Eisenhower National Historic Site

Internship Report

Brittany Courtot
May 26 August 16, 2015

The opportunity to live in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania for an entire

summer season originally began as an experience in learning the skill of

interpretation in order to improve my abilities as a future educator of

history. However, as the months progressed the internships merit
morphed into a multitude of other educational opportunities. These
experiences ranged from hearing first-hand accounts of the 1950s era to
handling historical artifacts to conducting in-depth research of primary
and secondary sources. Most of all, the experience has enlightened me to
several future career paths such as in the
Before my foray into any of the aforementioned experiences began,
I was required to take two interpretation courses viva the Indiana
Universitys e-courses website Eppley. In these two courses, I was able to
dive into several different aspects of interpretation namely what it is and
why do people do interpretation? In essence interpretation brings
intangible meanings, sometime universal meanings, to tangible things.
Yet, the reason to bring this meaning comes down to preserving sites
because they have relevance to us for a variety of reasons. This
exploration of meaning and relevance offered a strong lens in which to
view my abilities as an teacher, giving me an exercise in thinking about
the variety of meanings and perspectives go into a historical site as well
as how to address each one. Overall, taking the course as a prelude to my
internship really helped put my own method of interpretation into
perspective for the summer season which came into use during my
many tours.
Once arriving at Gettysburg, I had a little over a week of training
both broad training and site-specific training. In the broader sense of
training, I was able to learn more about the how of interpretations in how
to effectively convey the historical information I learned. In this, I was to
use the idea of a Theme, which would center my information under one
particular subject and all other information would offshoot from that
theme. In this way, I experienced how to take a multitude of historical
information, make an argument and back that up with the pertinent facts.
So, in many ways it was as if I was writing a oral report in different areas
of Eisenhowers life. This format is the one I used in constructing all my

tours throughout the summer season. On the site-specific side of training,

I was guided through the operations of the Eisenhower farm, but also
given access to the Eisenhower National Historic Sites library. The library
contained a variety of primary and secondary sources, many of the
primary sources authentic to the time period of Eisenhowers life including
primary newspaper articles, archival video footage and audio recordings
of various political speeches.
I took advantage of the library as a resource in learning more about
Eisenhower and the time period of the 1950s and 1960s as well. I read a
variety of titles including, but limited to: At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends
by Dwight Eisenhower, Eisenhower: Solider and President (The Renowned
One Volume Life) by Stephen E. Ambrose, Going Home to Glory: A
Memoir of Life with Dwight D. Eisenhower 1961-1969 by David Eisenhower
and Julie Nixon Eisenhower, and America in the 1950s (Decades of
American History) by Charles A. Willis.
As I learned more about Eisenhower life, his military career and his
Presidency, I began to get a better sense of the 1950s and 1960s in both
a sense of the events, which occurred yet also the culture of the time
period as well. To use this new information successfully, I watched many
of the Rangers and volunteers conduct their tours in order to get a better
sense of the timing, flow and organization of a typical tour. All in all, the
process of learning how to interpret the tangibles within the Eisenhower
home offered an educational experience in many fields including research,
historical analysis (to come up with my themes/topics), educating others,
and conveying that information to a variety of audiences. However this
was not the only set of educational experiences I gained from my time
working at the Eisenhower National Historic Site.
On top of my interpretation duties, I was given the opportunity to
shadow the Eisenhower National Historic Sites curator as he worked with
the artifacts. I was tasked to help conduct the annual inventory of objects,
having to locate the object in the database and then find its location on
the Eisenhower property recording any damage or noting any additional

information (including risk of theft). During this time I was able to go into
a wide variety of rooms and out buildings on the Eisenhower Site from the
Cars garage to previously closed-off rooms of the Main House. This
enabled me to connect the information I had learned through my research
to the tangibles within the home itself. Yet, not only was this depth of
connection and educational information gained from the Eisenhower Site, I
also found other opportunities outside the Site.
By merit of my present at the Eisenhower Home in Gettysburg, I
came across a wide variety of people from numerous places or
backgrounds. Being at an historic site, I learned quickly that some of
these visitors were apart of the history, which I am talking about. In
Gettysburg, with the battlefield side of the Park so close, one forgets that
there are people who were alive during the time period I was taking about
moreover people who met Eisenhower himself. I had the privilege of
being able to speak with many of these people ranging from Secret
Service agents to WWII Veterans to Reporters who worked on
Eisenhowers press staff. In this way I was able to experience history in a
completely different fashion, able to see the people who had been part of
history. This really tilts the way one works with the subject of history
particularly the manner in which you approach events, which are heavy in
the collective pool of knowledge such as the Civil War. Now, whenever I
consider the events of the Civil War or the 1950s, I really dig into the
subject from the angle of how people were affects by events, not simply
the events themselves.
Another educational aspect to my internship was that I was able
and facilitated to see a wide variety of historical places outside
Gettysburg. I explored the battlefield of course first, gathering a more
spatial or place-orientated view of the Civil War as well as looking at the
events through the lens of the citizens of Gettysburg themselves. On top
of that, I was able to visit both Washington D.C. and Philadelphia in my
spare hours during the course of this internship, an added educational
advantage being that I was able to journey to historic places such as

Independence Hall and the Library of Congress with skilled Rangers

helping guide the experience each time. In this manner, I was able to
converse and engage at each site with highly trained and intellectual
professionals in their field. This engagement offered a wide variety of
educational conversations, which both challenged my preconceptions and
enlightened me to new knowledge.
Lastly, I was able to attend the famed Eisenhower Academys
workshop for teacher, which seeks to convey to professional educators
the importance of Eisenhower in the context of the 1950s culture and
events.
The first session, which I attended was conducted by the
Educational Outreach Specialist Lee-Ann Potter from the Library of
Congress in Washington D.C. In her session, we delved into the differences
between primary and secondary sources, yet moreover how to access
them in the Librarys database. Lastly, Lee-Ann Potter informed the
participants about a valuable new undertaking by the Library of Congress
called the Veterans History Project which is seeking to record first-hand
accounts of soldiers in one collective location. We taught how to access
this resource as well as how to manipulate it to suit our various goals.
The second set of sessions, which I attended were a series of
lectures given by various college professors or historians. These sessions
included: Suburban America by Dr. David Schuyler of Franklin and
Marshall College, American Automobility by Dr. Michael Birkner, and
Women in 1950s America by Dr. Alison Kibler of Franklin and Marshall
College. At the end of these sessions, I was able to engage with the
speakers in an Q & A, as well as interact with the historians and teachers
who were also attending the session.
Lastly, I was able to attend a dinner session later that night at the
Gettysburg Hotel where Susan Eisenhower, Dwight D. Eisenhowers
Granddaughter, spoke about her Grandfathers life and legacy. In this
manner I was able to get a most intimate glimpse into Eisenhowers life.
Moreover, Ms. Eisenhowers profession as a political consultant in terms of

Nuclear Warfare, which she shared some of her insights into the political
climate of today versus the political climate of her Grandfathers time.
In summation, my experience the Eisenhower National Historic Site
offered a wide variety of educational experiences in the field of history
and Social Studies pedagogy. Moreover, the entire summer experience
has expanded my skill to adapt to unforeseen circumstances, my ability to
convey historical information, helped my skill to effectively research to
create an argument, and improved my ability to analyze and converse
about historical themes. I believe that skills I learned in Interpretation can
help me not only become a better teacher, but perhaps land a job in the
Park Service elsewhere or as an Educational Outreach Specialist. In the
end, the skills Ive gained through this internship have prepared me for a
variety of careers in the field of History education.

There papers shown above are a sample of my typical

schedules during the course of a given week. My order
of jobs would change each day, but each number
corresponds to a different position or tour duty.