Today's Hours
This blog post was written by Christian Hudson as part of his Rockefeller Archive Center-CCNY Internship in the Summer of 2024. Learn more about the RAC-CCNY Internship Program and read about other intern's experiences. The RAC-CCNY Internship Program accepts applications by current CCNY undergraduates for the Spring, Summer, and Fall semesters.
Summer 2024 has been a semester of tremendous growth for me due to the faith that the people at the Rockefeller Archive Center and City College of New York Archive and Special Collections chose me as the intern at the CCNY Archive and Special Collections. While initially joining the team to partake in preparing the annual Shimoda, Japan/Townsend Harris exhibit, those plans quickly changed, and they kept me busy with tasks like inventorying, scanning, and processing. This internship has been everything I have ever dreamed of, as I have a more profound love and appreciation for history and culture by having a direct hand in preserving these important documents and items.
My favorite internship task was looking through old photos of City College ranging from the 1920s to the 1980s. While I looked through the photos, the Head Archivist, Prof. Sydney Van Nort provided me with stories and context. I will deeply cherish a very immersive experience. Ironically, that assignment was not a part of my internship but happened out of a desire to find quality archival photographs of various libraries for a CCNY Libraries brochure. After gathering photos, I sat down with the Chief Librarian to choose the final photos for the brochure.
Starting this internship, I believed that archiving was a process that eventually ended with materials in a box or folder sitting on a shelf. However, I was categorically incorrect while working at the City College Archives & Special Collections. When archivists encounter historical items, they become passionate protectors of history and culture aiming to preserve these materials forever.
If there were anything that this internship taught me, it would primarily be agency and patience. One of the most challenging things I faced in this internship was my innate desire for excellence. I felt a fair amount of existential dread as I began to understand that I could not complete all the work that Assistant Archivist, Prof. Renae Rapp assigned to the internship. Because she did not expect me to, instead she wanted me to learn something else. Being a perfectionist is demanding and easing that desire for excellence is exceptionally excruciating; I am wise enough to know that this is a constant battle of suppressing my urges and insecurities that I will continue to battle every day.
However, I decided to change my perspective on my work from a negative one to a more positive one or, at the very least, a bittersweet one. I am just one person in an extensive line of past and future interns ensuring the collections continue to be protected and enjoyed by future generations. Thinking about it from that perspective allowed me to appreciate the work that I have done for this internship rather than worrying about being perfect the first time. Instead of aiming for a perfectly processed collection, my contribution this summer will allow future interns and students to continue working efficiently on the collection. I can hold my head high and live with the solace that I did decent work here, knowing that I am part of a community sharing the responsibility of preserving history.
Endearment in the face of struggle is at the heart of the strongest people. We will always face challenges and setbacks that will test us and feel insurmountable, but tackling them from the perspective of doing your best and not seeking perfection becomes more manageable.
It is bittersweet ending the RAC-CCNY Internship this summer. Besides working with historical materials, I will miss talking to Renae, Sydney, Marissa, and Allison Hamilton, Queens College graduate, about movie recommendations and popular culture references. Fellow filmophile, Renae recommended Alamo Drafthouse, which has quickly become my favorite movie theater. Marissa's QIOs (Questions, Inquiries, and Observations) were crucial in writing this blog post and helped me think critically about my day-to-day work. The QIOs gave me the confidence to discuss my contributions to projects, jobs, and internships in-depth. In combination with Marissa’s weekly meetings, these reflections helped me revise my resume. In the future, I would like to implement a QIO or, at the very least, a work journal in the future.
The RAC-CCNY Internship this summer gave me purpose and a taste of professionalism in the workforce. Life can be like working in an archive, both are long and arduous journeys that change and evolve as time passes. One of the important lessons Profs. Renae Rapp and Sydney Van Nort taught me about working in an archive is "it is better to seek completion than seek perfection" A good lesson in archives and in life.
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