Eastern Student Andrea Slater of Farmington Completes Successful Internship at the Connecticut Trolley Museum

2017 Nov 20

Andrea Slater '18 of Farmington recently completed an internship at the Connecticut Trolley Museum in East Windsor. Slater's major is History and Sociology.

Her internship entailed doing an inventory and creating a cataloging system for the museum's extensive book collection. She also also helped at various museum events and worked with docents to assist and educate visitors.

"Prior to my internship, the museum did not have a complete inventory of their collection of books, and there was no existing system for cataloging them, most of which were donated to the museum over the years. I conducted an inventory of the more than 200,000 books in the museum's collection," said Slater. She also created a cataloging system and reshelved the entire collection. The museum hopes to eventually be able to lend the books out to members of the museum.

"I acquired a skill set that I could never have learned in a classroom or by reading a textbook," added Slater. "Doing internships provides students with a temporary experience in a possible profession, therefore allowing them to better understand their own career aspirations."

Her favorite part of the internship was working in an environment that focused on the history of streetcars. She is intrigued by transportation history, especially the role that streetcars had on shaping American cities and suburbs at the turn of the 20th century. For the past year Slater has been working on her thesis, which examines the influence of the streetcar industry in Hartford from 1900 to 1950.

"Working at the Trolley Museum fit in nicely with conducting my thesis research by allowing me to speak with experts and have access to the museum's vast collections," said Slater. She learned about the internship through her thesis mentor, History Professor Caitlin Carenen.

Slater also previously completed an internship at the Stanley-Whitman House in Farmington. She believes that working at both museums helped her learn different, yet equally important, skills.

Slater plans to pursue a master's degree in library information science in order to be able to procure a position at a museum or library.