Name: Iris Wright
Class Year: 2029
Intended Major: Linguistics

Internship Organization: Lakewood Historical Society
Internship Title: Generalist Intern
Location: Lakewood, Ohio

What’s happening at your internship? We would love to hear what kind of work you are doing!

At the Lakewood Historical Society, one of my favorite things that I do is leading tours in our local house museum – The Oldest Stone House, built in 1834. I love getting to share fascinating bits of history with curious visitors. Our community is small enough that a lot of museum guests have family roots in early settlers of the area, so I often get to learn information from the visitors as well, which is always exciting.

Leading tours at the Oldest Stone House Museum always lead to interesting questions about the gravestones we have outside – they are from an old family cemetery and were moved to the site of the house

I also spend time helping with administrative tasks and organization, which is helpful to better understand what exactly goes on behind the scenes in a historical society. Many people will send in questions about local history which I get to research in the historical society’s archives. I love seeing how excited people are when they finally get their questions answered.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I applied for this internship because I was interested in having a better understanding of what working in a museum and a historical society is like. I also am interested in history, especially the local history of the Rust Belt and North East Ohio and am always interested in learning more.

What is something you have learned from your internship that you didn’t expect?

The inside of the house is set up how it would have looked in the 1830s-1850s, with almost entirely authentic artifacts found in other old houses in Lakewood. This is the parlor, where much entertainment was had

Growing up in the area, I learned a lot of local history in school and had attended summer camps and events led by the historical society as child. Because of this, I thought I already knew most of what there was to know about our town’s history. I was immediately proven wrong! There is always so much to learn. One of the tasks I had was sorting through all of the books in the library – a daunting, but exciting task for a book lover like me.

There were so many interesting books, including many autobiographies and memoirs from Lakewood residents, historical and current, with fascinating stories. I also learned so much from giving tours from community members and other docents, about local history and other things they were interested in.

What is most rewarding about your internship?

I did a lot of research into Lakewood’s Plank Road, which was a toll road. Here is a picture from our archives of the old toll house, which is now a regular family home in Lakewood

The most rewarding part of my internship has been being able to see the community engage with local history. I got to help out at the historical society’s summer camp, which introduces kids to local history through hands on experiences. It was so fun to see what parts of history brought out the kids’ interest and curiosity. They would ask questions I had never even thought about and bring a whole new viewpoint to the history I have become so familiar with throughout the summer. Outside of that experience, it was also rewarding to get to see other community members gain interest in history as well. The historical society does a century home program, and seeing people so excited to see their houses turn 100 this year was so amazing!