The American Archive team at WGBH is sincerely grateful to our intern Alyson Musser for all of the work she is accomplishing this semester. With the approval of several stations, we have started to add enhanced descriptions for digital files in the American Archive collection. Alyson is the first intern to be taking on this huge task, and her work will be extremely helpful to users seeking to discover materials when the collection is made available.
Hello, my name is Alyson Musser and I am an intern here at WGBH for the American Archive. I am currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from Simmons College, with a concentration in Archives Management. I have a B.A. in History from Cornell University, and I am a huge fan of Downton Abbey.
As an intern, I have been going through the digitized materials in the AMS and adding descriptive information to the records. So far, the most exciting part of working with the American Archive has been the chance to see some of my favorite historical figures in action. These include, but are not limited to: Eleanor Roosevelt, Julia Child, Dwight Eisenhower, Peter Jennings and John F. Kennedy.
In the 1960’s Eleanor Roosevelt hosted the series “Prospects of Mankind,” which aired on WGBH. The series featured Eleanor hosting panel discussions on pertinent issues of the day. In this episode, Eleanor travelled to the White House to discuss the status of women with JFK.
Eleanor Roosevelt Interviews JFK from American Archive on Vimeo.
The American Archive also includes more recent television footage, such as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s speech at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign College of Law, aired by Illinois Public Media (WILL) in 1994. In the speech, Justice Ginsberg blends her insight and wit to trace the history of U.S. legal education. Similar to JFK above, she also discusses the importance of promoting gender equality.
I am looking forward to spending more time with the American Archive collection, and finding more public history treasures to share.
blog.americanarchive.org 