Archives Internship, Green Mountain Club

Waterbury Center, Vermont; July 2015 - August 2016

Following graduation from Ithaca College, I worked as an Archives Intern at the Green Mountain Club in Waterbury Center, Vermont (July 2015 - August 2016). During my tenure at the GMC, my intentions to pursue graduate coursework became deeply rooted as I accessioned, processed, and described the Club’s historical materials accumulated over the past century, as well as incoming gifts. The Club’s archives include photographic materials, publications, maps, correspondence, albums/scrapbooks, shelter logs, trail journals, and other realia. As I managed the archives, I arranged records, rehoused materials, created folder-level descriptions, input metadata into Microsoft Access, and revised the Finding Aid.

One of my internship projects involved enriching the Long Trail Shelter and Lodge History through a process of digitizing photographic materials and printed ephemera. Additionally, I digitized photographs and provided content for the “Green Mountain Girls: Women of the Long Trail” presentation by Montpelier Section President Reidun Nuquist; and assisted in curating the history table at the 2016 Annual Meeting. In March 2016, I provided images from digitized materials for inclusion in Michael Debonis’, GMC’s Executive Director, article “History Space: The Cabins of Bolton Valley,” published in the Burlington Free Press. 

While processing collections, I identified archival materials needing repair and conservation, while ensuring the use of proper preservation techniques. Through employing archival methods and collaborating with the History & Archives Committee, I participated in the ongoing development of a non-profit’s archive. In September 2016, I was the recipient of the Club’s Special Recognition Volunteer Award.

View a document summarizing the work I completed during my internship here.

Excerpted from the Long Trail News (Winter 2015): 

“The club would also like to recognize Karalyn Mark, whose passion for Vermont’s history was reflected in her recent volunteer work cataloging the club’s historical materials and processing new donations. Karalyn has a bachelor’s degree in photography from Ithaca College, and is well-versed in photographic preservation and archival methods. She moved to Warren this summer to work as an archives intern at GMC, and has since become immersed in its history. Karalyn says she feels privileged to be working with the archives, which includes cataloging a set of glass slides by Herbert Wheaton Congdon (in whose honor Congdon Shelter was named). She feels connected to the Long Trail through her work, and looks forward to experiencing the mountains and sites captured in old prints and documented in trail logs in the club’s collections. A native of suburban Philadelphia, she is drawn to the natural beauty, tranquility and contemplative hikes that Vermont’s woods provide.”