It's been months since I've last posted an update about the Stewart Center history project. While I knew that school would certainly demand much of my time, I'm not sure I realized how much energy it would demand also!
Having said that, I am so thankful for the past year I've spent learning, and I feel considerably more prepared to tackle this research project, and to present the information in such a way that honors 100 years of children and workers at the Stewart Center.
This post is a little bit of a reflection of how a year of grad school has impacted this project, after two years of work as a total amateur historian. (In case you're curious, I'm working on a Master's of Heritage Preservation at Georgia State. The program is a part of the History Department, and the reason I chose this program over a plain old Master's in History, is because I valued the dual focus on Historical Research/Education and Historic Preservation. My excitement about history has almost always revolved around physical places, hence my desire to study preservation alongside history.)
Before grad school was even a thought in my mind, I was doing research the only way I knew how--asking lots of questions, looking at photos, and visiting sites of importance. And Google...lots of Google. Learning about the Center's history was fascinating and fun for me--like detective work. The piece that I most enjoyed was connecting with people from the Center's past...people that I usually found through Google or Facebook, after reading their name in Stewart Center history documents.
I started the MHP program in January of 2014, taking one class while still working full time at the Stewart Center. Suddenly, I was introduced to an abundance of new resources with which to learn more--Atlanta newspaper archives, Sanborn maps, books about Atlanta's history, National Register Nominations, the list goes on. I spent hours in front of the computer devouring all the new information I could find. By the end of the semester, I had amassed considerable amounts of new information and resources. I began to realize that something should be done with the information, or it risked being lost all over again.
When summer came around, I resigned from my position at the Center, and started school full time. I took a "Directed Readings" course (basically an independent study) in which I wrote the first draft of the Stewart Center history. I realized by the end of the course that while I had compiled a great deal of information about the Center's history, I had not successfully captured the heart of the Center...which is what inspired me to write about it in the first place.
Luckily, that fall I took an Oral History course, for which I was able to incorporate the Stewart Center project. While I had already been meeting and interviewing folks for over a year at this point, I had never really considered the interviews "real" research. While I knew it was a great way to learn more information, I didn't realize that Oral History was a respected field in and of itself. I learned about the ways in which interviews and stories can be used to tell History, and I got a great deal of feedback about my project and the way in which I conduct interviews. Upon finishing the course, I knew that what I had written about the Stewart Center, so far, was going to change dramatically with the inclusion of oral histories. I knew that oral histories would introduce personality, humor, and most of all, heart, into the overall narrative.
While I have not had an opportunity to include the project in any of my classes this semester (with the exception of writing an Annotated Bibliography based on my research sources) I have spent a great deal of time reading and learning about historical methods and how to research American cities. One of my classes has required reading a one book a week (sometimes two). After reading and analyzing the works of so many respected historians, I've only become more aware of the work I have yet to do, and the questions, issues, and biases I will need to address in the writing.
With 5 weeks left in the semester, I am actively thinking about all the work to be done this summer. With a much smaller course load and the month of May completely off, I am very excited to begin writing where I left off, and to include all that I have learned over the past year. I am so excited to incorporate the stories and remembrances that have been shared with me. I am excited to meet and interview more folks who were involved in the Center's history. I am excited to do more research about a number of topics in order to better understand the Center in the context of Atlanta, Christianity, and America. My goal by the end of the summer is to have a document that I am proud enough of to share with others for critique and editing.
So. That's a little update :) More to come.
