Summer 2022 Internship Information

For the summer of 2022, The Lost Towns Project and Anne Arundel County Cultural Resources Section are offering four internship positions: two paid positions and two positions for college credit. Applications are due April 1st, 2022. Please click on the links below for full internship descriptions and more information.

Internship Descriptions:

Hammond Plantation Archaeology: One Internship with Stipend Available

The intern will assist staff working on the MHT Non-Capital Grant Project “Slavery, resistance, and freedom: recording Anne Arundel County’s past”. The goal of this project is to create a more inclusive history by researching, documenting, and sharing the diversity of Black households in nineteenth-century Anne Arundel County, including sites inhabited by both enslaved and free African-Americans, before and after emancipation. The intern will be required to:

  • Assist staff with desk audit of sites as necessary
  • Assist with research on Hammond Plantation, particularly the 19th-century domestic sites already identified on the property 
  • Participate in Phase I and Phase II excavations at the USNA Dairy Farm (the location of Hammond Plantation), in Gambrills, MD
  • Participate in artifact processing (washing, labeling, cataloging, etc.) at the Anne Arundel County Archaeology Laboratory in Edgewater, MD
  • Assist with managing volunteers throughout excavation
  • Contribute to blog and social media posts
  • Write a final report on their activities

See the full listing for this internship here.

Historic Cemetery Documentation: One Internship with Stipend Available

The intern will assist the Cultural Resources Section with updates to the Anne Arundel County Cemetery Database, data creation, completion of inventory forms, and with development of a summer public workshop for the County’s Preservation Stewardship Program. This project will enhance and verify existing documentation in the County’s cemetery database, as well as develop additional databases or resources for research analysis. The intern will be required to:

  • Assist staff with desk audit of the existing cemetery database, which includes georeferencing  existing maps with cemetery information to build a spatial database for cross-reference
  • Assist with developing, coordinating, and leading a single 2-hour public workshop on the history, significance, and preservation needs of the Hammond Plantation Cemetery at the USNA Dairy Farm
  • Assist with the completion of historic cemetery inventory forms with statements of historic significance where needed
  • Assist with developing a dataset for transfer to the Maryland Historical Trust for curation of cemetery location data in its statewide repository

See the full listing for this internship here.

Archaeology Field & Laboratory Methods: Two Internships for College Credit

Interns will learn the basics of archaeological field and labwork by participating alongside professional archaeologists and volunteers in excavation, recording, and artifact processing in the field and lab. The intern will be required to:

  • Participate in artifact processing (washing, labeling, cataloging, etc.) at the Anne Arundel County Archaeology Laboratory in Edgewater, MD (approximately 70% of time)
  • Participate in Phase I and Phase II excavations at one or more archaeological sites across Anne Arundel County (approximately 30% of time)
  • Work with other interns and volunteers as needed
  • Contribute to blog and social media posts
  • Write a final report on their activities

See the full listing for this internship here.

Maps and Paintings as Documentary Evidence for the Archaeologist

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Blog post by intern Rachel Huston

April is Maryland Archaeology Month! While we cannot be together in person, we want to share some of the virtual projects that The Lost Towns Project has been involved with.

With our work going remote, the Lost Towns Project’s volunteers, interns, and staff have found another way to connect with the past. Recently, we were able to analyze some primary sources over a shared video call with Dr. Julia King of St. Mary’s College of Maryland. In our discussion, we talked about Maryland’s colonial history in regards especially to the Calvert family, colonial Maryland’s first ruling family. We looked at some early maps from the 17th century that documented sites of settlements, cities and plantations. The Calverts used maps to both demonstrate and legitimize their power over the colonial landscape.

Augustine Hermann, Virginia and Maryland as it is Planted and Inhabited, 1673. (Library of Congress)

Dr. King told us to look at art as a way to understand the past and its context. Archaeologists can find out a lot about the subject of the art by seeing what it shows us. She had us take a close look at a painting called “2nd Lord Baltimore, Cecil Calvert (1606-1675)” by Gerard Soast, painted ca. 1670.

In our discussion, we looked at the noteworthy details in the painting. For example, the map that Calvert is holding looks as though it is being passed to the child, his grandson and presumptive future heir “Little Cecil”. Upon closer inspection the map depicts Maryland and Virginia, a statement of the Calvert’s power across time and space. The lush drapery and clothes further emphasize the wealth of the Calverts. An enslaved boy is depicted on the left attending to Little Cecil. We wondered about the symbolic significance of the enslaved boy, as well as what he is holding.

2nd Lord Baltimore, Cecil Calvert (1606-1675) by Gerard Soast, c. 1670. The original painting is held by the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

Alas, the future that Calvert hoped for and had depicted in this painting was not to be. Little Cecil died young, and the Catholic Calvert’s son ultimately lost the family’s power over Maryland to the Protestant Rebellion. Curiously, we saw no depictions of Catholicism in Calvert’s portrait above.

From these primary sources, archaeologists can learn about Maryland and the Chesapeake’s past. Looking at the small details in every source – whether it be paintings, maps, or pottery fragments – can help us date a site that can, in turn, be preserved. This way, we can teach the public more about local history.

To learn more, read “The Politics of Landscape in Seventeenth-Century Maryland,” by Julia A. King, Skylar A. Bauer, and Alex J. Flick, in Maryland Historical Magazine.

Rachel Huston, from Mount Airy, MD, is an intern at the Lost Towns Project and a senior at University of Maryland, College Park where she studies History and Archaeology. Her concentrations of interest include American history, local and foreign archaeological sites, and film studies.