Maddie Hudlow: Broadening Horizons in the Big City

To the general public, when you tell a person that you’re a history major people ask one question.  “So you want to be a teacher?” I don’t know where this limiting belief came from for this profession but that’s the reality I and many of my friends face. 

I’ve never wanted to be a teacher and have always dreamed of a way to translate the importance of history in a new and fantastical way to those outside of the classroom.  During my sophomore year, I settled on the idea that I wanted to be a museum curator.  Greenwood, South Carolina provides very little option for internships, so I started contacting museums as far away as New York City asking for a place to spend the summer.

Perhaps the most peaceful spot in the city  Brookfield Place, NY

One day as I was sitting in class, I received an email from the KGB Espionage Museum located on 14^th Street in Manhattan offering me an internship and asking my expectations in working with them.  It was by no means The Met, but I was so ecstatic to receive the news that I interrupted a professor’s class to share.  This was going to be it, this was going to be the next step in a set of plans that I had laid out for my life. 

To explain a little bit about me, I’ve always liked structure and planning.  I thrive most when I have a clear set of desired outcomes.  This internship was a means for me to achieve the goal of getting a job in a museum later.  I didn’t think about trying a variety of positions within the museum to see what I liked best, because to me I already knew exactly what I wanted to do. 

When I arrived in New York, I was told that I was going to be doing some Public Relations work.  The first week or so, I was happy to do it, but I felt like I needed to get to the “real” stuff.  I wanted them to let me design an exhibit or lead a tour, or do some sort of research while filing through their artifacts. I was tasked instead with researching and contacting local schools, social media influencers, and tourism outlets in order to gain partnerships for the museum.  There were several weeks that I would go home and complain to my roommates, feeling as though I plateaued and wasn’t even gaining the experience I had gone there for.  There was one specific day though that allowed my mind to open a bit and shift my perspective on the work that I was doing.

My coworkers and I in the museum.

I had contacted numerous people and responses were scarce, but one morning I connected with City Guide NY and they were excited to hear from us and wanted to come in for a tour and to talk logistics behind promotion. I had been at the museum for about a month at this point and heard tours multiple times and my boss told me that the City Guide people were going to be my task and I was to host them alone.  I was so excited but also nervous about the pressure behind closing a partnership deal. 

Two men arrived from the tourism journal, and my boss said hello and explained how she and her father started the museum and collected all the artifacts, before turning them over to me.  I started by taking the two men on a tour, highlighting some of our most impressive artifacts, such as the Bulgarian Umbrella and an interactive torture chair.  As I was explaining our items, I didn’t realize how much knowledge I had subconsciously gained, just by being in the environment.  The two men seemed so excited to hear about our stuff and were smiling, laughing, and engaging with the exhibits.  They expressed that they knew more people needed to hear about us and the efforts we were taking to explain a section of history that largely affects America in an apolitical way. 

The Bulgarian Umbrella that has a poison bullet in its tip

After we went through the museum, the three of us sat down to talk logistics and how they wanted to spread the word that the KGB Espionage Museum was worth the visit.  We discussed how often they would run ads, how they would utilize print and social media, and how much money would go into our advertising efforts.  This information was so interesting to me, I was completely captivated by it.  I had no idea the strategies that went into partnership advertising.  I was able to settle a deal and we were almost immediately featured on City Guide’s social media. 

My boss was really proud that I was able to host a tour and business meeting by myself in the same day.  I felt like that was something that I was meant to do, and I wanted to keep serving the museum in that way.  Suddenly, I went from turning my nose up at my Public Relations work to wanting to improve and succeed in it.  I was creating email templates and corresponding with influencers and actually held a couple of more meetings with travel magazines.  

My clear set of plans had become a bit fuzzy.  I had always thought that I needed to do a particular kind of work, but I found myself interested in so much more that I even knew existed.  My internship allowed me to abandon my hyper-focus and see how many opportunities are out there.  There is history in everything and I have discovered that a history degree can prepare you for so many things you don’t even realize.  We learn research skills and how to clearly communicate a set of ideas, and this is needed in any profession you find yourself in.  I am thankful that I was pushed to engage in an experience outside of my comfort zone, even if I was initially bitter about my tasks, because it proved to me what different things I might be interested in and can do. 

Maddie Hudlow is a senior History major with a European Studies minor from Alto, GA.  She interned with the KGB Espionage Museum in New York City.  After graduation, she hopes to find a career relating to Public Relations, Marketing, or Event Management.