Project Updates!

Hello!~

Since my last blog post I have completed my literature review and created a content outline and timeline for the rest of my project.  My next step is to work on compiling everything together into the project proposal, which does feel a bit intimidating since it is such a large milestone for thesis!

In addition, I have been doing more research about what my project will entail. As part of this, I have made a provisional workflow for working with layered IIIF images in Omeka. My goal with this workflow was to reuse already existing resources whenever possible and to minimize the amount of platforms a digital object is dependent on. I had originally planned to host images and manifests on other platforms, but realized (maybe later than I should) that Omeka had these functions!

(I don't think this visualization of Ege FOL30 is the best at showing the undertext, but I hope it conveys the point!)

I hope that by my next update I'll be even farther along (and best of luck to anyone else in MUSE489 reading this, I'm so excited to see everyone else's projects take shape!) 

Alec Rouleau 

Anderson Status Update: the Obsessive Quest for Codebooks and OCR Fun

 I truly love my thesis topic and am so happy I chose it. However, it is causing great difficulties as I avoid all my other work because I am having so much fun. I have completely messed up my sleep schedule because I get home, start checking OCR’s and looking for codebooks, then suddenly it’s 3:00 AM. I have been searching for every code book under the sun, and have found at least 10 books that were not used by NARA. Also, I currently theorize that NARA’s focus on obtaining codebooks, rather than the changes in punch card regulations, was a major contributor to their decoding errors. I am using ABBYY fine reader to use OCR on the codebooks included in NARA’s documentation. This is taking far longer than expected, mainly due to poor scan qua, however it is also incredibly fun. The challenge is that it is very difficult to stop because I want to keep going through the books. Thus far I have extracted about 200 pages - the counties and states for 1944 (3,095 rows) and station codes for 1945 (I have not finished this yet but I estimate 2,000 rows). 

Additionally, the Library of Congress holds a complete copy of the 1942 and 1943 codebooks, which would be highly useful to see, but they are each around 500 pgs and not currently digitized. I am trying to determine a cost effective way to obtain copies. 

So far I have learned quite a lot about military manuals and the Adjunct Generals Office. HathiTrust has proved the most useful. The University of California hosts the largest collection of Technical Manuals I can find (of course they are missing the main one I need). I have also learned that despite being 80 years old, you must have a CAC to access the TM ‘s from the 1940’s if you go through the Army publication site. They also have some TM s marked as active from the 1930s - however they are for series 9 (Ordinance Dept) not series 12 (AGO). For context, I am looking at TM 12-310 and 12-305. I think the AR reports should be looked into for coding processes, however (much to my dismay) there are so many possible numbers to look at it is not feasible for this project. 

As I write this, I am coming to terms with the fact that I must stop seeking out additional codebooks due to time. However, I am still determined to obtain the LoC TM 12-310 for personal interest. If I am able to, I will keep a version on my computer, make copies of at least two dedicated hard drives to put away for safe keeping in separate locations, and print a copy, for which I will order a perfectly sized box from Gaylord. I have looked at every website, database, catalog, and retailer I can find that has anything to do with WWII, the Army, and technical manuals, but I have not been able to find a complete copy - there isn’t even a forged insanely overpriced copy on EBay or AbeBooks. 

The ‘actual’ challenge has been the literature review. This is not due to lack of material, rather that my sources struggle to communicate. I am starting from the beginning. As there is always the possibility that I missed something, am using the wrong search terms, or am looking in the wrong places, I hesitate to say there is no research on processing intrinsic big data or extracting the spatial aspects of said data. What I can say is following hours upon hours of research, I can’t find anything on the topic. So, I found a wide variety of data handling practices from archeology, machine learning, and cultural heritage. Essentially, I am looking at these sources, and picking aspects of each to develop a workflow. Perhaps this is paradoxical as by creating a workflow from multiple sources I am creating a commonality and thus they do communicate. However, this does make their communication quite difficult.

I decided to add a “Data Review” as I realized in many ways the most critical part of this project is understanding the data I am working with. This may sound simple but the data is in no way clean cut. In fact it’s a complete mess and everything conflicts. The more I learn about the data, my shock that the enlistment file database is available for public use increases exponentially. 

I do think this again raises a question which I continue to mull over. The enlistment file is one of the most used, most critical, and most relevant archival records set for genealogists. Yet every time you search for a record, there is at least a 74% likelihood that a record you are looking at is inaccurate. Websites such as ancestry.com pull data from AAD, increasing the output of misinformation. However, is it better to have your great grandfather's rank spelled “p0t” instead of “pvt” or not have it online at all? 

Personally, I feel like it should remain available despite its inaccuracy, however it needs to be plastered all over the website that the records contain a high degree of inaccuracy, and if you don’t find someone, it doesn’t mean they aren’t there or the information is correct. 

Overall, I think the most remarkable aspect is that there is no active effort whatsoever to reprocess the records. In some ways this research is pointless, because without accurate images there is no way to check digitization accuracy. The microfilm needs to be reprocessed and reanalyzed - it’s been 25 years since anyone used the original microfilm. However perhaps the point of this research is to show what could be possible if the records were reimaged. 

First Update

Since my introductory post, I have honed in on a specific project which I will use to expand my experience in archives and hopefully contribute to ongoing conversations about archival principles of arrangement and description. I will be working on a collection housed at the Rochester Public Library of the personal records of Dr. Lewis Lansky, a former MCC History professor and member of the civil rights action group F.I.G.H.T. (Freedom, Integration, God, Honor, Today), and the later group Friends of F.I.G.H.T., established for non-black allies in Rochester. 

Through some initial research I have found an oral history interview with Dr. Lansky, along with two articles he wrote for the MCC student paper on his first-hand experiences marching with Dr. King and working with other civil rights leaders.

I am so excited to begin working on this project, which will involve fully processing it and will culminate in a finding aid created through ArchivesSpace. 

Update: From Living History to Visual Culture Theory

 Due to sickness this past Monday, my first project update arrives a week later than my peers. I am actually glad that it worked out this way as prior to the submission of the first draft of the lit review I likely would have focused the uncertainty in my ability to actually complete that assignment, having never done one before. In the wake of our first submission, I am reflecting on some gaps in my project that are included in my thesis but not supported by the exhibition at present. For example, an exhibition in the University Gallery is advantageous for numerous reasons. The fact that it's a white cube type of infrastructure lends itself well to the problem I address through my criticism of Modernist curatorial methodology. Additionally, it also functions as an event space so audiences with varying levels of investment in and understanding of art exhibitions will experience my subversive method of curatorial praxis. However, I do not have access to the institutional documentation that supports that gallery space and it does not have an interpretive development policy in the way that art museums ideally would. In this way, the gallery space is almost a transplant environment and my exhibit analogous to a traveling show. Communal response should directly influence RIT Archives institutional management approaches. This presents a unique challenge as visitors are disassociated from the Archives central collection and exhibit spaces when interacting with my exhibit. I'm currently mulling over a tagging interactive that could be utilized by the art team once the exhibit comes down.

The most significant change my project has underwent since I last posted is that I am no longer primarily pulling from living history and am instead am focusing on different visual culture theorists like Eileen Hooper-Greenhill, Grant Kester, Amelia Jones, and Tracey Warr. Feminist performance art remains one of the primary arbidges between passive and active viewership, and for the most part the project has stayed fundamentally the same. I'm looking forward to further developing curatorial text for my exhibition in the coming weeks.

First Update: Danni Kuntz

 Hello again!

I feel as if a lot has happened since my first post. Firstly, and most importantly, I chose a specific topic: Everyday Life in Ancient Rome. I think this project has a lot of potential, and it is helping me prepare for my future plans. In the time since my last post, I've compiled my sources and annotated them, written an abstract, and even have started to work on a literature review for my project. It's been a lot of work, but I've also had a lot of fun delving into my topic of choice. 

Capstone Update 10/01/2026

Since last blog post, I have changed the goals and output of my capstone. I decided to go from a paper to a project because it will allow me to gain tangible experience in operating as a museum professional. The project will still be centered around LGBTQIA2S+ representation in a GLAM setting, like my proposal originally was. The main difference is what my thesis has changed into. Now I plan on gathering an oral history interview with a steward of LGBTQIA2S+ resources within a library setting. This interview will be the basis of my capstone, complimented by research on both the standards of conducting the oral history interviews of queer communities and on the operations of an LGBTQIA2S+ library.

Because of this change of plans, I am not quite as on track as I had hoped to be at this point in our fall semester. My first order of business since this reorientation is to find all of my sources, annotate them by next class and work on a full draft of a literary review. I also need to identify a subject for the project and receive their permission for an interview. My methods are not yet determined for the interview portion, and I do not have any present experience with oral history, but I hope to consult with Museum Studies and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies staff members to come up with a solid plan on how to approach the session. 

-Bella

First Update

Since my last blog post, I have further honed my idea and found more sources that I have annotated. I will still be comparing and contrasting the films Barry Lyndon and Andrei Rublev to examine how they represent and interpret the past differently and make sense of fragmented history. In addition to comparing and analyzing the films, I will be relating how the creation and interpretation of history in these films relate to curation and interpretation in the museum world. Ultimately, I hope to showcase the strength of these films and to make the case that film/art can play a role in understanding the past. 

Changing Directions + Status Update

Hello! 

Since my initial post, the direction of my project has shifted considerably. I am still doing research regarding digital collections, but my new research question is "How can multispectral data and IIIF annotations be used to enhance user interaction, discovery, and scholarship in digital collections?" Multispectral imaging has the potential to completely reframe collection items, but results are generally publicly unavailable or stored in separate repositories. IIIF allows image stacks to be created and manipulated in digital collections through its choice cookbook recipe, but this feature remains underutilized in the GLAM field. I hope to create a small prototype digital collection using medieval manuscript leaves to showcase this functionality. One of my goals with this collection is to ensure compatibility with manuscript reconstruction projects like Fragmentarium, since having these images present with their true-color counterparts could reveal new insights into these codices.

So far I have written my abstract and made significant revisions to it. I have identified around 20 sources that I will use for my project. One of them has significantly influenced how I think about my project: Hannekan's 2023 article that introduces the concept of "deep digitization"-- combining multiple imaging modalities in an online environment that allows objects to be studied in the broadest way possible. Currently, I am finishing my annotated bibliography and starting my lit review. I'm trying to figure out how I want to structure it, which I anticipate will probably be the most difficult part. I also have gone down a few rabbit holes related to (but not really contributing to) my project. Otto F. Ege's "I am a Biblioclast" is such a fascinating glimpse into the method behind his madness. I can't stop thinking about how his eight year old daughter could not sleep until an illuminated manuscript leaf was hung in her room. 

All the best, 

Alec 

Update on WWII Enlistment Records

 So far, my thesis is going well. The most difficult part is holding myself back from beginning data processing. I’ve scoured the internet and found that, as I suspected, there is little to no research on standard data management for internally derived datasets in cultural heritage. This works in my favor, as I can use this project to fill that gap.

My plan is to take GIS data ethics from archaeology and data management strategies from machine learning, weave them together, and create a framework to serve the needs of cultural heritage institutions. On that note, I need to define a word for cultural heritage that excludes archaeology. I find that there is a conflation between archaeological GIS and historical GIS. Actually, I would go so far as to say there is a difference between historical GIS and the point of this project. In archaeological GIS the spatial data comes from the object's location. In historical GIS there is both intrinsic and extrinsic spatial data. This generally takes one of two forms: A map (intrinsic) or provenance (extrinsic). What this project works with is a collection with intrinsic textual spatial data. That is to say there is no spatial data within the object or about the object, we are interpreting the text to obtain spatial data. Technically, this is intrinsic data, however it is clearly different from a map.

Returning to the point, I have been messing around with the 2002 WWII enlistment data. I converted the ASCII code to hexadecimal, which with the help of Claude was quite easy, but did increase the file size to 5 gb (yes gb). I was expecting 50-60 gb. Now that the data is in hex, it needs to be decoded. To do so I will need to (a) figure out a way to extract all the codes from the documentation quickly and (b) how to effectively chunk the data to avoid sitting for hours while the code runs. Outside of the lit review the next step is figuring out OCR.

Update on my progress

Since my last post I have made a few changes to my topic. I am now focusing on how museums interpret three substances that have been understood historically as medicine but have changed meanings over time. I am using various primary sources and four exhibits from different institutions. I will be examining how they interpret these substances, what materials they chose to use, and how their institutional perspectives influence their interpretations. The three substances I have chosen to focus on are tobacco, alcohol, and opium and the medicines derived from it. Thus far I have found fifteen sources four of which are the exhibits I plan to examine, have annotated all 15, and have made a revised draft for my abstract and thesis statement/question. I plan to use these sources to create a research paper into how museums address the nuances of the ever-changing views surrounding these substances, and what role their institutional bias's play in forming these interpretations. One example of this is the DEA museum has an exhibition on the opium poppy which skews towards the illicit drug aspect of opium/opioids. 

Thesis Progress Update #1 | Allie Cassella

Hey everyone! Hope you all are having a good fall semester. 

Since my last post, I have been doing a ton of work on my thesis project and I decided on a topic. As I said in my introduction, I work in the Cultural Heritage Imaging Lab with the MISHA system. Multispectral imaging has been used for pigment identification, as every pigment reflects or absorbs light differently across different wavelengths, giving each one a distinct spectral signature. I was curious if that would also work for pigments with poison or that use an animal binder (milk, eggs, animal glue). They should have a different spectral signature from regular pigments. I am going to focus on just poison books, and work with the Rochester Public Library to try and image some suspected poison books with the MISHA system. I wanted to try and connect my thesis project with what I do in the lab, and also with my minor, criminal justice, which is why I decided to try and look at poison books and protein binders. I had a bunch of other potential ideas to look at, including seeing if MISHA could be used for forensic anthropology or to detect drug soaked paper (it is a way of smuggling drugs into prison), but I decided that my research question was way too broad. I would not physically be able to do it all in a year, and I had to think about what I could realistically do, and that was studying poison books. I have been working on finding and annotating new sources, as I had to cut a bunch that were now unrelated, and editing my abstract so it reflects my topic. Next step is more editing, and starting to draft a literature review with my sources. 

See you all next time!

-Allie

 

Introduction and Forethoughts

Hello everyone!

I hope this blog post finds you well. My name is Claire Gallucci, and like many of you, I am in my final year at RIT. My primary area of focus is in Modern art history, particularly the feminist, installation, and performance art disciplines. As an emerging museum professional, I have thought deeply about the public-facing side of art collecting institutions. 

Of all types of museums, art museums have the most foreboding reputation as inaccessible cultural heritage sites, grounded in elitism and their content curated for visitors from exclusive demographics. Often, galleries are curated to encourage passive viewership, forcing a sense of value or institutional importance onto audiences. As a result, these institutions end up alienated from the broader communities in which they reside. Conversely, living history museums have been successful in connecting with visitors who have varying levels of competency in the era the museum aims to interpret. They have taken controversial, complex, and even painful subject matter and made it approachable for the masses. They accomplish this through immersion, intentional use of material culture, and cultivating an ethos of active participation and co-authorship. The museum guest is empowered to be in charge of the experience they come away with. I would like to investigate the interpretive framework that allows for living history institutions to succeed and see how it may apply to contemporary/modern art museums. I intend to prove that the concept of active viewership is not estranged from art institutions from a historical standpoint, even as it has not been at the forefront of art exhibition development; movements like feminist performance art and installation art have succeeded in activating gallery viewers in the creation and perception of art; therefore, it is feasible to implement concepts founded in living history into the traditional art museum framework, creating something that is in part new and in part old. 

Research is an intimate practice that is often executed in an extremely public setting. It is a difficult feat to approach developing a research topic, and even more of a challenge to defend its rigor as academia often prompts. As of late, I have found myself reflecting on how my research topic has evolved from my very first semester as a museum studies major. I'm looking forward to continuing to develop this project over the next seven months alongside my peers. 

Research Methods Introduction

 Hello, 

My name is Bella Herendeen. I'm a fourth and final year student majoring in Museum Studies and pursuing a minor in Women and Gender Studies. I'm interested in how different areas of history are represented in archives and exhibitions and how underrepresented voices are handled by GLAM institutions. 

With this in mind, I hope to pursue a thesis paper examining transfers of power within archives and how these changes affect what is prioritized by an institution. Questions I will be asking vary from "who is given the highest position of authority?", "why are certain people gifted this power?", "how is the public affected by these changes, for better or worse?", etc. I do not have a definitive thesis statement at the moment but I hope to introduce one to my concept within the week. Courses I have taken in Museum Studies and History will provide me with a strong background to build my thesis on. Although I will be focusing on archival practices, there will likely be exhibition related case studies included to support the paper.

As someone who's goal is to work with archives in a way that uplifts marginalized voices, I hope this capstone thesis will help me gain an important perspective that I could attribute to whichever institution I might find myself in. 

Thesis Introduction

 Hello, I am Kai Schiesel, and I am a 4th-year Museum Studies Major with a Minor in Film Studies. Initially, I sought out to write a thesis paper on the filmmaker John Cassavetes, but I am now seeking to write a paper on cultural heritage in media. I'll be discussing such films as Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon and Andrei Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev due to their close attention to detail and for fully utilizing cultural heritage to make wonderful pieces of art. This idea is still quite rough, but I am excited to combine my interest in cinema and museums/archives together to write a thesis.

I'm looking forward to working with this topic and making it a well-fleshed-out idea.

-Kai

Introduction

 Hello! My name is Priscilla Anderson, but most people call me by my middle name, Sawyer. While my major is Museum Studies, my minor is in Geographic Information Systems drives my focus. If I could define my ‘area of interest,’ I would say my focus is in historical spatial data science for libraries, archives, and special collections, as well as the creation of spatial applications to enhance accessibility.

As I begin to think about my research I realize perhaps the most important thing for me is to make a difference. I don’t want the things I do to disappear into the annals of the internet or languish on a shelf somewhere. I have no expectation of my project actually going anywhere - but I want to create proof that spatial analysis of historical data is useful. I want to show the cultural heritage community that using code and geospatial information systems we can create accessible applications that reach more than just researchers. We can make history fun for individuals who might otherwise avoid it. I want to show that we need to stop seeing AI as the death to intellectual freedom and realize it’s a tool. The fear and distrust I see is, quite simply, a lack of knowledge. AI has the potential to allow us to process big data in a way that was previously untenable, especially to those of us without a background in coding. I’m not suggesting using AI to create catalog records; rather, I propose the use of AI for OCR and vibe coding. Specifically, I want to reprocess NARA’s approximately 9 million record raw WWII enlistment record data file to improve accuracy, create an accessible interactive, and analyze data trends. Ideally, this would begin with conducting AI OCR on the original microfilm, however there is a slim likelihood that I will be able to gain access to these files within a reasonable time frame. Thus, I’d like to begin by cleaning the data with Excel, using python (AI-assisted) to convert the numeric codes to text, geo-coding the locations, examining spatial correlation between records, and creating a spatial search engine.

Introduction- Patrick Showers

Hello, I am Patrick Showers, I am majoring in Museum Studies with a minor in History. My tentative plan for my thesis is to research how museums can/do interpret substances which have been used for medicinal, spiritual, and social/recreational purposes, and how the broader cultural and historical context alters how they’re interpreted. I have always been interested in how different cultures across the globe have independently discovered substances with mind-altering properties and how they have justified their use for spiritual and medicinal purposes. This subject is (and likely will be) subject to change as it is an extremely broad subject that has some basis in nearly every culture. This topic will be combining my passion for history with museum studies by compiling historical and modern information and looking at it through a museum lens. Some other topics I am exploring are to continue my summer research project of building interest in MISHA (Multispectral Imaging for Historical Artifacts) amongst smaller organizations, to research the effects of museums architecture on how people perceive their collections, and looking into how museums can and do navigate reinterpreting historical exhibits with outdated language and interpretations.

Introductions- Alexandra Cassella

Hello everyone! I’m Alexandra, but I usually go by Allie. I’m a fifth year Museum Studies major minoring in Criminal Justice. I’m very excited (and a little nervous) to finally be starting my thesis project. The time came faster than I expected, which could partially be because I transferred into Museum Studies in my third year. I started out at RIT as a Chemical Engineering major, but found that I really was not passionate about what I was doing as a ChemE. I plan to graduate in May, and hopefully go into something in museum education or maybe curation. During my Spring 2026 semester, I started working in the Cultural Heritage Imaging lab on campus with the MISHA system. I still have an interest in chemistry, and wanted to make use of my criminal justice minor to see if there would be forensic capabilities with the system. There are paints that have animal blood in them, or artifacts made with poison materials, and I was curious if those would look different when imaged than regular paints. I briefly discussed with a professor about seeing if different drugs painted on paper could be identified under multispectral imaging, which I could also explore. I have done smaller research projects in previous semesters. Hopefully some of what I learned doing those projects I can take into my thesis and expand upon.

Looking forward to a great semester and a great year!

Allie Cassella

Introductions: Danni Kuntz

Hello, everyone! My name is Dannahe Kuntz, also known as Danni. I am a fourth-year Museum Studies major, but I also have interests in other fields, being a dual major in "Humanities, Computing, and Design" and having an immersion in Evolutionary Biology & Ecology.

In terms of my person journey in Museum Studies, it actually started off as my minor. HCD (as Humanities, Computing and Design is often abbreviated to) is my first and primary major, but as someone who has had a lifelong interest in museums, the program enraptured me, and I decided that I not only would take it on as a second major, that I also would choose it for my capstone/thesis.

I have many interests, which is a bit of a problem when deciding what to focus on for a project, or choosing a major, including for grad school, which I am in the process of applying to-- but I've narrowed it down to a few topics by now. However, what I do know is that my project will culminate in an exhibit: ideally a physical one as I already have worked on digital exhibits and want to expand my repertoire, but if necessary I can create a digital exhibit or exhibit prototype.

At the moment, these are the topics I am considering:

-Everyday life in Ancient Rome

I have always had an interest in Ancient Rome, as well as the everyday lives of Ancient people. In choosing this topic, I seek to humanize people of the past. I like this topic, because it's specific enough to develop a concise exhibit, but expansive enough for me to discuss different aspects of life, and pick whatever piques my interest. (I especially love Roman Graffiti, so if I pick this, I will definitely include it as a part of the project!)

-Design Philosophy and Cultural heritage in Genshin Impact

 Yes, this is a very specific topic! I have actually already focused on this topic for another Museum Studies class years ago, but as the game continues to update, the discourse surrounding the game has expanded. Genshin Impact is particularly interesting to me, because there are many things it does regarding designs & cultural heritage that are done incredibly well, and other aspects that border on abysmal. In this hypothetical project, I can speak on the complexities of Genshin Impact's design philosophy and representation of cultural heritage. One potential downside of this topic is that because of its specificity, it may be hard to find peer-reviewed sources. I am sure I could create enough content out of this to fill an exhibit, but a larger than desired portion of information would be from less formal sources.

-Internet Communities and/or Fandom culture 

These two often go hand-in-hand. This topic is sort of a love letter to my adolescence, covering communities that shaped me into the person I am today. Being a very contemporary topic (Alongside my second topic), there may not be a large pool of academic resources, but I think what exists will be sufficient, although I know that what I focus on will definitely be inspired by the range of specific internet culture topics covered by academia.

I also had other topics I was considering, such as The Permian Era and its animals, Anomalocaris, the domestication and history of cats, Carthage, and early human evolution. Many of these are related to evolutionary biology, and while it is still a topic I am very interested in, I think choosing a subject that has more room for interpretation would be beneficial.

Introduction

 Hi everyone!

My name is Katie Lawson, and I'm excited to be entering my 5th (and hopefully final) year of my undergraduate degree at RIT. I was originally a Software Engineering major for the first three years of my undergraduate career, but I decided to transfer into Museum Studies before the beginning of last fall semester, and I am continually more grateful and satisfied that I did so! Not only do I enjoy the kind of work I'm doing more than I did before, but the spectrum of topics in the potential classes I can take is far more varied in a way I really like. 

I am looking forward to not only completing this final year and getting my BS in Museum Studies and my minors in ASL & Deaf Cultural Studies, Art History, and Software Engineering, but to hopefully be beginning my master's journey next year to further my goal in becoming a professional archivist one day (hopefully in the near future). I've already gotten some hands-on experience under my belt (having been an intern in the Cultural Heritage Imaging lab on campus this previous summer), but I am eager to get more!

I can't wait to continue in this semester and beyond!

- Katie 

Intro & Looking Ahead

Hi all! 

My name is Violet Davis and I am so excited to be starting the final chapter of my undergrad experience. As a transfer student, my time at RIT has been shorter than most others in this year's thesis group, but I have enjoyed every second of it. I am so grateful for all that I have learned here, and all opportunities I have been given in the Museum Studies program to further my education and boost me towards a future career in GLAM. 

My goal for this semester is to gain more hands-on experience in my desired field, archives. I am hoping to work collaboratively with the Rochester Public Library Local History and Genealogy Division on a thesis project with which I can both apply what I have learned thus far and expand my experience in archives. 

I'm looking forward to a wonderful semester!

 ~ Violet