Becca Watford: A First Glimpse into Public Relations

As an intern at the National Archives, I was supposed to be writing blogs and conducting oral histories. However, I wanted more of a challenge and asked if I could work on another project. I had an interest in Native American history, so my supervisor asked if I wanted to work on research for a topic page for Native American Heritage Month with a Public Relations officer named Miriam Kleiman. So, I began meeting with her and researching on my own through the catalog.

As I began meeting with Miriam and working with her, we developed a steady friendship and I began to work with her on more things than just researching. The first event I attended with her was at the National Museum of American Indian for a treaty exchange. A treaty exchange is where the National Archives would swap out a treaty they had already loaned the American Indian Museum with one that had not been displayed yet. They did this around every six months. We wanted to go so that I could write up a blog post on it for the topic page. We did not have a lot of blog posts already made up for American Indian history and we wanted to be able to post new content throughout the month of November on Social Media.

Photo Credit: Dr. Lucas McMillan

 While at the museum, we were talking with each other and some other National Archives employees. One of them was a man who works with how long documents can be displayed before they could end up destroyed by environmental factors. He usually attends document set ups, so he can be sure they will be safe. As the three of us were talking, they mentioned a video shoot with Mount Vernon. I began asking questions because I was curious and was invited to also attend the tour that was going to be given by Miriam to the videographer of the Archives. This moment was my introduction to the world of historical public relations.

Not long after this, I began tagging along with Miriam to meetings and tours she would give to press. I was still an intern for the history office, but I began spending a lot of time out of my basement cubicle and in the museum or the ground floor helping out. Around the middle of October, the John F. Kennedy assassination files were due to be released in a few weeks and the public affairs office was minus one person and had no on-site intern.

 I happened to go up to the office to ask a question about the Native American topic page and volunteered to take over Facebook duties, so the technologically challenged Miriam would not have to do it. Then the phones began to literally ring every five seconds. Miriam’s supervisor saw me in there and asked a few questions, looked at Miriam and asked if they could steal me from my original supervisor Jessie Kratz.

Photo Credit: Jeff Reed

Miriam called down to the basement and all of a sudden, I was being moved into a new cubicle, that I did not have to share, and was quickly trained in phone calls and logs. Then I was thrown to the wolves (the press is very similar to wolves honestly). I spent a week saying I could not answer questions about the release and creating an email list of every press representative who wanted the story so when we could finally release it, they would be informed.

Looking back at how I became involved in such a high speed incredible office at the National Archives I am amazed. It definitely opened my eyes to how much I can do with a history degree, even if it is not something I would expect. Most people think history degrees are just for teaching or designing exhibits.  I had never thought that Public Relations could involve so much historical knowledge and research. Whenever I met with a journalist, I needed to be up to date on what they were writing about, be ready for any questions, and always know the Archives’ history. If it was about an exhibit, I needed to know the script (which explains everything in the exhibit) by heart.

        

Photo Credit: Luke Wendt

 I went to Washington, D.C. expecting to work exclusively with oral history interviews (and I did do around ten of them) and write blog posts. Instead I was opened up to a new side of my degree, one where I could help reach so many people with history (in ways other than teaching or designing exhibits). By working in the Public Affairs Office, I was able to do so more than I had expected going into my internship.

Becca Watford is a senior history major. She will be graduating in December of 2018. She will be doing AmeriCorps when she graduates, then plans to work for the federal government for a few years before pursuing her Masters degree in Public History. She interned at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C. in Fall 2017.