Interview

Interview with Guest Curator Trevor Delp

Carl Robert Keyes Guest Contribution, Special Features , , ,

Trevor Delp has completed his second and final week as guest curator for the Adverts 250 Project.  As we say farewell to him, let’s take a few moments to find out more about her  behind-the-scenes contributions to this project.

Adverts 250: This was your second week as guest curator.  How did it compare to the first time?  Did you make any changes to your research or writing process based on what you learned the first time?

Trevor Delp: In my second week as guest curator I adjusted both my writing style and my research process. To start, I focused on giving my advertisements more of a traditional research build up and then a connection or theme of historical significance. This is something that I found took a significant amount of time, but it gave my analysis more depth and made them more interesting to read. I found that giving my analysis a deeper historical background also gave me more to talk about. The deeper my research went, the more I was able to draw connections to both colonial and modern time, giving my writing more ideas to develop. This also pushed me to grow as a writer and develop my research techniques, using databases, efficiently reading long texts, and developing reliable sources. It also forced me to work on my source development and introducing sources into my writing in new and different ways.

Adverts 250: What is the most important or most interesting thing that you learned about early American history throughout the process of working on this project?

Trevor Delp: The most important thing that I learned working on this project is how diverse and how long history is. While going through years, decades, and even centuries of history I was forced to realize how fast things developed, even in colonial times. I find it is very easy for me to fall into the mindset of generalizing years into almost days or weeks and decades into years. Working in just 1766 forced me to break down just that year that I was researching and find how things developed to be how they are. This is something that I really enjoyed once I slowed down, because it again gave me more to incorporate into my writing. Furthermore, finding different interpretations of the history through the elites, the working citizens, slaves, and the British really developed my understanding of American history.

Adverts 250: What is the most important thing you learned about “doing history” as a result of working on this project?

Trevor Delp: While working on this project the most important thing I learned about “doing history” is the structure my writing. I tried to write in a way that was both easy to read and showed development to a common thesis. My first week working on the project I came to a realization that I had not done a lot of short analytical writing; up until this project, a majority of my writing had been essay structured. This forced me to learn how to write in a concise way that did not eliminate important details but was informative. I also had to learn how to structure my writing in a more organized way. I had to spend much more time editing the structure of my writing to make sure that sentences were organized chronologically and logically developing into a common theme or thesis. This also taught me to be more specific with my word choice. I had to adjust to using words that carried more meaning than other more common words. These three things have benefited all of my writing and helped me to develop a more specific writing style that is unique and I am proud of.

Adverts 250: What is your favorite advertisement from your two weeks as guest curator?  Why?

Trevor Delp: My favorite topic throughout my second week as guest curator would have to be my final advertisement for “Benjamin Faneuil, Junr.” shop in Boston. Having grown up in Massachusetts and visited Boston many times, Faneuil Hall has always been something I am familiar with. When I first started my research into the Faneuil family name I was not confident that it would directly connect. After after researching the family history and identifying similar locations I was convinced that the author of the advertisement, Benjamin Faneuil Jr., was in fact the brother of Peter Faneuil who donated Faneuil Hall. This advertisement gave me insight into something I had always known about but never know the true history of.

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Thank you, Trevor.  You’ve made some great contributions to the project during your time as guest curator, diving into the advertisements and examining their context in depth.  You’ve also don a wonderful job identifying public history sites that provide even more information about the events and historical processes you’ve discussed.

Trevor recently gave a public presentation about his work as a guest curator at Assumption College’s 22nd annual Undergraduate Symposium.

Interview with Guest Curator Kathryn J. Severance

Carl Robert Keyes Guest Contribution, Special Features , , ,

Kathryn J. Severance has completed her second and final week as guest curator for the Adverts 250 Project.  As we say farewell to her, let’s take a few moments to find out more about her  behind-the-scenes contributions to this project.

Adverts 250: This was your second week as guest curator.  How did it compare to the first time?  Did you make any changes to your research or writing process based on what you learned the first time?  

Kathryn J. Severance: I think that finding advertisements for this week was a lot more challenging. Also, I think that I had more of a vision in mind while looking for advertisements the first time that I curated, whereas this time I was a little bit more limited because there were fewer newspapers being published by my second Adverts 250 week. The first week in starting the process, I was kind of confused and did not do it correctly at first. Working with Prof. Keyes allowed me to learn how to correctly write posts and locate eighteenth-century advertisements to write about. He also instructed me a lot more the first week on where to go with my posts if I was unsure.

I think that during my second week, I knew how to look at an advertisement and come up with something to discuss. This is something that I learned in the process of doing the project. I also think that my Twitter work this week was a bit different than during my first session. I did more visual posts during my second week, while I did more word- and hashtag-based posts during my first week. I’ve found that people often respond well to visuals, so I’ve gravitated towards using visuals over words.

My research process was lengthier during my first week of curating. I think that this is because I was often unsure as to which resources to seek out. By my second week, I realized that Colonial Williamsburg has many strong resources that can be cited, so I often turned to that for background information. I was also, in general, better at avoiding less scholarly sources during my second week, though originally I did run into an issue before my final version of the post on the runaway Irish indentured servant man was done on Thursday. With advice from Prof. Keyes, I was able to fix this issue and locate a more scholarly and accurate source on the topic before it was posted.

Adverts 250: What is the most important or most interesting thing that you learned about early American history throughout the process of working on this project?  

Kathryn J. Severance: I think that coming across the Irish indentured servant advertisement from Thursday, April 14 was kind of jarring and interesting for me, as someone whose ancestors on my father’s side came from Ireland. My ancestors came to America much later, but in emigrating they experienced a lot of trying conditions and my great-great-grandfather worked at a dock for a very low wage. Though neither my great-grandfather nor his father were indentured servants, my connection with the Irish made me very interested in the subject of indentured servitude and the means by which many English companies sponsored settlers’ journeys to America, where, once they arrived, they would work for free for a period of time between four to six years to pay off their debt from traveling to America. Exploring the topic of indentured servants also made me realize that slavery was not the only form of unfree labor in place during the eighteenth century in America.

Adverts 250: What is the most important thing you learned about “doing history” as a result of working on this project?  

Kathryn J. Severance: I learned many different important things while taking part in the Adverts 250 project as a guest curator. The main thing that I learned about “doing history” while engaging in the processes associated with the project was that history is sometimes about a lot of trial and error and collaborating with fellow historians helps keep you on your toes and make your material stronger. Working with Prof. Keyes, who is well-versed in both colonial history and in using digital means to make history more accessible to the public and fellow historians, helped me gauge what sorts of advertisements would be the most interesting. It also helped me ensure that my historical discussions about the advertisements were accurate and that my references to online sources were correctly cited. Historiography is a very important part of “doing history” and I also found that the historians who responded to my Adverts 250 posts on Twitter provided interesting views, perspectives, and commentaries on the discussions.

Adverts 250: What is your favorite advertisement from your two weeks as guest curator?  Why?

Kathryn J. Severance: My favorite advertisement from my February week and my April week as guest curator is the Massachusetts Gazette advertisement that I featured on February 13, 2016. I thought it was very interesting to compare the list of goods to a modern-day yard sale. I think that making modern-day connections to historical things helps to engage audiences who are not historians to the project. In the field of history, comparisons tend to be something that is good for drumming up interest and helping the general public understand the differences between different societies and periods of time in history within a particular country. Also, I genuinely had fun researching and writing on the topic of indigo, a plant that was used to dye clothing blue, as blue is my favorite color and I’m glad that became an option for people in the Colonial period in America. I made a second reference to indigo in my second week as guest curator for my April 13 post.

Adverts 250:  Is there anything else you would like to share with visitors to the Adverts 250 Project?

Kathryn J. Severance: As a journalist, this project has taught me some interesting things about colonial newspapers. I feel that it has enriched my background on the print newspaper industry, something that I am very passionate about, even as someone who is part of a generation who has grown up using social media and other online resources. Using digital means to bring print newspaper history back is very valuable to both history and to journalism. I appreciate the fact that this project aids in keeping print culture alive, something that is sometimes a struggle in the twenty-first century. This opportunity has been something that will help to shape my overall understanding of the field of public history and the vast opportunities that are available within this field.

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Thank you, Kathryn.  You’ve made some insightful contributions to the project.  As a Mass Communications major and History minor, you’ve brought a new perspective to our discussions in class.

Kathryn was recently inducted into the Assumption College chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the History Honor Society.  She continues to tweet at @yesterdaysnewsK.

Interview with Guest Curator Maia Campbell

Carl Robert Keyes Guest Contribution, Special Features , , ,

Maia Campbell has completed her second and final week as guest curator for the Adverts 250 Project.  As we say farewell to her, let’s take a few moments to find out more about her  behind-the-scenes contributions to this project.

Adverts 250: This was your second week as guest curator. How did it compare to the first time? Did you make any changes to your research or writing process based on what you learned the first time?

Maia Campbell: My second week as guest curator has proved more challenging than the first time. I had a harder time finding advertisements that I thought would be interesting to audiences, as well as ones that I would be able to make intelligent remarks about. I spent much time looking through the Early American Newspapers database, often changing my mind about advertisements that I did not think I could execute well. This time around I also did more research for the project. The advertisements I chose for the colonial period went beyond any knowledge that I had, and thus I turned to other websites. To give an example, for Monday’s advertisement for the sale of Indian corn, I initially thought this indicated that Native Americans still maintained a relationship with the English colonists. However, with the guidance of Professor Keyes, I learned through research that Indian corn was the type of corn. I was still able to make a connection to Native Americans by referring to a trade of ideas tracing back to the early days of the colonies.

Adverts 250: What is the most important or most interesting thing that you learned about early American history throughout the process of working on this project?

Maia Campbell: I learned much about early American values through working on the Adverts 250 Project. I learned about colonial America’s position in the world regarding industry, as the colonists were still largely farmers. At the same time, they valued their freedoms as well. The advertisement for Wednesday demonstrates how the colonists valued their freedom of the press and ability to discuss their current political conditions. In a world that was changing around them industrially, the American colonies were beginning to move forward in political ideology.

Adverts 250: What is the most important thing you learned about “doing history” as a result of working on this project?

Maia Campbell: This time around, the most important thing I learned about “doing history” is that there needs to be solid research backing everything in public history. I say this because as I was writing about the advertisements I selected this time, I had to do more research than I had planned. I must admit that I tried to do my commentaries for the advertisements all at once, and I was not the most thorough. However, when doing my revisions I engaged in more research than I had previously. Although I have some knowledge of colonial America, I think it best to have research to back up my observations rather than just my memory. Truly research is a more reliable source, and it is what helps to give context and background to the advertisements.

Adverts 250: What is your favorite advertisement from your two weeks as guest curator? Why?

Maia Campbell: I think my favorite advertisement over all was the clay candlestick advertisement from Tuesday of this week. I found the concept of clay candles so fascinating, and yet I could not find any visual evidence of it. Therefore, I concluded that the advertisement was referring to the candlestick holders. However, what I liked about this advertisement most was the community conversation it sparked, first as a comment underneath Tuesday’s post, then on the Facebook page of the Royall House and Slave Quarters. The people engaged in the dialogue all made educated and interesting responses, and it was interesting to have had a role in starting it.

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Thank you, Maia.  You’ve made some wonderful and thought-provoking contributions to the Adverts 250 Project during your time as guest curator.  Maia just learned that she has been accepted to participate in SOPHIA (Sophomore Initiative at Assumption), a program designed to help students explore and discern their vocations.  The development of our class, Vocations in Public History, was made possible by a grant from SOPHIA.

Interview with Guest Curator Mary Aldrich

Carl Robert Keyes Guest Contribution, Special Features , , ,

Mary Aldrich has completed her second and final week as guest curator for the Adverts 250 Project.  As we say farewell to her, let’s take a few moments to find out more about her  behind-the-scenes contributions to this project.

Adverts 250:  This was your second week as guest curator. How did it compare to the first time? Did you make any changes to your research or writing process based on what you learned the first time?

Mary Aldrich:  This time around as guest curator, I had a good process worked out from the previous week, which made the entire project easier. Looking for advertisements was slightly more difficult this time because I wanted to try to find a theme that loosely tied all, or most, of them together. Fortunately, I was able to find a few advertisements that mentioned their location. Their location happened to be politically important, which was a bonus. It made me realize the how layered many of the advertisements from this period are. I did try to research some of the more obscure aspects of the advertisements in order to gain a better understanding of the content of the advertisement that I could add into my commentary if need be. By doing this extra research I was able to gain a broader understanding of what was important to people of the 1760s and why.

Adverts 250:  What is the most important or most interesting thing that you learned about early American history throughout the process of working on this project?

Mary Aldrich:  This project has made me realize the importance of everyday items and how they may be used by future generations in order to piece together what life was like during the period the items are from. Life in early America consisted of many aspects that at first glance may not be immediately identifiable. Looking through advertisements a second week has given me new insights into different aspects of early American life that I had not noticed in the first week of working on this project. Rather than learning about early American life from a textbook, I feel as if I have connected to a past in a different way that is more meaningful. While looking for advertisements one cannot help but read some of the other content in the newspapers and regular people had bits of their story in the newspapers. This connected me to the past in a way that no textbook or an account about a historical person or event could.

Adverts 250:  What is the most important thing you learned about “doing history” as a result of working on this project?

Mary Aldrich:  Through this project, I learned that it is important to not just learn history but to actually “do history.” It is not enough to personally gain knowledge about history, history needs to be shared and any knowledge obtained through working with different historical objects needs to be shared with as many people as possible. “Doing history” involves a community and on the Adverts 250 Project, the community keeps growing. I also learned that creating a community takes time and patience. By obtaining different perspectives, the conversation can often move in a different, yet equally productive, direction. It is important to write and research not just for your audience but also for yourself. When I am interested in a subject, I tend to allow my enthusiasm to color the way I write and those reading it often notice that. This also makes researching and writing feel more fulfilling because you know those reading the finished product will, hopefully, relate to your enthusiasm and get excited about it themselves.

Adverts 250:  What is your favorite advertisement from your two weeks as guest curator? Why?

Mary Aldrich:  I really enjoyed researching the advertisement from the New Hampshire Gazette published on March 28, 1766 featuring goods from Barnabas Clark. Researching the Liberty Bridge mentioned in the advertisement and the Liberty Pole that was mentioned was very interesting. I mentioned that I visit Portsmouth almost every year and I have seen the Liberty Pole but I never connected it to the American Revolution or the Stamp Act protests. I never evn realized that there were protests in Portsmouth. I felt connected to this particular advertisement more than any of the others because I was familiar with an aspect of the advertisement. While I had a general idea about things that were mentioned in other advertisements, for this one I had actually passed the Liberty Pole and I have the opportunity to go back and view it in a new light. With the other advertisements, I do not have that same opportunity or prior knowledge.

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Thank you, Mary.  You made some significant contributions to this project during your time as guest curator.  Mary will be graduating from Assumption College with a degree in History in just over a month.  Best wishes and good luck!

Interview with Guest Curator Elizabeth Curley

Carl Robert Keyes Guest Contribution, Special Features , , ,

Elizabeth Curley has completed her second and final week as guest curator for the Adverts 250 Project.  As we say farewell to her, let’s take a few moments to find out more about her  behind-the-scenes contributions to this project.

Adverts 250:  This was your second week as guest curator. How did it compare to the first time? Did you make any changes to your research or writing process based on what you learned the first time?

Elizabeth Curley:  My second time as guest curator was much less stressful on one side, and much more stressful on another side. This time I had my process down and I knew how I wanted to procced with gathering my information. I got a whole new cycle of advertisements to research and to interpret. The first week I had no idea of where to do research, how much research to do, what I wanted to say. The second week I had all that knowledge and was able to put it to good use. The analogy that comes to my mind to describe the feeling is that I was no longer a freshman running around on the first day of my first semester wondering where the heck all my classes were. By my second week as guest curator I was the sophomore laughing at all the freshman running around on the first day!

Adverts 250:  What is the most important or most interesting thing that you learned about early American history throughout the process of working on this project?

Elizabeth Curley:  Early American history is not nearly recorded or taught enough about. The whole time I was doing this project I would get a piece of information, then research it, then was left with another question, which would lead me to a source, which wouldn’t be creditable. So I would have to find a creditable source which led me to one little piece of information, which would lead me to another why question. It was horrible. It was at the same time the most exhilarating and stressful process.

Obviously when the colonial Americans were living their lives they did not know we would care so much (except the founding fathers: they definitely knew we would care). They did not record or keep enough information for my liking. Coming from the Lexington, Massachusetts, public school system, when it comes to colonial American history I considered myself at an advantage. Then I started researching these advertisements. At very turn I wanted more information, and I was lucky if I could find it.

Adverts 250:  What is the most important thing you learned about “doing history” as a result of working on this project?

Elizabeth Curley:  Doing history is not easy; it’s actually very hard. It is not something you can turn off easily once its been turned on either. For two weeks my mind has been connecting things learned in my Public History class with my education class and with my art class. It’s exhausting, but it puts a whole new wealth of knowledge at your fingertips. Doing history is being mindful and active with knowledge. As a college student, I take in so many fact a day then only take them out of my head when I have to, but when you’re doing history you can not do that. You must place all the factors together, and involve yourself beyond remembering the information. If you do the Advert 250 Project without actively involving yourself, you’re doing a project your professor assigned to you, not doing history.

Adverts 250:  What is your favorite advertisement from your two weeks as guest curator? Why?

Elizabeth Curley:  I couldn’t pick a favorite, to be honest. All the advertisements I worked on had some type of personal connection to me, which made me like all of them. However, the top three have all been in my second week for sure. The advertisement about Harvard Library was so interesting just because I never knew about that, and finding it out made me feel like I was finding out a secret. The advertisement about James Askew was so interesting because I can be completely honest with the fact that I knew nothing about Pennsylvania before, and all the other interesting information I found out about colonial bankruptcy was fun too, even though it did come out with the advertisement. My advertisement about Elizabeth Clark and the Boston seed merchants was so fascinating because it was about Boston: a city that I proudly declared myself from and part of.

Adverts 250:  Is there anything else you would like to share with visitors to the Adverts 250 Project?

Elizabeth Curley:  The Adverts 250 Project was both the best and the worst two weeks of my life. Ask my roommates and they will tell you I was sometimes miserable. There were at least three days I spent at least five hours (on the third floor of our school library in a small room, in complete silence) on just the next day’s advertisement. I ran through a whole pack of post-its to mark connections and make notes, and they were everywhere: in my bed, next to my toothbrush, on top of the fan above our stove (don’t tell my RA). I will agree with them too. I was miserable so much so I forgot to eat two of those times (and I never forget food).

But I would not have traded it for the world. Personally, I was so much more into the advertisements the second week that the research was overwhelmingly exciting and rewarding. Between finding sources, answering the questions I had, chasing answers and then compiling all the information was like a process of fulfilling destiny. I was making information that might never connect come together. Even if no one ever saw it, I was putting it there. If I was not already so in love with being a future teacher, I would look into being a history researcher for the rest of my life. This was truly one of the most rewarding projects of my life.

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Thank you, Elizabeth.  You have made some very impressive contributions to the project!

Adverts 250 Featured by Media Life Magazine

Carl Robert Keyes Uncategorized , , ,

I recently had a chance to discuss the Adverts 250 Project with Diego Vasquez from Media Life Magazine.  Yesterday Media Life featured our conversation as “How Advertising Has Changed Over 250 Years.”  If you head over there to read it (and I hope you do!), you’ll find it in the Research section.

Media Life Magazine is an online daily newspaper/magazine founded in 1999.  It covers all aspects of the media.

I greatly appreciate Media Life‘s interest in the Adverts 250 Project.  I’m excited that the project has been included among their coverage of media, past and present.  Also, many thanks to Kimberly Dunbar, the Director of Public Affairs at Assumption College, for making the introduction.

Announcement: Adverts 250 Featured by The Junto

Carl Robert Keyes Uncategorized , , ,

I recently had the chance to talk about research, pedagogy, and public history with Sara Damiano from The Junto:  A Group Blog on Early American History.  Yesterday The Junto featured our conversation as “An Interview with Carl Robert Keyes, creator of Adverts250.”  If you go over there to read it (and I hope you do!), spend some time exploring their other content (essays, interviews, reviews, podcasts, and so much more).

The Junto “is a group blog made up of junior early Americanists—graduate students and junior faculty—dedicated to providing content of general interest to other early Americanists and those interested in early American history, as well as a forum for discussion of relevant historical and academic topics.”

Many thanks to The Junto for inviting me to discuss the Adverts 250 Project with your readers.