Last Friday was my last day at the State Historical Society. I logged about 100 hours over the course of the summer, and I learned a lot. I started my internship there because I was considering becoming an archivist. After spending a whole summer there I decided that archives are probably not the vein of library science I want to pursue. There are a couple of reasons why.
The first reason is that it seemed like the archivists at the State Historical Society didn't have a whole lot of interaction with the public. They handled queries but most of our queries came in through phone or email. I think at first I was attracted to the field of archives because it wasn't with a lot of people interaction, but after spending the summer there I realized that I actually like people (I know, I was amazed too).
Another reason is that archivists have to spend ridiculous amounts of time on stupid projects that are not interesting at all. I know all librarians have to deal with boring stuff but the project I was working on this summer was humongous. Three of us were working on it and one of the archivists came in one the weekends to work and when I left they informed me they were about half done. Some of the stuff we got in had no historical significance at all. Like Christmas cards. They might be important to the person who gave them to us, although I doubt it because otherwise he probably wouldn't have given them to us. Basically, the archives kind of seem like a landfill.
Overall, I enjoyed my time at the State Historical Society and I am so glad I tried out archives because now I know what the job is actually like. This was my first internship and I'm only halfway through school so I still have time to try out a lot of other jobs. My time was not wasted at all, I learned a lot about the process and just about libraries and archives in general, and I came away with a personal decision that it wasn't for me. I say my first internship was a success.
It's been a while since I did an update on my summer internship at the State Historical Society of Iowa. This is for a few reasons. 1. I've worked kind of irregularly the past few weeks due to a dentist appointment and a scrape with a cold. 2. It didn't even seem like there was enough to write a whole post about. So now I'm going to write about the past three weeks at my internship. If you haven't read any of these posts until now I'll let you know what I'm doing. I work in the archives at the state historical society and go through personal papers of a former governor and then put them into the computer. I also take death certificates from the 1920's and enter them into the computer.
Awhile ago I mentioned I had found death certificates from 1928 where a man had shot his wife and three-year-old child. Well a couple weeks after that I was going through death certificates again, still in 1928 and saw a name I thought looked familiar. "It's the husband," I thought, and started to enter everything in. Then I looked at the dates and realized it couldn't possibly be the husband, because this person was only five years old. I was right though, he had been shot by his father (the same man from the first set of death certificates). I went to the next one and saw a girl with the same last name. A three-month-old girl shot by her father. And then finally, the man himself. Killed himself. Why wasn't this man in jail? How did he manage to pull this off? What provoked him to shoot his wife, three children, and then himself? It's a horrible story, but I have to know what happened so I'm thinking about going to the State Historical Library and seeing if there is anything about in the microfilm. I have to satisfy my curiosity!
The closer I get to 1930, the more suicides I see. It's depressing, but incredibly interesting from a historical standpoint. Most of the deaths are see are just "normal" deaths, but lately it's seemed like 1/15 have been suicides... and this is in a small town. I'm almost done with the 20's in this county and I'm amazed that I've gone through about ten years of history for this place in just seven weeks. If I had it my way, I would probably spend all of my time indexing death certificates, but the other project I'm working on is huge and they really need help with it. One of the state archivists teased me last week though. She said, "You know you've been here too long when death certificates become a nice break."
I really am amazed that I've been working in this place for almost two months. I've enjoyed my time in the archives, but I want to try out several other forms of library science before I go to library school. In the fall I start a job in the preservation department at the University of Iowa, which will be sort of related to what I do now. I'd like to get a job in a public library next summer.
It's hard to believe I've already been working on my internship for a month. This week was by far the most fun and interesting week I've had yet. I'm pretty shy, but I feel like I have finally broken out of my shell a little bit at work and have been talking to my coworkers quite a bit. There was a retirement party and potluck on Tuesday for a bunch of people I didn't know, but all of us archives people sat together and chatted. There was a volunteer there as well who used to work in the archives. That seems to be a common thing at the State Historical Society. People retire, but then they come back as volunteers. I think that is a pretty good sign that they like their jobs. Thursday we all went to lunch at this place downtown called Lucca and I had an awesome (and slightly strange) sandwich. Brie provolone, mayo, and vegetables.
On Tuesday I also got a bit of a tour of the State Historical Society. It's weird that I've been there so many times but never realized how much behind the scenes action there is. I went to the reading room, which was a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be, and met the reference librarian up there. The reading room still has a card catalog! That was about enough to make me SQUEE. I also met an archivist who worked with photographs and a few other people. It took some time out of my day and was a nice break from the usual going through boxes.
But I did find some weird stuff in the boxes this week. To name one, I find a mask that was made out of a photograph of a person's face and then cut out and attached to a rubber band. I pulled it out and asked everyone else if they knew who the guy was since I figured he was probably some political guy (the boxes I'm going through I related to politics) but no one knew who he was. It's a mystery. I also found this lovely cartoon (excuse the bad cell phone picture).
It wasn't all fun and games though. I did end up finding two of the worst death certificates I'd seen so far. It was a twenty-five-year-old woman who was shot by her husband. The next certificate was a man's name so I figured it was the husband killing himself. No. He shot his three-year-old son. Ugh, I felt sick when I saw that.
So after much debating I decided to just write about what I know this summer, and what I know about right now is being an intern. I have an unpaid internship with the State Historical Society of Iowa this summer working in the archives and this was my first week. I applied for a few different paid internships but none of them were quite the right fit for me, and with the economy it's harder than ever for us liberal arts kids to find paying internships. Since I'm not getting paid I'm working ten hours a week right now, on two different days. Even though I'm not getting paid I still think I'm getting valuable experience, in addition to building contacts and references.
My first day on the job I was given four boxes and after hearing a little background information on the collection they told me to set out. Set out?!?! I had no idea what I was doing! I still don't! So right now I'm basically sifting through a collection of personal papers and making a list of what the collection contains. I got pretty bored with that after four hours on Tuesday, but today I came across something really interesting. About ten years ago in Iowa there was a real push to get an inmate out of the women's prison in my hometown of Mitchellville, Iowa. I became extremely engrossed in old newspaper articles about her as well as letters vying for or against her release. I tried to find something about it on the Internet when I got home today, but so far I haven't found any luck. It was a nice way to spend a half hour today though; it felt like getting lost in a really good book.
A little later I got set up on the computer network and got to start indexing death certificates from 1924. This sounds morbid and it is, but it's also extremely interesting. In the fifty or so certificates I indexed today I found that most of the people who dyed were one-year-old or younger, or over the age of seventy. It seems like if you could just get past that one year you would live a very long life. There were unfortunately quite a few suicides in the batch I went through, mostly retired farmers and the things they would kill themselves with were just... ugh. Carbolic acid was a favorite. The most challenging part of indexing the death certificates is trying to read the doctor's handwriting! Every once in awhile you'll come across one that is typed and that is the best part of the day.
Have any of you worked in or with an archive? What was your first internship?
This week I finally got to put my notes into Microsoft Access rather than write them on a legal pad. I love legal pads, but I found I made much more specific notes when I was working on the computer because there were actual fields for me to fill out. Working with the personal papers is pretty interesting, but I don't know about so much of the stuff sometimes it can be frustrating. And some of the files are just repeats of letters addressed to different people, but I don't know that's all that is in there until I go through the entire file. I think I mentioned this last week, but I find the death certificates a lot more interesting. Today I actually started to see the same names repeated. I saw what I assumed was the grandfather in the family died from a heart attack, and then a few months later his 18-year-old grandson died in an automobile accident. This was actually really interesting, because the death year was 1924 so cars were fairly new at that point. I'm sure it was a really scary experience for the family when they realized how dangerous cars actually were.
This is an example of a Canadian death certificate, which I obviously don't work with, but it gives you an idea of the kind of fun I have deciphering handwriting!
I worked by myself quite a bit this week, but I'm getting to know my coworkers a little bit more. Today I went out to lunch with all of them to a great Greek restaurant downtown. Afterward we went to an antique shop called Found Things where I spotted a table I kind of want to buy. I really like the idea of just leaving in the middle of the day for an hour and visiting some of your favorite places in downtown Des Moines. The State Historical Society is at a great location with quite a few neat restaurants and shops near it. On Tuesday I went to a used bookstore that I pass on my way to work, but I was sadly disappointed with the selection. And for how little they did have I thought they were incredibly overpriced. Maybe I'm just spoiled by The Haunted Bookshop in Iowa City. They are extremely fair in their pricing.
Speaking of Iowa City, today I was going through University of Iowa brochures from the 1980's and I just couldn't help but get lost in them for about an hour. I almost started crying when I saw all of these familiar places that I miss so much. I really do miss Iowa City and I think I'm starting to annoy my parents with talking about it all the time. On the bright side, that is one of the great things about working in the archives. It's so easy to get lost in a file and try to put together the story of what exactly did happen. It seems like I find at least one thing every day that I'm fascinated by. I'm taking a little notebook with me to work to jot down some of the most interesting ones, and then I try to look up more information about them later.
Check out my post from week one if you haven't already.
This week I finally reached the end of the personal papers I have been working with. At least, I thought I had. Then they brought out three more boxes for me. The archivists at the State Historical Society have been working on this project for months and from what I can tell there is no end in sight. That's the thing about archives, just when you think you've reached the end, there are still more and more boxes to go through. Just so you understand exactly how time consuming all of this is, I thought I'd talk about what processing an archival collection actually entails.
Basically what happens is the archives get boxes from various sources. What is inside the boxes we don't entirely know. So what happens first (this happened before I came) is one of the archivists just sweeps through all of the boxes and comes up with a general sense of what the box contains. Are they materials from a department in a college? Are they materials for the Peace Institute? And so on. Then they create a list of what these boxes might have in them and possibly a list of subjects that the boxes could contain (in my experience one box usually has multiple subjects). What I then do is go through each item in the box and get a better sense of what the box has in it, including the stuff we don't really want to keep like Christmas cards. Yes, I have found Christmas cards. I go through and read letters, get a sense for what the project actually was, what the time period it took place in is, and what is in the box that might not fit with the box but might fit with a different collection. I then get to do a lot of data entry which is quickly becoming my favorite thing in the world.
You would think after all of this we would be done. But no, then we have to meet and talk about what we went to keep and later we will actually organize the collection, move it from filing boxes to archival boxes, and then we'll have to create a finding aid for the collection. Phew! I'm tired just thinking about all of that. The fact that it takes so much time to process collections, and the fact that archives are available for more than just collections processing (people actually use those collections you know) is why archives are almost always horribly backed up. It's a fact of life.
In other news, I went through a year and a half of death certificates yesterday. One I found with no name, no parents names, and no birth date. I thought to myself, "What the hell is up with this one?" Then I looked at the description of death. It was a baby found in an outhouse with a piece of paper stuck in it's mouth. I got stuck on that one for awhile, trying to imagine why something like that would have happened. Did she not want the baby? Did her husband not want the baby? Maybe she got pregnant young and couldn't keep the baby. So many stories flashed through my mind. But eventually I had to move on. Later I saw another one that caught my interest. The man had fallen down an elevator shaft. These were both in 1926.
On December 5, the British Museum announced that it would loan a piece of the Elgin Marbles to the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg to memorialize its 250thbirthday. Although intended as a kind gesture to Russia, it was also a stinging insult to Greece—the country has been requesting the return of the Elgin Marbles for decades.
The Parthenon Marbles, a group of sculptures, statues, inscriptions and architectural elements depicting scenes from Greek mythology, were once part of the Parthenon. Built in 5th century BC to honor Athena, the temple has become one of the most recognized symbols of Western Civilization and is regarded as the highest architectural achievement of the Ancient Greeks.
About half of the marbles were torn from the temple between 1801 and 1802 by the Earl of Elgin while Athens was under Ottoman occupation. According to most historians, Elgin received an official decree (firman) to remove sculptures. While the document no longer exists, a translation from an Italian copy suggests that Elgin was permitted to take “some stones”—not half of the carvings on the Parthenon. Some historians argue that Elgin never actually received the requisite permission for removal, as there is no documentary evidence that the firman existed. What is known is that the removal of the objects damaged the Parthenon, even if that was not Elgin’s intention. Then in 1816, the British Parliament purchased the marbles and presented them to the British Museum.
Lord Elgin’s actions have been disputed from the start
From the start, the legality and morality of Elgin’s actions have been disputed. Lord Byron was one of the most vocal critics of Lord Elgin, referring to him as a “plunderer.” Greece gained its independence in 1832, and in 1837, the Greek Archaeology Society was founded. At its first meeting, the president called for the marbles’ return. The Greek people regard the carvings as a symbol of their culture, heritage and past. In the same vein, art historians and archaeologists argue that the sculptures are integral to the ancient temple structures still standing in Athens. There is a call for the marbles to be unified as they were intended to be viewed. On the other hand, the British Museum asserts that the objects should be seen in a larger framework, presenting Greek art in a chronological narrative. The British Museum argues that the Parthenon sculptures are “integral to the Museum’s purpose as a world museum telling the story of human cultural achievement.” And after being housed in the museum for nearly two centuries, the carvings are a significant feature of British cultural identity. But, some view the sculptures’ placement in London as a sad reminder of British imperialism—an attempt to transform London into the “New Athens” in the way that Napoleon tried to convert Paris into the “New Rome.”
The British Museum opened in 1759, a few years before the Hermitage. They are two of the first great museums of the Enlightenment, established for the public benefit, educating and exposing the masses to art. These encyclopedic museums aim to present visitors to a variety of cultures and exhibit art in a broader context, providing a sense of a shared human cultural heritage. However, is this the best context for art? Is it proper to remove a work from its original cultural setting, losing its context? While millions of people visit the British Museum each year, it is still disheartening to view the marbles in London after learning that their removal damaged one of mankind’s crowning achievements.
Moral solution is to return the marbles
The British Museum claims that the removal of the objects saved them from destruction, as they were not being protected at the time. However, times have charged; if the marbles are returned to Greece, they will be in a museum. (Interestingly, the marbles were damaged while under the custodianship of the British Museum where conservators used harsh cleaning agents on them.) Greece has built the New Acropolis Museum featuring state-of-the-art design and technology which ensures protection of its collection. What’s more, the New Acropolis Museum is a mere 300 meters from the Acropolis, allowing the marbles to be seen as intended—basking in the Greek sunlight. To fully appreciate the artistic and historical significance of the friezes, they should be viewed in their context of the Acropolis mount, a hillside covered with art venerating the gods watching over Athens.
As an attorney, my position is troubling: Greece does not have a strong legal argument for restitution. If Lord Elgin did not receive the proper permit for the marbles’ removal, then the British Museum could not have purchased legitimate title. However, there are time limitations for bringing suit. The Greek government has been aware of the removal for nearly two centuries now, and they never filed suit against Elgin or the British Museum. The statute of limitations may stop any lawsuit from moving forward. Still, while the legal answer may not support restitution, the moral solution is to return the marbles. The carvings are a symbol of the Greek people—their violent removal distanced the objects from their legitimate home.
The British Museum has undercut its own argument with its own actions
In 2013, UNESCO requested that the British government enter mediation, and the deadline for a response is in March. In the meantime, the British Museum loaned one of the statues to the Hermitage. For years, the museum argued that it would not move the Parthenon Marbles because of their delicate nature, the risk being too great. The British Museum alleged that the carvings were safest in London. That argument has been undercut by the museum’s own actions. But what is most surprising is the recipient—especially amidst rising tensions between Russia and the U.S. and Europe. Russia has a poor reputation for handling plundered art. Russian officials are uncooperative in returning Nazi-looted art to rightful owners, claiming that objects seized during World War II are reparations for lost lives. It is ironic that the Hermitage should be the first to benefit from a loan involving the most hotly contested cultural heritage objects. The museum long accused of holding on to stolen Greek art is now loaning its inventory to a country that refuses to restitute stolen art. The Greek outrage is understandable.
The British Museum has unequivocally stated that it will not return the marbles to Greece but, maybe the country has some options. Just as Italy leveraged its vast collections and archaeologically-rich resources against American museums, perhaps Greece could do the same. Over the past decade, museums across the U.S. returned looted objects to Italy after Italian officials threatened to withhold all Italian loans. The fear of losing access to Italian objects pressured museums to comply with Italy’s demands. As Greece has a rich archaeological trove, bargaining may be successful. International fervor is rising over the dig at Amapholis, an elaborate burial site in Northern Greece that may contain the remains of a relative of Alexander the Great. Prohibiting British archaeologists to access the site and barring any finds from going to British institutions may be one way to apply pressure for the return of some of the Parthenon Marbles. This type of action is necessary. The Parthenon is not just cultural heritage, but a symbol of Greece and the glory of Athens.
At first glance, the ancient Babylonian tablets on exhibit for the first time at a Jerusalem museum look like nothing more than pockmarked lumps of clay.This undated photo provided by the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem shows cuneiform, one of the world's earliest scripts, at display in Jerusalem. The tablets, which went on public display in February 2015 for the first time at the museum, provide the earliest written evidence of the Biblical exile of the Judeans in what is now southern Iraq, offering new insight into a formative period of early Judaism [Credit: AP/Avi Noam, Bible Lands Museum]
But the 2,500-year-old treasures from present-day Iraq have become part of a thorny archaeological debate over how to handle historically significant relics thought to have been dug up in the fog of war by Mideast antiquities robbers.
Experts in cuneiform writing, one of the world's earliest scripts, say the collection of 110 cracker-sized clay tablets provides the earliest written evidence of the Biblical exile of the Judeans in what is now southern Iraq, offering new insight into a formative period of early Judaism.
The tablets, though, also tell a murkier story, from the present era, according to scholars familiar with the antiquities trade - a story of the chaos in Iraq and Syria that has led to rampant pilfering of rich archaeological heritage and a rush of cuneiform tablets on the international antiquities' market.
The collector who owns the tablets on display this month at the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem, insists they were purchased legally, decades before that looting began. However, an ancient history scholar familiar with the artifacts disputes that.
Leading U.S. museums have pledged not to exhibit unprovenanced artifacts that have surfaced in recent decades, as part of an effort over the last decade to discourage illicit antiquities trafficking. But cuneiform inscriptions have emerged as a notable exception, with some arguing these relics would be lost to history if they did not make it into scholarly hands.
"We are not interested in anything that is illegally acquired or sneaked out," said Amanda Weiss, director of the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem.
"But it is the role of a museum to protect these pieces," she added. "It's what we are here for."
The plundering of antiquities in the war-torn Middle East has become a primary concern for the archaeological community, and some archaeologists even compare satellite images of sites in Iraq and Syria to moonscapes, after antiquities robbers went through them.
This undated photo provided by the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem shows cuneiform, one of the world's earliest scripts, at display in Jerusalem. The tablets, which went on public display in February 2015 for the first time at the museum, provide the earliest written evidence of the Biblical exile of the Judeans in what is now southern Iraq, offering new insight into a formative period of early Judaism [Credit: AP/Avi Noam, Bible Lands Museum]
Archaeologists claim the Islamic State extremists and militants from other groups are funding their activities in part through illegal trafficking of antiquities, and authorities worldwide have been taking action to try to stem the flow.
What first sparked awareness of the issue, archaeologists say, was a deluge of cuneiform artifacts on the Western antiquities markets after the first Gulf War in 1991.
In the years that followed, archaeologists estimate that hundreds of thousands of small clay tablets with cuneiform inscriptions made their way into the hands of dealers. Many contained incrustations, indicating they were "fresh out of the earth," said Robert Englund of the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative.
An American scholar of ancient Jewish history familiar with the tablets on display in Jerusalem said they were purchased on the London antiquities market at the time when cuneiform artifacts were flooding the market, a strong indication that the items were looted. He spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a potentially illegal activity.
London-based Israeli collector David Sofer, who loaned the cuneiform collection to the Bible Lands Museum, denied any foul play. He said he purchased the tablets in the United States in the 1990s from a person who obtained them in public auctions in the 1970s.
Sofer said a few tablets from the collection were displayed in a New York museum and a Los Angeles museum in 2013, and their import and export in the U.S. was properly reported to U.S. authorities. He would not name the two museums, or the person who sold them to him.
"These things would be lost, and wouldn't be recognized for what they are" if he hadn't bought them, Sofer said.
As common as cuneiform tablets are, few have been as celebrated as those on display in Jerusalem.
The tablets fill in a 130-year gap in the history of the Judeans exiled to Babylon after the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in the 6th century B.C., said Laurie Pearce, a cuneiform expert from the University of California, Berkeley.
The earliest of the tablets, which have dates inscribed on them, is from just 15 years after the destruction of the First Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, and the inscription suggests the displaced Judeans were more quickly absorbed into the Babylonian society than previously thought, said Pearce, who studied the collection.
The tablets include administrative documents such as land agreements, showing the Judeans were "integrated almost immediately," she added.
The Jerusalem museum says the tablets likely originate in today's southern Iraq, and reference common Judean names, including Netanyahu, the last name of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The topic of cuneiform artifacts still roils the archaeological community.
The American Schools of Oriental Research, an academic research association, bans scholars from publishing articles on artifacts illegally excavated or exported from their country of origin after 1970, when the U.N. adopted its policy against antiquities trafficking.
But in 2004, the association made an exception, allowing publications about cuneiform artifacts that have no record of how they were unearthed - under the condition that Iraqi antiquities authorities give their consent and that the artifacts are eventually returned to Iraq.
The exception was made because the esoteric wedge script writings are so valuable to historical study, said Eric Meyers of the association.
The policy is now again a point of contention in the field. Over the past year, scholars at the association have debated changing the policy again, with most experts leaning against publishing articles on cuneiform artifacts as these objects continue to hit the markets, Meyers said.
"It is a crisis in the region," he said.
Author: Daniel Estrin | Source: The Associated Press [February 12, 2015]
