– by Morgan Rafel, Archives intern
My favorite part of Kent State’s Masters of Library and Information Sciences program is that the final semester before graduation consists of a culminating experience. We could choose between a thesis, a research paper or project, or an internship. Seeing as I had little to no archival experience when I started the program, I knew I would have to find an internship. I knew I wanted to be in a museum setting, so I began applying mainly in the DC/Maryland area, but had no luck. I had reached out to Chrissie Perella, the Archivist at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia (CPP)’s Historical Medical Library, about their archival internship about a year beforehand, so I decided to reach out again and see where it would go…
Fast forward a few months and I began my internship at the Historical Medical Library in January 2020. During this time I have, so far, had the opportunity to process three different collections; two Presidential Papers collections and the Babies’ Hospital of Philadelphia collection…well, half of it, but more on that later.
Collection #1: Allen R. Myers Presidential Papers
The Allen R. Myers Presidential Papers was a small collection that documented his time as President of the College. The collection consists of paper materials and spans from 1999-2003, even though Myers was only President from 2000-2002.
Collection #2: Arthur Asbury Presidential Papers
The Arthur Asbury Presidential Papers was quite large, however most of the items had nothing to do with the collection so I was able to pare the collection down from 11 record cartons to 4 document boxes. Another collection consisting of only paper materials, it spans from 2000-2008, and documents Asbury’s times as President of the College. He was President from 2004-2006.
Working on the first two collections was, while tedious, overall an interesting couple of days. Nothing of note was included in the Allen R. Myers collection, I really enjoyed sorting through the Arthur Asbury collection because there was so much that did not have to do with the time that he was President. As I mentioned above, there were many record cartons that I was able to dispose of. For instance, the majority of one box was filled with pens and notepad paper; possibly from a “desk dump”, though I’m not entirely sure why it was so important to keep those items for the archives. Another box included slides and inquiries to assist in diagnosing patients, this box was moved to Asbury’s Personal Papers collection. Because I was able to begin my internship by processing these two collections before moving on to other collections that include materials other than paper materials, I feel like I have a better idea of how to describe and arrange a collection from start to finish.
Collection #3: Records of the Babies’ Hospital of Philadelphia
The Records of the Babies’ Hospital of Philadelphia collection came into the archive as two accessions, but whoever processed it only bothered to do so with one accession and left the other unprocessed. That unprocessed accession is what this collection is! This collection consists mainly of paper materials and some mixed materials (photographs and film), and it spans from 1911-1960.
The Records of the Babies’ Hospital of Philadelphia, the third collection I processed, was by far my favorite of the three. I mentioned above that I processed half of this collection. This is because there were two separate accessions and whoever received them decided to create finding aids for both accessions, but only fully process one accession; leaving the other half in the archive unprocessed. As the Archivist and College Librarian both regularly say, when I burst into their office with an artifact that has no earthly spot in the collection it was originally housed in, “Welcome to the archives”, this type of thing apparently happens a lot in archives… Cons of not having an archivist for an extended period of time, I suppose.
I have always envisioned myself working with older materials, so when I was presented with the Babies’ Hospital collection (it spans from 1911-1960) I was internally ecstatic. Plus this collection included photographs and film! Unfortunately, I was saddened when I learned that I wouldn’t be rehousing the film because the Library does not have the proper storage space or equipment to do so, so they had to stay in the original canisters. Unlike the film, I was able to rehouse the photographs into individual pocket envelopes.
Researchers interested in learning more about past Presidencies of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia or the Babies’ Hospital of Philadelphia might want to check out these three collections, the other half of the Babies’ Hospital collection, or any of the other collections related to the Office of the President.
All three collections are ready to use. You can find the Allen R. Myers Presidential Papers finding aid here, the Arthur Asbury finding aid here, and the Records of the Babies’ Hospital finding aids here (Part I) and here (Part II, mine).
