Our front display was also gone over and I really quite like it! Myself, well I’ve been busy too.  I’ve been working with the staff as usual on projects like the Missing Soldiers Roll, research and prepping for my imminent presentation.  It’s been very enjoyable to me since I really enjoy this time of year.  I was hoping it would be snowing by now but no such luck. 

                Two weeks ago we had our Christmas party and it was great.  Everyone dressed up and we all got to relax and talk with people we don’t get to see very often.  I got to meet a lot of volunteers I have only spoken with on the phone and we all watched the parade that went through downtown from our windows.  It was a great parade to watch because it had music, dancing, costumes galore and lots of involvement from the local children.  I saw more boy and girl scouts that night than I ever have before.  They wore all sorts of cute costumes like presents and Santa suits.  A lot of them were excited to see us in the windows and waved to us and we gladly waved back.  The lights in the trees and the marching bands playing Christmas music all made it a very nice night. 

                This week for my blog though I don’t want to spend time writing about our party or the lights in the trees but rather how  Civil War soldiers celebrated the holiday during the difficult years of the war.  It seems very fitting to write about this Christmas Day recently happened.  The Civil War lasted four long years and so a lot of time soldiers and their families were apart on the holidays.  By 1861 Christmas was already established as an accepted holiday by the majority of Americans.  It had traditions such as the Christmas tree (which had its roots in Germany), eating desserts, foods such as turkey and ham and spending time with loved ones.  Modern Americans would be able to recognize their celebrations of Christ, Santa Claus and joy of the season.  The war put a strain on these traditions so that children missed out on bonding with male relatives, in places such as the South gifts under the tree and in stockings became less opulent and women missed the companionship.  Of course everyone made due though because that’s what was necessary in a time of war.  The letters left behind speak volumes about how the soldiers felt about being away from home during this time and what they did. 

Harper's Weekly

                “With what a different feeling do I pass this Christmas Day from what I have spent similar days in the past! It has been my fortunate luck in the past to enjoy the festivities of this day…amid the endearment of home friends.  I am now deprived of that blessed priviledge,” wrote a young Confederate named William.  It is short but this part of his letter perfectly sums up the idea that they miss the gaiety of the holidays with their families and friends in a carefree and safe environment.  One Union solider, Samuel J. Alexander of the 62nd Pennsylvania wrote a sad missive to his wife.  “One of our mess got a box from home on Christmas Eve containing a large roasted turkey and several other good things.  So we had the pleasure of eating a very good Christmas dinner but I was not as happy as I was when I ate my Christmas dinner one year ago with my dear wife and I hope before another Christmas rolls around that we may be together never more to part.” Good food brightened their day but even Samuel wished he could have been with his wife more than anything.

Harper's Weekly

                Aside from missing their families there were things to occupy the soldiers time in camp. Guard duty and other work had to be done everyday along with other necessities.  However, in light of the Christmas day often officers went easier on the rules or turned the other way so to speak.  “Our commanders were kind enough to dispense with all but necessary duties to-day.” wrote Captain Henry A. Chambers of the 49^th North Carolina.  James Hall of Manigault’s Brigade of Alabamians and South Carolinians wrote of how they entertained themselves.  “We tried to make a Christmas of it here.  We have had foot races, wrestling and base [ball] playing.  All the officers in our brigade…ran a foot race.  and a rare time we had of it.” David Humphrey of the 45^th Ohio wrote a lively account of how they passed the day.  “We had a pretty Merry Christmas today and it made me think of home.  We had a brass band in camp which almost charms one that has not heard any sich musick for 5 or 6 months and we had several darkies with their fiddles.  And the boys danced and played ball and pitche horse shoes etc. etc all day and the sutler gave a treat of a barrel of apples to each Co. in the morning and the officers gave us all the oysters and fresh sausage we could eat for supper…” I am glad to see that they did not spend all their time moping around but were able to celebrate the holiday somewhat.  The soldiers were able to experience some happiness during a time of cruel war. 

Harper's Weekly, soldiers opening a box full of clothing received near the holiday.

                It sounds to me as if they experienced the same wants and needs we have today.  We aren’t so different from people 150 years ago.  Because of the war they couldn’t always be with the people they wished to and so they just marked the day in the best way they could.  Sometimes that meant music, races, less daily work or food better than the average rations.  Reading about battles I sometimes feel a disconnect between myself and the people but reading these accounts made it all sound very human and personal to me.  I could understand the soldiers and their desire to be with loved ones or eat a meal that reminded them of home.  I have felt that way myself when I am away from family and the holidays draw near.  The book I got my information from was one that came highly recommended to me by the staff here at the museum.  Kevin Rawlings wrote We Were Marching on Christmas Day: A History and Chronicle of Christmas during the Civil War (1995) because of his interest in this special topic.  I enjoyed because it in an entire book that focuses on one part of the war and backs up everything with quotes. Historians like me love quotes because it is a great way to prove a point and make a strong case! Anyway, I hope I was able to teach you a little about Christmas for the soldiers and that you enjoyed reading this! I’ll talk to you soon when I’ll have lots more exciting things to share! 

Giving Tours to Doctors

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving and/or relaxing week! I went and visited family up in the northeast.  Lots of fun seeing them, eating good food and playing in snow.  What I want to blog about today is something I don’t think I have covered too much in prior posts and that is giving tours.  I have always wanted to give tours because I love interacting with people so I was thrilled to pass my docent test a few weeks back.  Tours are fun because I like giving information to people, telling stories and learning from them.  They can ask questions that further challenge me to learn things I may not know a lot about yet.  I’ve given a handful of tours in the past few days and they were all fantastic.  On Monday I gave a tour to an orthopedic surgeon who teaches in a school a few hours away.   
 The tour on Monday was fun because he visited because he was considering bringing medical students into the museum.  A lot of our visitors are people that work or did work in the medical field so I was excited.  In every room, he had lots of questions to ask me.  Some I had heard a lot such as “did they really spend so much time in camp?” Yes, yes they did spend an obscene amount of time in camp.  I mean Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia was together all four years of the war but they were only in combat about 45 days.  That leaves a LOT of free time.  He of course had more unusual ones relating to bones and surgeries but as a surgeon specializing in it how could he not?

                A number of our galleries have bones in them and I think he really enjoyed those areas the most.  We have a model skeleton foot in our Heroic Medicine room and he pointed out that it is upside down possibly! Uh oh! He is the second orthopedic surgeon to point this out this week though so I think they may be on to something.  Our curator says though that as a teaching tool it was bolted to the wood and was probably done on purpose so students could see the underside of the foot.   Also in the amputation room he enjoyed hearing about how surgeries were performed and why.  Remember, biting the bullet is a myth! They had anesthesia back then and they used it! Bullets are choking hazards! I liked talking about how the soft lead bullets shatter bone though because I feel like he was genuinely interested in understanding how surgeons were not butchers back then.  By explaining how the ammunition deforms and then shatters bone all while dragging dirt, debris and gun powder through the wound , I was able to explain how amputations were done not because of laziness or surgeons wanting to be sawbones but because they were medically necessary to prevent gangrene, sepsis and infection! A shattered bone is almost impossible to fix today and in the 1860s.  Believe me and thousands of doctors, amputations saved lives back then.   

                He also enjoyed looking at the mummified arm because it showed bone within flesh that had suffered a traumatic injury.  He was also able to confirm what the Smithsonian had told us and that is that the arm belonged to a teenager still growing because the growth plates were visible in the x-ray.  Later on I showed him the six bones we have that showed soldiers that stayed in Frederick during the war.  These bones I think are very effective at showing the damage the bullets did because they are completely rent by the ammunition.  Finally, it was all connected back into modern medicine because the foundation for today’s medicine was laid 150 years ago by Dr. Jonathon Letterman and other innovators.  The scalpels, tourniquets, prosthetics and more is all very similar to what was used by the Union and Confederacy. 

                I am always happy to give tours and especially happy to do when I know that someone has enjoyed them so much.  I hope to seethe surgeon and his students back because I feel like there is so much to learn from the past still.  

One of the bone exhibits we have on display.  Artifact on loan from the National Institute of Health and Medicine.

Running around and Remembrance Day at Gettysburg

Hi everyone! It feels like it has been awhile since I’ve written anything.  Well, I’m glad to report that I’ve been staying busy at the museum.  I took my docent test and now I can give tours so I’m really happy to be doing that finally! I really enjoy giving tours because I like talking with other people and enjoy teaching others as well as hearing their thoughts on the subject.  I also went to Washington D.C. again but this time with our executive director George.  We were looking for the original key-hole covers that would have been on the doors when Clara Barton was there from 1865-68.  We thought it would take awhile of digging around in the basement but found them in about 10 minutes in a box by the door.  Quite the stroke of luck! The drive back to the museum was interesting because we saw two very large Blackhawk helicopters.  My coworkers have all seen them before and are quite jaded to it but I was surprised to see them much less the cargo they carried.  I was told that they were equipped with missiles.  That was a surprise to me! I did not expect on a peaceful day to see two helicopters holding missiles flying over the river. It was a sight to see for me.

                What I really want to tell you all about is what I did this past Saturday.  I drove to Gettysburg and saw the Remembrance Day parade and then walked all around talking to reenactors and seeing the stores.  It was really exciting for me because I have never seen so many people in Civil War costumes before in my life.  People in period garb were everywhere! I was taking photos (with their permission) left and right.  I got there a bit before the parade so I wandered around where they were all hanging out, just talking and taking photographs.  It was so fantastic! I saw people dressed as average soldiers, widows and as specific people.  Such as Lincoln, Pope, Grant, Lee and other generals.  The variety in uniforms was great too! Tall hats, average kepis, piping on sleeves, furs, overcoats and so much more.  The women showed up too and the dresses were so colorful (excepting the widows in all black).  They must have been very cold though since it was only about 40 degrees that day. 

Getting ready to start the parade.

Found Grant and Lincoln.

Southern Zouaves.

                I was like a kid in a candy shop.  When they all went marching by I loved seeing them all in sync.  The shoes made a great clacking noise as they stepped and the bands played great period music.  Other groups sang or chanted as they went by and others hollered out in happiness.  It was a great thing to watch.  After the parade ended I went into a bunch of the shops to see what there was.  Some were very touristy (of course), some geared toward reenactors, and some held very expensive replicas and actual items and some were in between.  I eventually went to a restaurant where a reenactor band was playing music and hung out with a fun group from Delaware.  It was fun to hear their stories about parades and reenacting on this side of the country and I told them a bit about the ones I had seen back home. They thought it was funny that we didn’t do a specific battle and that we had only about 100 reenactors but a horse drawn artillery.  I really enjoyed socializing with the group and I hope I’ll see them again sometime soon. 

A group of Southern generals.

Northern Zouaves.

                It was a fantastic way to spend a Saturday with tons of people with a common interest.  The weather was beautiful, with good music and food, the night was a blast as well.  Maybe in a year I’ll be wearing a period outfit as well!

Beginning of the parade!

One of the many bands that went by.

Coming over the hill and down the road.

Traffic jam of the boys in blue.

Marching on by.

Enjoying the weather and the fantastic parade!

His presence was so commanding I just had to include him.

The beginning of the Confederate portion of the parade.  My camera died right after this.

Night at the Museum: Civil War Edition

Hello everyone! Hope you all enjoyed Halloween because I sure did! We had a big event at the museum to celebrate and educate visitors that evening called A Night at the Museum: Behind the Screams Tour.  The premise was to tell ghost stories that Civil War soldiers would have known, talk about the different ghost encounters staff have had in our building (since it is allegedly the most haunted in the city and there was an embalming business here for over 100 years) because there have been many.  The guides also mentioned some of the more interesting things relating to the war such as spiritualism’s growing popularity as people sought to connect with deceased relatives and glowing wounds from the Battle of Shiloh. 

                I was not involved directly with the tours or storytelling so I did not get to walk around the darkened museum at night with a lantern but I was still here working.  Almost all of the staff dressed in period attire with only a few exceptions.  Because I was assigned to the front desk for the night I was lent a costume.  One might assume, as I did, that I would be putting on the dress and doing up the hair then calling it a day but the museum strives for being as authentic as possible which means all the clothing must be as close to accurate as possible.  Farby is a term used by reenactors to describe clothing that has modern conveniences or other non-accurate items such as zippers, incorrect material or patterns, etc.  The goal was to dress me with me minimal farby and boy did we do well for the first time in my opinion. 

                I wore pantaloons (think of them as chaps honestly), a chemise (like a VERY large nightgown that would be tucked into the pantaloons), a corset that goes over that (mine was a little too big so it wasn’t very tight thankfully), then a hoop that gives a lovely bell shape and then finally the dress.  It was a dashing yellow dress with tiny pink and blue flowers on it and a nice blue ribbon was used a belt.  The collar had a cameo on it and both it and the belt were straight pinned on (as was accurate for the time).  All in all the dress wasn’t horribly uncomfortable I have to say.  It did start to feel a bit heavy after a few hours but it wasn’t anything unbearable.  April braided my hair as well so I looked every bit the typical person of the time.

Audrey, myself and Tracey looking good in our period wear.

                During the event I stayed up front with Kacie and Meg and we rang up purchases, checked in visitors and handling anything that came up.  I helped Meg created a glowing wound on one soldier’s face (which kept dimming so we had to “re-glow” him so to speak every once in awhile) and sometimes I walked outside.  A lot of the visitors seemed to really enjoy the ghost tours so I am happy we able to give them that kind of unique experience.  I didn’t hear about any visitors seeing anything unusual that night but our staff did.  Meg saw things move of their own accord on the third floor and Jake along with others saw flickering lights on the second floor.  I can promise you it was not us playing pranks on each other but something that many believe are genuine encounters.  Much of the staff here believe they have had encounters as do the volunteers so this can be a pretty spooky place to work.  I, myself have not had experiences or anything thankfully but a lot of these stories have made me a little jumpy to tell the truth.  Every single room in this building has a story attached to it and the staff are more than willing to share so it has become hard to not think about it when I walk around for tours or other business. 

                The night was great though and because we got such a great turnout (every tour sold out) the museum is thinking of doing it again later this month! We definitely will be doing it again next Halloween though.  Enjoy the pic of me in my lovely period wear because I sure do.  Audrey and Tracey and seasoned reenactors and they were tons of fun to talk to that night.  I hope I get to work with them again soon!

P.S. I’m a docent now! I passed my test so I get to start giving tours! 

Working in Washington DC

    Hi again everyone! For this fun post I get to talk about one of our satellite museums, the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office in Washington D.C.  So far I have only worked in the main museum with a few trips out but this weekend I was assigned to D.C.  It was very exciting for me because I have heard so many good things about it such as the originality of the building and such an intimate connection to Clara Barton and her post Civil War work.  I took the Metro to D.C. with a coworker, Emily, and she gave me a private tour of the place which I really enjoyed because she was able to teach me so much about Clara’s work there.  Through private study and the museum I have really upped my knowledge of her but to see the spaces she worked and lived in really brought it home to me.  I was definitely loving it.

The original sign Clara Barton hung up at the Missing Soldiers Office.  On loan from U.S. General Services Administration.

                A little backstory on the building is that from 1865 to 1868 Clara rented a series of rooms on the third floor.  It is only a few blocks from the National Mall and the Patent Building that she once worked at.  She and her small staff worked in this building (she had her own bedroom as well) where they responded to both in-person visitors and letters  relating to soldiers that had unknown fates during the war.  Soldiers were often buried on or near battlefields and in order for a family to secure a pension or have the comfort of knowing where a loved one was buried they came to Clara Barton often.  Her office eventually succeeded in finding approximately 22,000 soldiers.  After that she placed many of her belongings in the attic of this building and the third floor was boarded up.  I find it really hard to believe but the third floor where she did so much good was basically forgotten about until the 1990s when the building was slated for demolition.  I mean, how do you lose a whole floor of building in a highly desirable city where real estate is slim? I’ll never know but it did happen.

                In 1997 Richard Lyons went up into the previously boarded up floor and began poking around the attic.  In there he discovered socks, documents, and all sorts of other items and he saw the historic signifcance of it all.  After that it was worked a little bit to make it a bit safer such as putting in an elevator and redoing wallpaper but other than that it is all original as Clara Barton left it in 1868.  I could not believe the fantastic condition of everything.  It was just like Pry House except arguably better.  The floors were completely original so Clara and hundreds of others walked those very floorboards and the doors were original so I opened doors that so many others did as they sought answers about their loved ones.  Because it was locked up and undiscovered for so  long the  place isn’t  wired up with electricity and plumbing.  It is a virtually untouched time capsule of rooms from 1868.  It’s like striking the historic lottery and winning! The wallpaper in a vast majority of the rooms were recreations of the patterns and colors that were selected by Clara so that was very cool to see.  They aren’t like the patterns I am used to seeing so it was very cool to see what she selected.  They really stood out as well in the empty rooms. In one room there is a cutout of Clara and in her bedroom (where the discovery was made) there is Lyons ladder the hole in the ceiling but otherwise the space is pure and empty. 

Clara Barton's bedroom in the MSO with replica wallpaper and original floor.  The ladder is Richard Lyons along with the hole to the attic.

                One of my favorite bits beyond the original floor and doors was the sections that still had original wallpaper on them.  Since it’s been almost 150 years it has of course faded and been damaged with time so the bright pinks and blues she chose are gone but the fabric remains.  Much it has been removed and replaced with the recreations but in some spots it was left so that visitors could see it.  I really loved it because most of the time the pattern could be seen and it blended flawlessly with the modern parts.  I have not seen stuff like that before so I really appreciated the effort to keep the original stuff.  In some places signatures could be seen of the people who put the wallpaper with the year which was also fantastic.  All of these spots are covered with protective layers to prevent further damage. 

Posing with a section of original wallpaper.  The pattern blends flawlessly  with the rest when looked at closely.

                I was like a kid in a candy shop asking Emily to take pictures of me with various parts because you had better believe that I was going to document this trip.  I felt so lucky and fortunate to be able to walk around the place Clara Barton on the floor she did with the doors and wallpaper.  Just like seeing her birthplace I know it is not the place that was remarkable but the person but I mean come on…everyone needs to have something to geek out over and I do it with historic artifacts.  Time capsule  buildings don’t exist everywhere and this one is so perfect.  It was heavenly.

The  orignal number 9 door that people would have come to see her at.  There is a small mail slot on the lower left of the door.  It cost her 50 cents to install it.

                Emily finished my tour by showing me the original staircase used by Clara and countless others to go directly to the Missing Soldiers Office. It was a very long and tall staircase since it went from street level all the way to the third floor.  She pointed out the section of wall a little way from the top where the barrier began that had hid the third floor away from people for so long.  There was lots of natural light from the street and windows in the middle of the building.  The floorboards were worn but still fantastic considering their age.  There is a runner placed over them now for protection but you can still see the steps, the color and everything else.  Again I nerded out and took lots of pictures. 

View from third floor to street level entrance.  The wall that blocked access to third floor can be seen on the right about half way down the stairs .

                Clara Barton and her work in the missing soldiers office was instrumental to the postwar years by helping so many find the answers they desperately sought.  This kind of a discovery is rare and deserves to be treated with great respect and I am very happy to have such an opportunity to visit it like I did.  I spent the rest of the day downstairs working with visitors who I hope enjoyed this time capsule as much as I did.  We had a family of six come in who were big Clara Barton (they had recently visited her Glen Echo home), a few nice couples and a man from England.  The main museum is a historic building but it often doesn’t feel like it so it was nice to work in a building that did feel historic.  Anyways, lots of stuff to do today so I’ll you all later because I might start giving tours later this week!