Reflecting on my First Weeks as a Smithsonian Intern (#1)

From now until December, I’m a Digital Public Humanities intern on the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives Education department project: Traveling Trunks. The mission of the Traveling Trunks Program at the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives is to send free high-quality sensory experiences to educational institutions and groups around the country. While the end product of the trunks is meant to be highly sensory, my primary roles are in the creation of accompanying digital materials, either to be used alongside the box, or viewed separately from the box, but containing similar information in a different medium.

Some of the things I’ve done so far:

• Reviewing and copyediting the Extra and Ordinary trunk, while decide what type of digital product could compliment it.
• Prototyping an ArcGIS story map for Extra and Ordinary.
• Proposing possible digital products to accompany each of the other three trunk themes in progress.
• Soon I’ll also begin coding student evaluations from the Nice Tu Meet You trunk to help the team find ways to improve that program.

My work, especially in creating products like story-maps, help to provide another outlet of learning, especially for larger groups where the interactive elements of the trunk may be harder to share. In addition, the story-maps offer a different way to learn the information, including not just a digital way to read what is offered in the booklet (which can become more accessible for students who use screen-readers), but also there are interactive elements such as maps, timelines, and hopefully soon some data visualizations, that can help students to gain a new perspective on the content. While my products aren’t tactile, they are interactive, and help to improve some of the accessibility of the trunks, which are other beliefs of the department.

So much of what I do is exciting. I would be lying if I didn’t say that interning (or working for) the Smithsonian was a dream of mine, that now I get to trial. Next week, our department is going to be collaborating with the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden for the Art Mystery event (which will become a trunk in the coming months). For this event, I get to go in person to help with the event and learn about it before helping to make digital products for its corresponding trunk. I’m really excited that I’ve been given to option to go to the in-person events, not just for how interesting the event sounds, but also because it will give me a chance to chat and network with my colleagues on the project in person.