Unpaid Internship/Capstone Project, Harvard Semitic Museum, Cambridge, MA
Posted April 22, 2019
The Harvard Semitic Museum has begun the search process for an unpaid internship, which could also serve as a Capstone project for a current SLIS student. This internship will be based on a large archive of letters to and from Oric Bates. Oric Bates (1883-1918) was an archaeologist (Egypt, Palestine, Sudan, Libya) and curator of African archaeology at Harvard’s Peabody Museum. He worked frequently for famed Egyptian archaeologist George Reisner (1867-1942) and served briefly as an Egyptian curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston as well.
Tasks:
- Scan all letters and envelopes (front and back) as individual jpeg files, using the Semitic Museum’s rapid scanner/printer/photocopier (300 dpi color jpgs).
- Merge multi-page letters (and envelope) into single multi-page pdf files
- Name the files with the following filename structure:
“Year-month-day_author-adressee.pdf”
“1915-01-26_OricBates-NaticaBates.pdf”
- Arrange letters in file folders and archival boxes according to best practices (probably by author, and then in chronological order).
- Create finding aid. Note: the 75 most archaeological letters have been summarized already, albeit with inaccuracies, by an anonymous dealer; see the file called “Bates archive letters summary2018.pdf”. The remaining personal/family letters, often from children to Oric Bates’s widow, Natica Bates, have not been summarized.
- If time allows, transcribe all letters as single Ms Word Files. Alternatively, read and summarize contents of each letter, including key words, personal names, location of writer, addressee, etc.
For further information, contact:
Peter Der Manuelian
Philip J. King Professor of Egyptology
Director, Harvard Semitic Museum
Harvard University
6 Divinity Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138