This summer I had the opportunity to intern for the
Robert H. Jackson Center in Jamestown, NY. The Robert H. Jackson Center in a
non-profit historical center dedicated Robert H. Jackson, a U.S. Supreme Court
Justice and Chief U.S. Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials.
Last summer, the Jackson Center offered an exhibit on
Charles Goodell. The exhibit, “A Model for Courage: The Life of Charles E.
Goodell,” was put together by Cameron Hurst, a St. Bonaventure student intern.
The exhibit was a success, and the Jackson Center wanted to take on another Bonaventure
intern to work on a program and exhibit celebrating the life and career of Stan
Lundine, former Mayor of Jamestown, U.S. Congressman, and NYS Lieutenant
Governor.
I originally heard about the position from St.
Bonaventure archivist, Dennis Frank. He recommended me to the Jackson Center
and encouraged me to apply. I was a bit hesitant applying for the position for
several reasons. The first was distance; I was nervous about making to commute
to Jamestown from my hometown of Delevan. It was an hour and fifteen-minute
drive and my car, Green Bean, was on her last legs. The second was my lack of
self-assurance. I did not think I had
the tools nor the skills to create an entire exhibit and a ten-minute video.
Though I was confident in my ability to learn new skills, I was still nervous.
In the end, I decided to apply, and I vowed to give
the project my all. I visited the center and met with several Jackson Center
staff and board members. A few weeks
later, I was offered the position.
I started working on the project at the end of the
spring semester at Bonas. I was able to find a few resources to give me a brief
biography of Stan Lundine. In all honesty, I did not know who Stan Lundine was
nor did I understand how important he was to the city of Jamestown, the
Southern Tier district, and the state of New York. I believe my lack of
knowledge on Stan was beneficial. It allowed me to go into the internship with
a fresh perspective and the ability to gather information through extensive
research rather than previous knowledge.
The first step was to write a biography that I could
use for the informational panels in the display portion of the exhibit and as a
possible narrative for the documentary. For the first few weeks, I was busy
finding articles, book, and newspaper clipping on Stan and watching hours of
old video interviews. I reached out to the New York state archives, Fredonia
University Archives, and the Fenton Historical Center for more information and
materials. After I gathered as much information as I could, I wrote my own
biography and began sorting out what items I could use in the display and
video.
I also conducted my own video interviews with several
people who had previously worked with or for Stan Lundine. This was rather
nerve-racking. I had no experience interviewing people. I went to my
supervisors at the Jackson Center and asked for advice on how to best conduct
the interviews. The first few interviews did not go spectacularly, but by the
end, I had learned what questions to ask, how to ask them, and the best way to get
a person to open up. It was a great way to practice these skills and, since
then, I am more confident in my ability to interview others.
Another challenge I faced was creating the panels for
the exhibit. The Jackson Center archives had a Mac desktop and I own a Lenovo
laptop. I needed a program that I could use on the Mac at home. That led me to
Canva. It is a simple online graphic-design tool that worked on both devices. I
taught myself to use Canva by watching tutorials and creating practice panels.
The program worked wonderfully, and I made 10 canvas posters for the exhibit.
For the color scheme, I chose the color blue. Details,
such as color, were crucial to making the exhibit aesthetically pleasing and I
wanted a color that would reflect Stan’s personality and capture his history.
During his first Mayoral campaign, Stan assembled a team of prominent
individuals to run alongside him and called his team the Blue Ribbon Ticket.
Stan is also a Democrat and a Duke University Alumni, so the color blue has
been an integral part of his history. The official color of the exhibit is Duke
blue because Duke was a special place to Stan and because it would be visually
appealing against the cream-colored walls of the exhibit. It was a unique color
that made the entire display pop.
After the panels, the next challenge was the video.
This was another skill set that I did not have, but I knew that I could learn.
I watched several tutorials on iMovie and eventually taught myself how to use the
software. Instead of fitting the video interviews to my narrative, I arranged
the video clips by a topic and set them in chronological order. I then made my
narrative fit the clips to tell Stan’s story. From there, I found various
images and video clips to use throughout the film. I had to do a lot of
cutting, which was hard, and I eventually cut the video to ten minutes in
length and added music.
The trickiest part of the video was choosing the music.
I did not want the documentary to sound like an epic movie soundtrack, nor did
I want it to sound like elevator music. I spent hours sifting through tracks,
looking for a right inspiring tune for each chapter of Stan’s life.
When the video was finished, I was left with roughly
five days to paint and spackle the walls, hang up the posters, and fill the
space. During the information collection stage of the internship, I gathered a
lot of original Stan Lundine campaign material. I found over 50 campaign
buttons, 2 hats, 10 bumper stickers, and 1 matchbook with a single match
remaining (plus various other materials). I used these items to fill the
display cases and arranged the campaign buttons in the shape of New York State.
I also had various plaques and several pictures in the collection. My personal
favorite item was the Duke University pennant flag. I was setting up the
exhibit up until the day before the Stan Lundine Tribute event making sure
everything was perfect.
It was not until after the tribute, on my way home,
that the full scope of how much I accomplished hit me. I had grown so much in
the four months I worked for the Robert H. Jackson Center. I not only refined
the skills I learned at Bonas, but I also learned new ones. I also learned to
be more confident in myself and understand that I am capable of so much more. I
am extremely grateful for the opportunity to work for the Jackson Center and
thankful for the experience.
