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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.
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):
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.
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