Archives internship – Public History at UMass Boston

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Internship: Archives, Virtual Reality, and the Preservation of Memory

By Meghan Arends

Technological advancements present new opportunities within education, both in classrooms and in public settings. The world of Virtual Reality introduces a unique method of interaction with history, something that has inspired Greenhouse Studios at the University of Connecticut. One of their most recent projects, temporarily titled “Courtroom 600,” is an educational experience that combines the video game technology and archival sources to give players a firsthand look at the Holocaust and the Nuremberg Trials. By using actual evidence and testimony documented from the case, Greenhouse Studios aims to present the historical truth to students, museumgoers, and gamers in an effort to keep collective memory of the Holocaust alive at a time most paramount.

I began working with the Courtroom 600 team as a graduate archives intern this past summer. Since the internship was remote, my work focused on digital archives rather than within a traditional repository. I previously had very little experience in the field of digital archives, but with the help of my supervisor, I became well-versed in metadata, Optical Character Recognition, or OCR, and HOCR. This is because the game uses documents from the Thomas J. Dodd Papers, held at the UConn Archives & Special Collections, to narrate the story of the Holocaust. Players will discover these documents as clues in the game, building the story as they go. These documents will need to be collected and interpreted for the sake of gameplay, and the program will link players to each document’s original listing on the digital repository. Therefore, I was editing useable and searchable data to prepare these documents for use within Courtroom 600.

A comparison between the OCR generated by Tesseract and the corrected product. German names were often difficult for Tesseract to recognize, and inconsistencies in the typewriter’s printing created numerous errors. This image comes from a presentation I gave at the CTDA Annual Meeting in June.

OCR is essentially a transcript of what is on a document. The University of Connecticut Archives & Special Collections uses a program called Tesseract, which reads each page of an archived document and generates a read-out of the text. This transcript is then visible to users of the digital repository within the book viewer of the document. Meanwhile, HOCR is an HTML version of OCR used to make a document searchable. HOCR doesn’t just read what’s on the document; it maps out the content, generating bounding boxes around each word to highlight searches. As we learned over time, OCR and HOCR both generate from the original object but do so separately. We were unable to find a way to intertwine the editing processes, so I had to use an XML editor to display and edit the HOCR. The issue with automatically generating OCR and HOCR is that they’re not always accurate, especially when originating from documents created on older technology like the typewriters used during the trials. Errors typical to typewriters (i.e., letters typed over letters to correct typos and mechanical issues) create errors in the transcripts.

Unlike computers, we can recognize the actions and errors of other humans. Approximately half of my time during this internship was spent correcting the OCR. This was done within Islandora, the program used to build the digital repository, and was relatively simple. It was tedious at times, especially when an error was continuously made during the original generation, but that time was mostly spent correcting typos and focusing on consistency for line spacing and the characters used. This was a learning process, as we were still just experimenting within the program. The other half of my time was then spent updating the HOCR, though not just the typos. The bounding box coordinates had to be checked and adjusted to create an accurate map of the page. I also helped update descriptive metadata for individual pages, once again aiding their searchability, but the main purpose of this internship was to help develop and streamline the editing process so that it could be passed on to future interns and assistants with near flawless execution

An example of HOCR being edited in Notepad++, an XML editor. The numbers proceeding “bbox” correspond to the word’s position on the page, creating a box to highlight each word during a search

OCR and HOCR exist for an important reason: to make archival sources fully accessible to researchers. These documents are supposed to provide an enriching experience to gameplayers, who are meant to interpret the sources to fully understand the gravity of the situation. The HOCR obviously has to be accurate to what is on each page to make it searchable. If it isn’t edited and is instead left with numerous errors that come from computer generation, the search feature becomes inoperative and pointless. Leaving inaccurate OCR just creates confusion and inconsistency. As I learned, the necessity of accuracy holds greater significance than just providing tools for use. With this internship, I witnessed the practical application of archives and the significance they can provide. One of the primary purposes of archives is to preserve historical truth for future generations to utilize. Archives are essential keepers of public memory and can be vital tools for communities, educators, and activists. The job of the archivist is to preserve and document these truths and to aid researchers in its discovery, or rediscovery. To provide any information to the public that is not truly accurate to the original source is to provide false information.

There is, unfortunately, a deeply rooted history of denial when it comes to the Holocaust. Despite best efforts to punish those who committed such atrocities, anti-Semitic sentiments always linger. When I ponder the importance of Courtroom 600 and these documents, I think of swastikas spray-painted on walls, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, and the tragic vandalization of monuments meant for mourning. These documents are actual evidence used during the trials. They are representations of the truth that historians and archivists are continuously working to keep within the light to work against misinformation and hate. Editing metadata and transcriptions is necessary; to provide anything less than full accuracy is a misrepresentation of the truth. Even if it’s out of pure ignorance, it is alteration of the facts. My job was certainly to make research easier for users of the repository and to prepare a polished product for use in the game, but my job was to also ensure that, no matter what public users look at or what feature they use, the truth of what occurred during that period would be visible. I learned during this internship that within archives, there’s a responsibility to the moral significance that comes with accessioning and processing historical artifacts. Each step of the archival process must consider what each artifact represents to specific groups. Doing so only helps to serve the communities we help preserve.

Upper left: an example of the documents I worked with. Upper right: an example of what OCR looks like from an editor’s point of view. Lower left: Search results using HOCR mapping. Lower right: Text transcript of document generated by OCR. Images courtesy of the Connecticut Digital Archive.

Internship: “Adventures in Metadata”

September 2, 2020 / Heidi Gengenbach / 0 Comments

By Christopher Brown, Archives Track

*Note: Effective September 1, 2020, WGBH is known as “GBH” and the Media Library and Archives (MLA) as the “GBH Archives”. The current terminology is used in this blog, though the internship occurred while prior names were in use.*

Located in Boston, GBH is one of the largest public broadcasting stations in the country, offering a variety of TV and radio programs aimed at fostering education, culture, and a diversity of viewpoints. As PBS’s flagship station, GBH produces a substantial amount of all national content, including programs such as Antiques Roadshow, Nova, Frontline, and American Experience. As someone who is passionate about history, culture, and media, I deeply respect and believe in GBH’s mission. The network is my ultimate career goal, offering an opportunity to merge my BA in Film with my graduate studies in History. As such, I am grateful to have interned at GBH last summer as a volunteer, and this summer in a formal capacity.

Last year, my work centered around promotion for the AAPB (American Archive of Public Broadcasting), a repository of video and audio from around the country, including material from over 100 PBS affiliates. This summer, I worked at the GBH Archives, the official repository of internally generated content. The GBH Archive’s focus on preservation and access makes materials available for research, education, and production use. From audio/visual content such as photographs, footage, and full episodes, to paper records such as press kits and production documents, the archive contains a rich collection of the network’s history and programming.

Interning during Covid presented unanticipated challenges. The office was tentatively scheduled to reopen by summer but unfortunately, this was not the case. As such, the lack of on-site access to systems and materials was a hindrance. It is to my manager’s credit that she came up with a work plan on the fly which provided a meaningful and enjoyable internship experience.

My duties centered around the classic GBH series, Masterpiece (originally known as Masterpiece Theatre.) First aired in 1971, the program offers sophisticated and acclaimed dramas, including period pieces and adaptations of classic literature. More specifically, my work was a deep dive into archival metadata.

GBH recently received an NEH Challenge Grant to support reformatting of its most at-risk programs and development of infrastructure to support long-term digital preservation and access to the archive. The grant was supported by a matching donation from a viewer and a fan of Masterpiece. The donor intended this generous sum for digitization of the program’s first 20 seasons (1971 – 1992), specifically those hosted by the estimable Alistair Cooke. This process will result in program metadata records which are searchable, with digitized program clips presented on the GBH Archive’s “Open Vault”, including the introduction and conclusion monologues delivered by Mr. Cooke for each episode. Open Vault is an online platform where archival content can be accessed, viewed, and searched.

The Linda and Andrew Egendorf *Masterpiece Theatre* Alistair Cooke Collection on GBH’s Open Vault website. Credit: Courtesy of GBH Archives.

Unfortunately, the metadata pertaining to Masterpiece assets was both voluminous and messy, having been entered over many years, utilizing different standards at different times, and input by various parties such as prior interns. The data needed substantial vetting and editing to accompany this important project, coinciding with the series’ 50th anniversary in 2021. My work would establish reliable and robust metadata for these newly digitized programs, both to accompany clips on Open Vault and for internal reference.

Without access to the GBH Archive’s internal systems due to Covid, metadata was uploaded into a spreadsheet on Google Drive to be edited and then fed back into the database. This spreadsheet was my primary workspace. Encompassing approximately 850 line items, each corresponding to a miniseries or episode record, the data included fields such as air dates, display titles, episode descriptions, asset types, and internal reference numbers. In all, there were 6,000+ lines of data to be reviewed, edited, and in many cases, populated from scratch.

To validate the accuracy of existing data, sources of various types were used. To start, my manager provided a book published by GBH on the 20th anniversary of the series, listing information for each season such as air dates, cast, and in some instances, episode titles. This proved to be a valuable research tool but it presented challenges. For example, only a span of air dates was provided for each miniseries while I needed to verify exact dates for all 850+ episodes. Another challenge was missing or inconsistent episode titles. External sources such as Internet Movie Database were helpful but often created more confusion due to conflicting information, such as BBC air dates instead of those from PBS. Conversely, in some instances it was determined the book was incorrect. Research skills and critical thinking were crucial during this process.

Page example from *Masterpiece Theatre* 20^th Anniversary book. Credit: Courtesy of GBH Archives.

Though much of the data was cleaned up using these sources, numerous unresolved items remained. At this point, we turned to internal documents. Had the office been open as initially planned, these primary sources would have been utilized earlier in the process. Due to Covid, they became a last resort. Thankfully, some of these documents had been digitized and were shared in Google Drive, while others were paper files obtained from the office which my manager boxed and I retrieved from the lobby. These documents offered a fascinating look into each production, such as the original Alistair Cooke scripts, production notes, press kits, and photographs. Though much of the material was not relevant to my work, certain key documents helped resolve most of the remaining discrepancies. For example, several miniseries’ had two episodes aired on the same night which was not reflected in the book nor on most websites. These primary sources helped to reliably vet the metadata and resolve these issues.

Internal documents used for research. Credit: Courtesy of GBH Archives.

As the work progressed line by line, data was steadily vetted, corrected, and restored. Several programs were missing from the spreadsheet altogether and these were fully populated. Chronological order of episodes was properly established, with air dates and season numbers reliably entered. Asset types (miniseries vs. episode records) were correctly labeled and internal coding numbers applied to each. One particular challenge involved descriptions which were needed for each miniseries and episode record. Most of these were populated but many had minor typos such as misspellings or grammatical errors. Others were missing or had been merely copied from the miniseries level to each episode. I read each of the 800+ existing descriptions, word by word, to make corrections, then populated those which were missing. Some of these came from internal sources, such as press kits, while others were obtained externally from sites like Internet Movie Database. However, though the latter had been a prior practice, it was determined that potential copyright issues rendered it risky and only internal materials should be used. Our procedure was shifted to reflect this.

Though the work may sound tedious, I found it both interesting and a good fit for my detail-oriented and organizational mind (attributes which led me to consider the archives profession to begin with.) It also offered opportunities for analytical thought as I worked with my manager to dismantle and improve old naming conventions, program number formats, and asset hierarchies. For example, as many programs were licensed from the BBC, their usage of basic terms like “Series” and “Season” had differing meanings and were inconsistently applied over time. The new, official hierarchy we proposed involved multiple layers of asset records and terminology, used for organization and official naming of seasons, series, episodes, parts, etc. We also created a more coherent convention for program numbers which eliminated the potential for duplicates, as was previously the case. These changes were discussed with management from the Masterpiece side of the house and eventually integrated as official practice.

In all, I found my second summer at GBH to be as enjoyable and satisfying as the first, the only downsides being Covid restrictions and the lack of personal connections due to remote work arrangements. This was remedied somewhat by online staff meetings and the fact that I had met most coworkers last summer, having kept in touch with several of them. In contrast to my day job, it was satisfying to simply be working on subject matter that fits my interests and passions, reminding me how deeply I wish to work at GBH someday. The internship offered an opportunity to apply the archival skills and knowledge I’ve learned into practical use. The matter of external descriptions even provided a brief foray into Copyright concerns, a subject I studied independently last semester. I look forward to seeing the results of my work as the project comes to fruition on Open Vault and I wish my colleagues in the GBH Archives the best in their future endeavors.

Copies of "Our Dumb Animals" line shelves at the MSPCA Archive. This was the first magazine in the United States on issues of animal welfare. After the creation of the MSPCA and “Our Dumb Animals,” similar organizations and publications started popping up across the country.

Social Activism in the Archives

March 26, 2018 / Heidi Gengenbach / 0 Comments

By: Monica Haberny

In the summer of 2016, volunteers petitioned throughout the state of Massachusetts to put Question 3 on the ballot. The question involved increasing the amount of space farm animals were given in Massachusetts, affected issues of food safety, and passed in a landslide that November.

Some of the flyers and a bumper sticker from the Question 3 campaign.

At the time, I was completing an MA in History and began working as an intern at the Boston City Archives. I used documents I found at the archive to write about women and African Americans who influenced Boston history. The one that stuck out to me the most was Ida M. Hebbard. Hebbard presided over the Housekeepers League during the 1910s and protested the surging prices of basic goods. She held various meetings about public health, worried about the cost of living for struggling families, and advocated for laws which affected food safety and animal welfare. About a hundred years later, the activists petitioning for Question 3 would follow in her footsteps.

Research room/stacks at the MSPCA Archive

Although it looks small, the record room at the MSPCA Archive contains hundreds of documents detailing the history of animal legislation in Massachusetts, throughout the country, and abroad.

Inspired by Hebbard, I initially wanted my capstone project to tell the story of animal welfare organizations in the Boston area and thought about creating an online exhibit. So when Jan Holmquist took me on a tour of the archive at the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, I came in with my original idea in mind. However, at end my visit I had already scrapped that idea and decided to make the MSPCA Archive more accessible to researchers by creating a finding aid. Much of the archive was already processed, but a 2008 fire had set back progress. There was also no concrete list of what records the MSPCA had; researchers needed to email Holmquist first to see if what they needed was there or make an appointment and hope that it was. Although there was a lot of work to be done, I was excited to get started.

In 1867, philanthropist and activist, Emily Warren Appleton traveled to New York and met with Henry Bergh. The founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) offered her advice on founding a similar organization in Massachusetts. Upon returning to Boston, she located the men who would become the MSPCA’s first donors and began working on a charter. A year later, George Thorndike Angell published an editorial in response to two horses that were raced to death after traveling a distance of forty miles. Appleton immediately went to Angell’s office after seeing the article, and together they founded the MSPCA. Angell became the first president; during his term, the organization pushed for the passage of multiple anti cruelty laws, published “Our Dumb Animals,” created the first American Band of Mercy, and began the distribution of children’s classics like Black Beauty or Beautiful Joe.

During prohibition, Angell Memorial Hospital needed to apply for a permit to use alcohol in the hospital. This is that application.

Dr. Francis Rowley took Angell’s place as the MSPCA’s second president in 1910 when Angell passed away in 1909. Rowley expanded the influence of the MSPCA. He oversaw the creation of the first MSPCA shelters and Angell Memorial Hospital. The hospital would be at the forefront of new practices in veterinary medicine, like the world’s first veterinary intern training program in 1940 or the first successful feline kidney transplant in 1997. Rowley also helped build the American Fondouk Maintenance Committee in 1929, a humane organization in Fez, Morocco. This event served as the first of many instances where the MSPCA fought for animal welfare abroad.

In the late 1800s, the MSPCA secretary kept a daily log. Researchers can use these logs to find mentions of Emily Warren Appleton, various donors, or typical days at the organization.

Despite the accomplishments of Appleton, Angell, and Rowley, many of their letters and documents may have been lost in the 2008 fire. I began my work at the MSPCA going through Angell’s correspondence and early records. A portion of the letters between Angell and his mother were burnt or missing. However, the correspondence that did survive gives insight into Angell’s upbringing and character. Even rarer, though, are records from Appleton and Rowley in their hand. The MSPCA Archives has a copy of Appleton’s will and she’s mentioned in various record books, but not much else. Only a few of Rowley’s letters survived the fire. It’s impossible to know just how much was lost, because of a lack of a finding aid before the fire.

After surveying early records, I began processing documents that were still disorganized from the fire. In about five boxes, I found records from the American Fondouk, correspondence from MSPCA employees, and many media clippings. The MSPCA Archive had amassed a large collection of newspaper and magazine clippings that mentioned the organization, the hospital, its many shelters, and other organizations that they were connected to. The clippings ranged from the early 1900s to the 2000s, the majority of which were from the 1970s up through 2005. While it would have been great to scan the clippings, as newsprint doesn’t preserve well, I had no means of doing that. So I spent time putting all of these clippings in chronological order and into boxes by decade. I learned a lot about animal welfare history in the 20^th century from these clippings. For example, the MSPCA worked with the Franklin Park Zoo in the late 1970s and early 1980s to upgrade the zoo and improve conditions. I would sometimes separate articles not just chronologically, but by event as well. I did so with articles about the zoo in the 1970s.

This is just a small look at some of the newspaper articles I organized in the fall of 2017.

When going through the records of the MSPCA and creating the finding aid, I not only learned a lot about animal welfare history, but I also realized how a collection can take a toll on the archivist processing it. Sometimes the subjects presented can hit close to home, and this was especially true with how big animal welfare had become in my life. The records at the MSPCA mentioned various issues like donkey basketball, greyhound racing, and instances of animal rescue during natural disasters. In addition to records of successful legislation and uplifting stories, there were also images of animal cruelty. Around the 1950s, employees at the MSPCA wrote to various companies which sold humane stunners and pistols asking for brochures. I also had to process articles on different methods of euthanasia. This aspect of the collection, while important to preserve, was particularly hard for me to look at.

Since its inception, the MSPCA has offered membership for those who wanted to support animal welfare in the state. Here’s a child’s membership from 1877.

Coming into this project, I was extremely attached to the subject matter. I wanted to list every single record I came across. My finding aid would include everything from documents and photographs to audiovisual material and medals. In the middle of my project, my advisor, Dr. Marilyn Morgan, confronted me with reality. She told me that processing and recording everything at the MSPCA was impossible if I wanted to graduate in December. She also made me realize that my time at the archive wouldn’t have to end when I submitted my finding aid. With her guidance, I focused on what I could actually get done within the time I had. I began selectively processing and recording things. I listed all of the boxes on the finding aid, but not all of the folders inside of them. For example, I didn’t list all of the folders for the many boxes of publications. I knew that any researcher looking for a newsletter or magazine could find what they needed in the labeled boxes and all the folders within them were in alphabetical order. My finding aid ended up focusing entirely on the documents and a small portion of the books. The photographs, audiovisual items, oversized materials, and ephemera needed to be left for another time.

Since the late 1800s, the MSPCA has published annual reports detailing the major accomplishments of the past year. These reports are readily available for researchers.

That time came less than two months after I submitted my finding aid and graduated. I became a consultant in February. I work a few hours a week helping Jan Holmquist keep up with the archive. This includes processing new materials, adding to the finding aid, researching the history of the MSPCA, and finally being able to go through all the materials I missed last time around. The project I’m most excited about is going to various archives and learning more about Emily Warren Appleton.

Animal welfare activism has grown in the last decade, and while Massachusetts has been on the forefront of this issue since 1641, the history isn’t too readily available yet. I know that my work will change that. The past will become more accessible to researchers and activists will be able to learn about how far animal welfare has come in almost four hundred years.

Historic New England, Library and Archives

Transparent Faces & Hidden Mothers: Processing Tintypes at Historic New England

February 18, 2018 / Heidi Gengenbach / 1 Comment

By: Caroline Littlewood

This portrait of a woman and child contains white lines. Note the oval mark where a frame or mount used to be. Historic New England, Library and Archives.

She found them at flea markets. Hundreds of painted tintype photographs—colorful portraits of anonymous Americans—caught Dr. Diana Korzenik’s eye, and, over the years, she amassed an impressive collection. The tintypes range in size and vary in appearance. Some are so thickly coated in color that the original photographic image is obscured. Others have one or two pigments to make a face blush or a necklace sparkle. But each tintype is evidence of another time, when photography was young. Invented in the 1850s, tintypes preserved likenesses of working class Americans who could not afford daguerreotypes. Whether once hung on a wall for all to see, or sent through the post as a token of affection, these historical artifacts are important records of a time past.

Only within the last couple decades have collectors come to value painted tintypes. For years, they were more interested in the antique frames that encased them. But Dr. Korzenik saw value where others hadn’t and sought to preserve them, along with smaller, unpainted tintypes of working-class women and children. To promote the continued study and appreciation of tintypes, Dr. Korzenik recently donated her substantial collection to Historic New England.

I began by surveying the collection. At first, the tintypes looked very similar.

Historic New England, Library and Archives

As the Historic New England intern responsible for processing Dr. Korzenik’s donation, I sought to convert this personal collection into an archival collection that would be accessible to researchers. I began by surveying and researching my materials. I dove into classic works like Taft’s Photography and the American Scene: A Social History which helped me to understand what I had before me and formulate a processing plan. I researched rehousing and preservation recommendations then tallied the contents of the collection to order the appropriate sleeves and boxes. When I had these archival materials in hand, I set to rehousing and describing each item. By the end of my internship, I had processed over 520 individual tintypes at the item level, produced a finding aid and helped digitize a portion of the collection.

The experience was thrilling and rewarding, but it was not without its challenges. I hit my first obstacle early on as I surveyed the collection. Dr. Korzenik had numbered and grouped her tintypes, but I had no understanding of her organizational schema. The collection was an indecipherable mix of subjects, painting techniques, and plate size. Some categories described the physical manipulation of the tintype: “thick paint, white lines, black lines,” “hand-painted tintypes powder/gold jewelry/white lines/black lines,” and—my favorite—“transparent faces”.

This portrait of a young woman was categorized as a “Transparent Face.” Historic New England, Library and Archives

Some tintype portraits are more intricately painted than others. Historic New England, Library and Archives

Others described the portrait subjects or size: “children and couples,” “hidden mothers,” and “carte de visite-sized”. Why did she make these distinctions? What did they mean? When I spoke to Dr. Korzenik, she explained that the labels are meant to draw one’s eye to the compositional aspects of each photograph. The average person sees a photograph as an image meant to reflect reality.

But as a professional artist and educator, she also saw tintypes as artifacts that had been painted, tinted, highlighted, outlined, scratched, and solarized. Categories based on subject or size also shared composition traits. Her “hidden mothers”—portraits of young children with the adult presence concealed—are small and unpainted; “children and couples” are large and painted. Once I saw these layers and distinctions, I could better describe Dr. Korzenik’s materials and preserve the expertise that shaped her collecting activities.

This is one of roughly 200 “hidden mothers.” Historic New England Library and Archives

The collection also challenged me to manage my time carefully. Early on, I realized that I was dealing with a miraculously growing collection, which had somehow ballooned from my estimated three hundred tintypes to over five hundred, plus a few non-tintype materials. I was eager to get started, but I had to wait for supplies to arrive. Once they arrived and I began rehousing, I struggled to standardize my descriptive language. But I used my time waiting for archival materials to work on my finding aid and produce a detailed spreadsheet. I asked my supervisors for help and examined finding aids from similar collections when I struggled with description. When I travelled to Historic New England’s Haverhill facility to work on framed tintypes, I documented my work carefully so that I could continue it offsite. And when I came to a tintype that warranted further investigation, I set it aside and continued with my work, assembly-line style.

Smaller tintypes often came in paper sleeves or mounts. Historic New England, Library and Archives

Before I knew it, my time was up. I no longer think about tintypes most of my waking (and some of my sleeping) hours. But I know that my work will facilitate access to a historically rich and unique collection. Each tintype can be so many things. It can be a fashion plate, a genealogical record, and evidence of early photographic props, poses, and conventions. Furthermore, each painted tintype illustrates the relationship between young photographic technology and a traditional painted portraiture. Despite the challenges, I’ve helped to make these materials visible and accessible to the general public, and I don’t know if there is anything more rewarding than that.

Public History at UMass Boston

Partners in History

Tag: Archives internship

Internship: Archives, Virtual Reality, and the Preservation of Memory

Internship: “Adventures in Metadata”

Social Activism in the Archives

Transparent Faces & Hidden Mothers: Processing Tintypes at Historic New England