UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Paterno Fellow and Schreyer Scholar Jenna Lugo spent the past summer interning with the Smithsonian’s Freedmen’s Bureau Transcription Project. Lugo, a third-year student majoring in political science and history with a minor in global and international studies, utilized the internship to explore her passion for late 19th-century history.
“I’m really interested in and focused on late 19th-century history, specifically the Civil War and Reconstruction and the aftermath of that,” the Montgomery, New York native said. “This remote internship let me focus on Reconstruction history, and I got to research primary sources and first-hand accounts of everyday people in the Reconstruction period, specifically focusing on women.”
Lugo worked on the transcription project’s Because of Her Story initiative, which aims to amplify the shared, yet diverse, histories of American women during the Reconstruction era through transcribing documents of the Freedmen’s Bureau to a more equitable format, creating and posting infographics, and writing posting blogs for mass educational efforts. The project highlights women’s experiences through these primary source documents that interns, like Lugo, transcribe and disseminate. The initiative will be used to help create the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum.
Through this transcription project, the Smithsonian aims to instruct and lead future educators to introduce primary resources into classrooms. Their hope is that the stories will help students connect to history, allowing them to find a more personal meaning behind why they continue to study history in school.
“Cursive isn’t being taught in schools as much and reading 19th-century cursive can be quite difficult,” Lugo said. “But these stories are important, so we wanted to make them more accessible. I was able to transcribe these cursive documents into something more easily readable for students, which may help learning.”
Transcribing these primary documents allows students to focus on the “stories that stick out,” Lugo said, adding that her favorite story she read was about an African American woman in Washington, D.C. who was trying to reconnect with her nieces through the Freedmen's Bureau.
“She was able to reconnect with the children, but more interestingly, she had been working in contraband camps during the war with Mary Todd Lincoln’s dressmaker. To know she may have known Mary Todd Lincoln or had a connection with the White House was super interesting,” Lugo said.
Besides transcribing, Lugo was involved in writing a blog series, where she focused on three different women’s experiences during the Reconstruction era. In addition, she also designed a social media campaign to promote the blog posts on Instagram and Twitter — all of which will be published on the Smithsonian’s social media accounts and website when the project is finalized.
Reflecting on her internship now, Lugo is grateful for the experience and the insights it gave her about employment within the museum field. Without her internship, she feels she may not have gotten a comprehensive view of the work.
“I always wanted to go the academia route and be a professor at a college and had never thought of the museum field, but this internship allowed me to talk to professionals in the museum who were in different study areas,” Lugo said. “It was super interesting to get insight into the different things you can get out of working at a museum or even just having a history degree. It’s definitely been insightful in thinking about my future career track or my undergraduate years as I approach graduation.”
Outside of her internship, Lugo is a member of the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Council, where she meets with students and staff to discuss ongoings of the college, policies, and programming for students. Lugo is also a Liberal Arts Ambassador, which allows her to talk about her college experience and involvements with prospective and accepted students and families.
In addition, Lugo is a member of Empowering Women in Law and is Penn State’s liaison to the League of Women Voters of Centre County. As the liaison, Lugo communicates what’s going on between the Penn State chapter and the Centre County chapter. The goal of the Penn State chapter of the League of Women Voters, which was the first collegiate chapter of the organization, is to increase voter registration and voter education across college students, and they often host registration drives at Penn State University Park.
Lugo expressed thanks to her honors adviser, Cathleen Cahill, who is the Walter L. Ferree and Helen P. Ferree Professor in Middle-American History. Lugo encourages students to ask Penn State faculty and staff for help, noting that they have “great resources and insights about what’s going on in their fields.”
For students interested in museum work, Lugo recommends looking “at the specific museum you’re interested in, and the project you’d be involved in before the application and interview, and apply for one that you’re passionate about.”