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Pennsylvania Internship Report

Decent Essays

The internship started off in the month of September with my reading of Pennsylvania: A History of the Commonwealth written by Randall Miller and William Pencak. This book gave me a background in the history of Pennsylvania, from early Native Americans through the twentieth century. In addition, it discussed the many approaches of historiography taken toward the subject, thereby exposing me to many options. In the month of October, I was allowed to research any topic that I was considering to choose as the focus of my internship’s project. The topics I considered were John Dickinson’s arguments during the American Revolutionary era by studying his Letters, the debates about the Constitution that took place over Pennsylvania’s ratification of it during the Pennsylvania Ratifying Convention, Thomas Paine and the impact of Philadelphia on him to produce Common Sense and also any impact he had on the city, the work of Benjamin Rush and Benjamin Franklin Bache as viewed from his newspaper (of course, this was the topic I ended up choosing). In the month of November, I concentrated on my chosen topic, and researched many sources, both primary and secondary. Much of that time was spent reading eight years of Aurora (which was printed 6 days a week) on microfilm. Finally, by December, I was in the final stage of research and was delving into …show more content…

It was nice to have the autonomy of choosing what time of day I put in my required hours. Outside of the time digitizing with Preservation (which was also scheduled-well), I could put in my research hours anytime I wished – morning, day or night. It was certainly good to meet every two weeks with Professor Jones in order to update him on my progress and receive any help I wished. He was also available to meet more frequently during the end of the semester, when communicating often was important. He was excellent in his assistance and guidance through his availability and

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