In the Langhorne Research Room, on the second floor of the Historic Sandusky visitor center, Michaela “Mac” White ’25 is getting a head start on what she hopes will be a career spent working in historical archives.
White, a history and English double major and Westover Honors Fellow at the University of Lynchburg, is cataloging and researching a collection of letters compiled by Charles Minor Blackford, a lawyer, author, and prominent Lynchburg citizen of the mid-to-late-1800s.
The 378 letters, most of which are addressed to Blackford, are in the collection of Historic Sandusky, a house museum owned and operated by the University. Sandusky’s executive director, Greg Starbuck ’14 MA, ’19 MA, received the letters about 15 years ago from Alvin Gerhardt, a Lynchburg native and longtime museum professional.
Contained in what was left of a black leather binder, the letters came to Gerhardt “directly from the Blackford family,” Starbuck said, adding that Gerhardt also donated other Blackford family items to Sandusky.
“He recognized the idea that artifacts … needed to go home, if you will,” Starbuck said. “So, he brought those to us and I put them in a cabinet, locked up safe, and sort of forgot about them because they were so tattered in the binder.”
Fast-forward to earlier this fall. White was interning at Sandusky and Starbuck was thinking about the Blackford letters. One day, Starbuck was struck with an idea: White could catalog and research the letters for her internship.
“I’ve been talking to Mac for a couple of years about doing something at Sandusky and it worked out for her to do an internship,” he said. “This fall, it hit me like an epiphany: Mac is a sharp student and on the ball, and it would be good for the letters and everybody.”
White liked the idea, too. “I was already an intern and I was trying to figure out what to do,” she said. “I wanted to do something archival, because that’s what I want to do when I go to grad school: library science with an archival studies focus.”
So far, White has carefully removed the letters from the binder and is creating a spreadsheet detailing, among other things, the letter writer, date, and subject matter. She also notes the salutation and closing used in each letter, which can be useful in determining the nature of the relationship between the two parties.
“The first things that need to be done are to fill out all the boxes — the whole spreadsheet — and then scan all the letters,” White said, adding that if time allows she also plans to research the writers and places mentioned in the letters.
White said she enjoys learning about people’s lives and experiences and interpreting “what they are saying in the letters.” She has learned “a lot of search techniques” from Starbuck and various internet sources. “Forums are really helpful,” she said.
Starbuck said he and White discuss the project frequently. “We probably talk at least once a day,” he said, “She says, ‘I found this little thing, I have a quandary here,’ and I say, ‘Why don’t you look at it this way or this way? Try this research.’”
In addition to working on the letter project, White has assisted Starbuck and Sandusky in other ways this fall. She gave ghost tours at Sandusky in October and has worked information booths at The American Civil War Museum in Appomattox, Virginia; Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest, in Forest, Virginia; and New London Day, in Bedford County, Virginia.
“I’ve been tapping her with general museum duties,” Starbuck said. “It’s good for her rounded experience [and] she’s sharp and a good representative of Sandusky and the University. I struggle, taking her off task to do these kinds of things, but she’s so good at them.”
White, of Madison Heights, Virginia, is a member of Phi Alpha Theta, the history honor society, and she’s president of the University’s chapter of the English honors society, Sigma Tau Delta.
She’s currently researching “women’s sexuality and gender presentation in the Wild West” for her history major thesis, which she will present next spring at the annual Student Scholar Showcase.
White said working at Sandusky has helped narrow her focus when it comes to her future career.
“Beforehand, I was more inclined to go into general archival studies,” she said. “A lot of archivists work with historic locations, government buildings, and universities, but this has made me more inclined to work with a historical archive more than anything else.
“I would like to work in public history. Part of the fun of archiving for me is knowing that I could help future research. As a person who’s doing a lot of research now, having access to an archive and having information … already scanned and in categories is very useful to me.
“Knowing I could make somebody else’s life easier makes it worth it to me.”
White plans to take a gap year between undergraduate and graduate school. Anticipating that, she’s applying for public history jobs and investigating workshops on subjects like handling rare books.
“[I want to] build experience and see if this is something I want to do with the rest of my life,” White said. “So far, it’s ‘Yes,’ but it’s nice to get that before I sink so many years into it.”
Starbuck also is encouraging White to apply for classes and other opportunities that will prepare her for success in graduate school and her career. “I’ve been well traveled in the museum world,” he said. “I’m in my 40th year and I’ve seen how things are done.
“I’ve made a lot of networks and it’s like a bingo game to me. When the student actually goes in that right direction and succeeds and gets a measure of success, it’s one of the most gratifying things for those of us who teach. That’s why we’re here.”
