Bryana Nichelson
CODE123
Reflection
I chose to look at the Madison County Historical Society Archival Library because I lived in Madison County for several years and never heard of this archive. It was founded because the Old Settlers Union wanted to organize a “historical society for the purpose of collecting relics and valuable information of all kinds pertaining to the history of Madison County.” The historical society was formally organized in 1916 but was inactive until 1921. In 1921 a new charter aimed to “stimulate a general interest in the history of Madison County; to encourage historical research and investigation; to collect a preserve all forms of data bearing upon the history of Madison County.” The archive includes the history of buildings and important house histories in Madison County. This section of the archive gives insight on who built the buildings and houses, who occupied those spaces, how much it would’ve costed to purchase the house, and how many families have lived there. If the buildings or families have interesting stories those are included as well. There is also a section in the archive dedicated to artifacts. In this section there were only two items; a platter that was a part of a set of dishes used by the family of Elijah Parish Lovejoy and an ice saw owned by William Henry Eberhart. It was interesting to read the descriptions of these artifacts and why they were significant to the archive. Another section of the archive is dedicated to online exhibits. There was a great variety of online exhibits to choose from. I looked at the “Schoolhouses of Madison County” exhibit first which included images of school buildings that date back to the 1800’s. I also took a look at the exhibit titled “Bertha Love, WW1 Nurse- In Her Own Words.” The exhibit includes journal entries from Bertha Love who was a United States Army nurse, and it was especially interesting to me, because trying to read her handwriting reminded me of what we’ve been doing as far as analyzing the artifacts at the Missouri Botanical Garden. The archive also includes a newsletter that you can receive if you sign up to be a member and a section dedicated to a series of speakers that have been to the archive. To understand the context of the archive one might have to be familiar with Madison County, but if you aren’t it’s not a hard website to navigate. Overall, I learned. New things about the history of Madison County and I enjoyed exploring the archive.
Bryana Nichelson
Interview Reflection
CODE 123
I felt comfortable doing my interview because it was someone that I know personally. There was occasional awkwardness because normally our conversation is not scripted, and it felt a bit unnatural for me to be asking my friend a series of questions not related to anything we’ve talked about before, but we were productive and I’m happy about the outcome. My interview questions called for individualized answers, so I don’t feel that I could have worded anything differently to receive a more meaningful response. My interviewee answered truthfully about what her sleeping and studying habits have been since she’s started her college journey and how that is and has affected her grades. I believe my interview questions were well crafted because I asked questions that I could answer about my own college experience so far. The interview process was a bit more effective than the survey for several reasons. One reason being the conversation aspect of the interview gave the interviewee the opportunity to answer freely without having to worry about whether the question was free response or multiple choice. Another reason I preferred the interview process over the survey is because watching the interviewee think first and then answer the question or change their answer made it feel more honest versus receiving the survey results from strangers and not knowing if they answered the questions truthfully or not. Transcribing the interview wasn’t a difficult task; however, it did feel a bit repetitive being that the interview was relatively simple, so there wasn’t much detail missed. Overall, I appreciate the new knowledge and skills I’ve gained from learning how to create a survey from a single research question to transforming that survey into an interview and also transcribing the interview.