Internship Spotlight: Tess Elsworthy– Black Watch Museum and Archives

I would like to express my gratitude for the Faculty of Arts Internship Award funded by the St. Andrews/McEuen Scholarship Foundation Chair in Canadian-Scottish Studies. I am currently a student at McGill’s School of Information Studies, where I am learning about the theories and practices of archives. I came to this program after completing an M.A. in History, which nurtured my appreciation for the vital role archivists play in facilitating historical research.

I pursued the internship at the Black Watch Museum and Archive (BWMA) because I recognize the importance of military history but had little previous experience with military archival materials. On a more personal note, my paternal grandfather was a flight sergeant with the RCAF during World War II, and during the pandemic I digitized the letters he wrote to my grandmother while stationed in Croft, UK. In addition to the professional value of knowing how to read and organize military documents, I hoped this internship would prepare me to find materials related to my grandfather’s service.

The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) is Canada’s oldest Highland regiment. Its members have served in conflicts including the Boer War, WWI, WWII, peace-keeping operations, and Afghanistan. At home, the Black Watch has provided vital support during floods and the COVID pandemic. The BWMA collects a wide variety of materials ranging from the regiment’s founding in 1862 to the present day. BWMA users include veteran soldiers, descendants and relatives of veterans, and military historians. I was supervised by the regiment’s Honorary Colonel, Bruce Bolton, and the BWMA Collections Manager, Cynthia Jones.

My first task was to read about the regiment to familiarize myself with important figures and events in Black Watch history. This knowledge served me as I assisted Cynthia in accessioning several large donations of items in numerous formats including letters, art, maps, medals, uniforms, rare books, film reels, photographs, military kit, and various accoutrements. She taught me to identify and describe items before preparing them for storage.

In addition to my accessioning work, I helped resolve issues raised during meetings with my supervisor, Bruce Bolton and my colleague, former AIO intern Devyn Barron. We spent the summer preparing for a migration of data from Dropbox to SharePoint and reflected on ways to make collections easier to navigate. Seeing that it was difficult to connect information about different accessions and loans from the Black Watch Foundation to the BWMA, I proposed a registry to unify accession numbers, loan numbers, and donor information. As I created the registry, I was able to identify and sometimes correct errors in the forms, and I saw room for updates to the accession process.

One academic course, INFS 645, Archival Principles and Practice, proved invaluable in preparing me for my internship. It introduced me to the concepts of archival appraisal, acquisition, accessioning, provenance, arrangement, description, and user needs. For one assignment I created a real finding aid for a community organization; this experience boosted my confidence in drafting finding aids for the BWMA photo collections.

Two last highlights were the projects of proposing updates to the accessioning process and making recommendations for a protocol for accessioning digital donations. One challenge I faced was the BWMA’s lack of resources and staff; new protocols can only be built around open-source tools, which must be accessible to volunteers and future interns. To overcome this challenge, I drew on my research skills, academic knowledge, and the generosity of my McGill Archives mentor, Gordon Burr, who also put me in touch with Concordia University’s Digital Preservation Librarian, Sarah Lake. I reviewed materials from the National Digital Stewardship Alliance and the Canadian Archival Accession Information Standard, reviewed options with Gordon and Sarah, and proposed updated templates for new accession forms and a list of practical next steps for digital accessioning.

My internship at the Black Watch Museum and Archive confirmed my love for archival work. I developed warm, productive relationships with Bruce Bolton and Cynthia Jones, who shared valuable knowledge with me and will assist me in expanding my professional network. This experience will give me greater confidence as I pursue future archival employment opportunities.

The Faculty of Arts Internship Award made it possible for me to focus on my academic passion as an intern for the BWMA instead of taking on a summer job elsewhere. This opportunity would have been out of reach if not for the financial support of the St. Andrews Society of Montreal and the McEuen Scholarship Foundation. I am very grateful for their generosity.