This is the end

This week was mainly me preparing the final preparations of my project and presenting it to Dr. Lindsey and the other interns. It was a nerve raking experience that also had me full of excitement ready to share my experiences. Putting together my poster was a difficult process, finding out which graphs and information to put was difficult. There could not be too much information or too little so finding out a good balance was essential. In the end however I kept putting up too much information into the poster, so shortening it was the hardest part. As learning historians we can tend to be a bit wordy with our sentences. I did finally get better though with the shortening of sentences and seeing how my writing needed to be which was short, sweet, and too the point. The graphs were a different story, with the excel spreadsheets I could have created a few different graphs with the information. In the end I decided to create graphs dealing with gender for both cemeteries, iconography comparing all genders in both cemeteries, marker material and one dealing with each cemeteries iconography vs the ones with no iconography. I am proud of how it looks like, it was a lovely poster, the only problem was when I presented it to a bigger audience the poster looked a bit small and the information could not be seen. The way I created it was in power point with the dimensions 4 ft by 3 ft. I did think the font would show on the big screen we used to present, but unfortunately not everything was readable including my charts, only the bones of the project could be seen (graph, and paragraph layout. Overall this semester has been everything I hoped for. I wanted to try something different, to see what else my history degree can be used for. Many of us get into the thought of thinking all we can ever do is teach. That is not the case, and was something that I never really wanted to do in the first place. I did not just want to work strictly in anthropology, I wanted a middle ground between the two. I found that I can do both, maybe not what I did exactly for my internship, but something similar. I want to do field work and be behind the scenes interpreting data and doing research before hand. During this semester there were things that had to be adjusted, but was difficult to adjust mainly my problem of writing, as history majors we are almost trained to write a certain way. In different they might require you to write in a different way, which was the case for me, I love adding little details and making my writing seem almost narrative. The problem with this is that it is not short, sweet, and too the point which is needed in this type of environment. So it too took a bit too adjust. This is something that I would recommend for other history majors, to see if what you want to do is something you want to do after an internship. It gives an incite into the work environment of someone who works in history. I hope to do more work like this in the future and get more opportunities to do field work. 

Final Steps

Currently I am working on the final steps of my internship deliverable, I have collected my data and input it all into two separate spreadsheets. The cemeteries I went to are segregated, and only a few minutes away from each other. Which originally I found odd, but when you look at the dates of the white cemetery it makes sense. In the white cemetery their were people in there born in the early 1800's. So racism was alive and well when both cemeteries first started, but what is even weirder is that both cemeteries remain segregated, this is not due to racism however. It has most likely remained due to habit from both sides as well as them wanting to be buried with their families. What I did see from both cemeteries was that people with Hispanic last names were in both of the cemeteries, but there were not many. I am not sure what that means exactly, but I did find it interesting. So far after looking at both cemeteries further after finishing the spreadsheets I see some similarities and some difference, mostly differences. The white cemetery is the older of the two from looking at the birth dates on the tombstones. I noticed that the white cemetery has a lot more marble markers then the black cemetery. Any marble markers that the black cemetery had were usually military men, I also noticed that they had a large quantity of metal markers which just have the name, birth date and death date on it or sometimes just the name, birth year and death year. Other difference I noticed were the amount of unmarked graves in the black cemetery compared to the white one. They were usually either metal or concrete. The white cemetery was the harder of the two to collect the data from due to the material of most of the markers which was marble. It was so smooth at the time that it made it almost impossible to read the names, dates, or even iconography. The problem with the marble markers is that they can be readable if cleaned with enough pressure. The problem with that is that you do not want to rough up the marble with cleaning it. So the best I could do is clean each marker with a soft cotton cloth. Over all my experiences on the field went well and I enjoyed collecting all of the data. It is something that I would do again if given the chance to do field work, it was a great learning experience. The other thing that I have been working on this week is my rewrites of an assignment I had done earlier. The way i wrote them the first time was similar in how I write my blog, which is semi academic with a relaxed tone. While instead I needed to make sound more academic. Hopefully I was able to make my rewrites sound alright, I have also been working on my CV this week. It is still empty, but I did not expect it to be full due to me not doing much volunteer work. Now that I know that people are always looking for help with field work I hope to get some opportunities to be able to make my CV something I will be proud to show. Tomorrow through Tuesday I will be working on tweaking my poster and working on the final touches and making sure it is ready to present for my deliverable. It has been a lot of hard work and a great learning process and I am looking forward to presenting.  

Coming Together

Another busy week so far, on Monday I was able to get to the white cemetery and finish collecting the data. The idea of taking photos of the markers was one of the best ideas I could have thought of when it comes to saving time. What would normally be an all day affair took on a few hours, and through photo it is in fact easier to see what is on the marker. This cemetery however was much harder to collect data from. While the other one had graves in various places and in rough conditions, many of the graves were legible. The trouble I ran into in the white cemetery was the material of the marker. Many of them were marble, the problem with marble is that it tends to get dirty if it is not taken care of. Also due to weather over the years it can ware down the stone to where it makes it almost impossible to read due to it turning smooth. That was the main problems I ran into while collecting my pictures. The main marker material used in the other cemetery tended to be either a metal marker or granite. Which are much easier to collect data from because it does not wear down for a long while. I did run into some of the same problems as I did the other cemetery in which sometimes the grave is a few feet under ground. When that happens I have to literally dig it out, the most buried  one I came across was under a few inches of dirt which was not too bad. I did have a volunteer come with me, and while they took the photo I would be prepping the graves for their photo opt. As I was collecting the data I realized that their were quite a few family plots. Many of them were lined with marble with a small entry way. After the pictures were taken and the cemetery completed I began my input into the spreadsheet I created. By no means have I completed with this cemetery, In a few days I will be and I will write the major differences or similarities I find if any. I did however finish the data entry from the first cemetery I collected data from. What I saw in the data was that many of the graves had religious iconography, specifically Christianity. The typical symbols I would come across were crosses, roses, flowers, grapevines, but mainly prayer hands. Other symbolism I found was some Freemason symbols and Order of the Eastern Star symbolism. What I found that was interesting was that if their was a shared grave and the husband was a Freeman the wife was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star. Many other the ones that were Freemasons were also part of the Order of the Eastern Star as well. The other thing that I have been working on this week is my rewrites that I mentioned last week. I have not yet been able to write them to my liking. I am being a bit picky with my wording. I am also learning on how to create my poster, and working on updating my CV, it is a bit too empty for my liking, but I am starting out. I realize that I may not have an impressive one now, but I will eventually with my continuation of volunteer work over the summer. For next week I will hope to have a draft completed from what my poster will look like.

The white cemetery that I collected data from, it had much more tree coverage then the other cemetery. It also had a better location, while the other one was off a State road, this one was located behind a neighborhood.

Came across a few of these when I got to some family plots, the carving of the marble was done with a great amount to detail, on the grave you can see the family name. On the other side of it it has the names of those buried inside, sometimes a few, and sometimes only one person is buried in it. 

Data Input

This week has been a busy so far I went and finished up the cemetery I was working on last Friday and got every grave accounted for. Instead of writing the information down on paper I decided to put to the test my idea of taking a photo of each grave. I must say that was a great idea, not only did it save me time, bu the pictures have more detail in photo then me looking at them with my eyes. It also is good for not having to look at others handwriting and wondering what they meant to say. The way I went about with the photos was with a partner. My significant other would take the photo while I would prep the next few graves. I would also sometimes have to clear out some ant piles that were on top of the graves in order to get all of the information. As well as dig up piles of dirt from a grave that had begun to get buried under inches of dirt so that all the information was readable through photo. After I had finished with Oakland Cemetery it was time to put in the information into excel, I have yet to finish all of it due to multiple things I have been working on this week, but I am close to being done. So far I have noticed similarities between markers and that in this particular cemetery most of the markers are either granite, cement, metal, or marble. Interesting about the marble is that it was almost all exclusively military men and all of the had a cross referencing them as Christians. Most likely this coming Monday I will be going to another cemetery to collect more data. I will try to get to as many cemeteries as possible so that I can gather a well rounded information. This way I can see what are the similarities between cemeteries and what are their differences. I especially want to see if their is a difference between urban and rural cemeteries.

This is me prepping the next grave, so that a detailed photo can be taken with all of the information with nothing being covered.

The other thing I have been working on is the beginning stages of my poster, so far I am writing rewriting some early draft paragraphs for weeks earlier. Making it more for an academic setting, when I wrote it the first time I made it a bit to blogger oriented and it did not sound academic enough. I am also working on my CV and updating it with the things I have been doing for the internship, my internship supervisor was kind enough to give me his as an example of how it should sound and look. So busy things this week and I am excited to get to the new site and start working on collecting much more data. This coming week will be just as busy for me with various things needing to get done so I am optimistic and awaiting the challenge. I do know that the next grave site we will be going to will not be as organized as this one was, I am hoping that it will still be easy enough to follow.