Name: Vivian Bloom
Class Year: 2026
Major: English
Minor: Spanish
Internship Organization: Founder’s Hall at Girard College
Internship Title: Collections Intern
Location: Philadelphia, PA
What’s happening at your internship? We would love to hear what kind of work you are doing!
This internship was the culmination of a three-year project collecting and documenting information about sailors who worked for Stephen Girard, a merchant, banker, and philanthropist in early America, and the richest man in America when he died. Girard saved all of his papers, allowing us access to information that is usually lost. This project is exciting because it highlights individuals often left out of history. Sailors were often poor, lower-class, or people of color. These documents contained names, jobs, wages, physical descriptions, family details, literacy status, arrest records, clothing brought on board, and other small details that help create a picture of real people who lived and worked during this time. Founders Hall has maintained these records for a long time, but accessing the information about the sailors was challenging due to the large volume of papers and the extensive period covered. The project aimed to create a spreadsheet that organizes the crew members on each ship, along with any details about them in one place. This effort to make this information easier to access will help people better understand the maritime world of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Why did you apply for this internship?
Many people wonder why as an English major I applied for an internship focused on history. I approach English with a historical lens. I am particularly interested in how literature and media shape our understanding of history and affect the historical record. Plus, I just love old things. My favorite spot on campus is special collections, so when I learned about the internship at Founder’s Hall that involves working with historical documents, I was eager to apply. This internship also caught my attention because it focuses on the maritime world, which I developed an interest in when I took a course on Moby-Dick last semester. I am particularly fascinated by the social, class, and racial dynamics on ships and working with records of real sailors lets me explore those interests further.
What has been your favorite part of this internship?
I love puzzles and this project felt like one big historical puzzle. We had to review documents with incomplete information and compile them to gain a clearer understanding of the bigger picture. For example, one document listed names and jobs, while another showed wages. Our job was to connect the information from both. Sometimes, we encountered different spellings of the same name, and we had to determine if they referred to the same person. It was sometimes tough to figure out, but it was so satisfying when the pieces fit together.
What is something you have learned from your internship that you didn’t expect?
I discovered that there is such strong network of relationships between museums in Philadelphia. We had several opportunities to visit other museums, engage with their archivists, all thanks to connections within the museum community. There was one day when we were unable to work from Founder’s Hall due to electrical work, but thanks to my supervisor’s connections, we were able to relocate our documents and continue working at the American Philosophical Society for the day. There is such a spirit of collaboration and cooperation between institutes.