Orange County Regional History Center Week #2

Dear YAP Familia,

In my second week of the internship in the Orange County Regional History Center, I was mostly inventorying different objects. My inventorying assignments were majorly concentrated on photo negatives and maps in the History Center which had not been inventoried for a long time. The photo negatives and maps had to be handled with care since they were very old. Their condition could not deteriorate since they were part of the artifacts used to convey part of Central Florida’s history. Many of the maps would tell stories of how the topography and urban development of Central Florida was during the past, while the photonegative displayed old stores, churches, lakes, etc.  part of Orlando’s community and other communities in Central Florida.

My first inventorying assignment was to finish the inventorying work on the Aerial photo negatives in a file cabinet. The photo negatives were in envelopes since they were very sensitive and could only touched using gloves, so they remained in envelopes to facilitate the inventory process. Some of them had labels that simplified filling in the description in the Excel spreadsheet, but many did not have a label and had a written description. However, many times it was unreadable cursive handwriting. At the beginning of the assignment, I felt like I was writing code since it only mentioned places, people and numbers in random order. Eventually, the places and people would be repeated, and this repetition made it easier to recognize, especially on the hand written descriptions. Even though some of the envelopes even my supervisor didn’t know what was the photonegative displaying, I learned a lot about the lakes, cities, and buildings in Central Florida. For example, I learned that two polar bears in display on the first floor was originally in TV stores owned by Bill Baer. In other words, I learned more of the buildings and topography of Central Florida by assigning only years and terms to old photo negatives.

*Two bear statues found in Billy Baer TV stores during the seventies and eighties. Both are on display on the first floor.

Similar to the photo negatives, the maps also presented information of Orlando and other cities’ topography. Using Past Perfect, I inventoried maps ranging from 1946 to the 2000s and evaluated their condition. Many of them were in good condition while others were in poor condition; for instance, many of them were teared and crumpling along the edges. During the process, two maps had been switched places and at least one had not been cataloged by the History Center. We even found a French map from September 1918 with trench lines from World War I! That map had no connection to Orange County’s history, and the staff did not know why it was there in the first place. For this reason, I was assigned this since many of the maps had general information about their location and complicated the process of finding them for researches. After updating the maps’ information, now the staff will be able to easily find maps and provide access to people in the community interesting in seeing and studying the maps.

During my second week in the History Center, I learned more about inventory and how to handle delicate materials. In addition, I also realized the amount of time and dedication it takes to have everything accounted for. With just a photo or map, a person can acquire new knowledge about his or her community. Just by seeing the changes in a building or the terrain gives a person an idea of how much the community has changed and adapted throughout time. Just with a photonegative or a map, a person can see how the Latino community has made an impact in Central Florida.

*One of the color grid maps of Orlando which presents lakes, streets, buildings, neighborhoods, public government facilities, etc.

Similar to Washington Week, the staff assigned ID numbers to the artifacts and documented them to make sure people would be able to easily access the History Center resources and the stories these objects were a part of in Orange County. After these two weeks, I was able to see the staff enthusiasm and joy with these artifacts. For example, a staff member was showing around a cardboard sign held by a dog during World War II, encouraging Orlando residents to buy bonds. The staff not only admire the artifacts physical description but also the people’s voices within the artifacts. Just like other communities, the Latino community expresses their beliefs and traditions in many ways, from writing to photography. It is important to conserve every single expression of culture so future generations can learn more about the Latino community, and the courage many future leaders have in the twenty first century. Eventually, these artifacts will serve as a vessel to convey the story of how future innovators in science and politicians from the Latino community impacted their professional fields in the United States.

Until next week,
Charmaine Nieves