Intern Projects, Summer 2008

Interns:
Rachel Bartgis
Allison Rein

Bartgis Family Papers (Rachel Bartgis):

The State Archivist, Dr. Papenfuse, noticed that Rachel shares her last name with a late-18th century printer from Western Maryland named Matthias Bartgis. When she replied that she was a direct descendant and that the Archives owned several items by Matthias and his son Matthias Echternacht he suggested that Rachel research them. She repaired one of the Archives' copies of a Bartgis newspaper and had it scanned. She also researched the two men through various sources and created websites on the MSA webpage for both of them. Rachel also transcribed a scan of Matthias Junior's journal, a fascinating document which contains detailed information about his time in the Frederick militia during the War of 1812 (including his presiding at the court martial of a group that included future Supreme Court Justice Roger B. Taney, author of the Dred Scot Decision) and his travels as a peddler during the summer and fall of 1819 through Western Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, from Martinsburg to Philadelphia. bartgis 1 bartgis 2

Pamphleting Project (Rachel Bartgis and Allison Rein):

A large portion of the Archives' library contains materials too small to be covered, labeled, or otherwise treated as books. A project was created to address this ongoing problem; to protect these ephemera from damage and to organize a vast quantity of material left mostly unorganized for many years. In order to accomplish this the materials were removed from the shelves, recataloged (in many instances the items were not even entered in the library catalog) and rehoused in acid-free folders cut to half-size and put into labeled file boxes and back onto the shelves.

Book and Paper Conservation (Rachel Bartgis and Allison Rein):

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In addition to doing research on her relatives, Rachel also learned how to mend documents with Japanese tissue and wheat starch paste as well as how to repair and re-case books.

In addition to repairing library books, Allison participated in the mending of the St. Anne's Bibles and a large tape removal project. before 1 before 1
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