by Nick Hurley, Graduate Summer Intern

Hello! My name is Nick Hurley, and I was lucky enough to be selected as the Archives and Special Collections Graduate Intern for summer 2015. I am currently one semester away from earning a Master’s Degree in History, and received my B.A. in History from UCONN as well. This past Monday marked not only my first day as an archives intern, but my first foray into the field of archival studies and management. For the foreseeable future, my focus will be the Bruce A. Morrison Papers.

Bruce A. Morrison is a former Congressman from Connecticut who served from 1983-1991. While in office he served as Chairman of the House Immigration subcommittee, and authored the now-famous Immigration Act of 1990. After an unsuccessful campaign for Governor of CT in 1990, Morrison became heavily involved in the quest for peace in Northern Ireland, and was instrumental in paving the way for the eventual IRA ceasefires in 1994 and 1997. During this time he also served as the director of the Federal Housing Finance Board, and as a commissioner on the Commission for Immigration Reform (1992-1997). A lawyer by profession, Morrison founded a lobbying firm after leaving public office in 2000, and continues to remain active in Irish-American advocacy. He lives today in Maryland.

I’ll be looking through Mr. Morrison’s papers and arranging the collection (some 110 boxes!) in preparation for digitization (to include updating the online finding aid.) Once that is complete, the physical documents will go back into the stacks, and the digital copies will be added to
Archives and Special Collections digital repository. I’m excited to be following the collection through every aspect of the archival process, from start to finish. I think it will be a great way for me to make the best use of my time here, and I can already tell from the work I’ve been doing that I’ll be learning a lot about archives organization and classification: what belongs, what doesn’t, and how to group certain documents together in a way that makes sense to both an archivist and potential researchers.

But I’m also hoping to become familiar with the more technical aspects of archival work, because I’ve had almost no exposure to them until now. If I can leave here in August with a good understanding of how materials are digitized and loaded into a digital database, and a lot of experience navigating and utilizing collection management systems like the Archivists’ Toolkit, I’ll consider the summer a success! Moreover, I’ll feel much better prepared to apply for jobs at museums and archives that require some level of experience.

In addition to my internship here at the archives, I will be volunteering at the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, Connecticut from June-August. Following graduation, I hope to enter the field of Public History through employment at a museum or similar institution. I am a lifelong resident of CT, born and raised in Glastonbury.

I’ll be posting on here from time to time with updates as the summer—and my project on the Morrison Papers—progresses. Stay tuned!