Experience Beyond the Classroom: A new UAH-HHF internship program prepares students for public history careers
By Merritt Fisk
As a History student at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), I have had the opportunity to study a range of topics from ancient history to Nazi Germany, but it is through my own research endeavors that I gained the most knowledge. In the summer of 2023, I participated in the Research and Creative Experiences for Undergraduates (RCEU) program at UAH. I worked with archivists in the UAH Department of Archives, Special Collections, and Digital Initiatives and Dr. Sears, chair of the History department, to create an original research project using the financial records in the archives’ Harrison Brothers Hardware Collection. During that summer I discovered my passion for local history as I researched the relationship between Harrison Brothers and Huntsville’s cotton mill workers. I presented my research at the Summer Community of Scholars Fall 2023 Poster competition and received first place for the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. With the confidence I gained in my research I then decided to submit an abstract for the Alabama Historical Association (AHA) annual meeting in Huntsville that upcoming spring and was accepted.
Connecting with local historians builds confidence and fuels research.
It was at the AHA meeting that I first met Donna Castellano, executive director of the Historic Huntsville Foundation. I was familiar with Donna’s research on Henderson and Daniel Brandon as I had used it for my RCEU project. Donna and I presented in the same session at the AHA conference. It was during this presentation that her mentorship began. I know it was obvious how nervous I was, so while we were setting up for our presentations she gave me tips for the presentation, and we discussed the similarities in our research. She made me feel like I belonged in the room of local historians. Her guidance put me at ease for my presentation, and I spoke with confidence knowing that I was the expert on my research in the room. Talking with Donna was the first opportunity I had to discuss my research with another local historian who knew the people and the places better than I did. After my conversations with her and other local historians at the conference I had new momentum to continue my research. The opportunities that my research gave me inspired me to change my major to History with a minor in Public History.
In the fall of 2024, I expanded on my Harrison Brothers and Huntsville research to write my senior capstone. As a Public History minor I was required to complete an internship in my last semester of college. I wanted to return to continue studying Huntsville history. Last fall I met Donna again at a History department networking night and it was the perfect opportunity to ask if I could intern with her at the Historic Huntsville Foundation (HHF). We started planning the internship that night.
The creation of a history exhibition: research, brainstorm, write, then do it all over again!
I began my HHF internship in January 2025 and hit the ground running to help get ready for the Historic Huntsville Museum opening and Daniel Brandon Historic Marker unveiling. I got to help write the text for the new exhibition “Justice for the Johnsons” in group writing sessions that were similar to revisions I did with my senior capstone class. Seeing public historians exchange ideas to create text that was just right and then completely change it was intriguing. I was able to add my own language and writing skills and some tips from my coursework to these sessions. My first independent project was creating the display pieces for the “Justice for the Johnson’s” exhibition cases. I used my experience designing with Canva to plan out the exact dimensions of each piece and then completely change it after editing with the HHF team. I learned that this revision process was necessary to make the final product perfect, or close to it, just like revisions and second readers’ opinions are essential to a great paper.
The “Justice for the Johnsons” exhibition was finished just in time for the new Harrison Brothers and Daniel Brandon Historic marker unveiling on February 28, 2025. Donna and I first connected over Daniel Brandon’s story and the history of the Harrison Brothers rebuild in 1902, so it was rewarding to see her research and Daniel Brandon’s legacy permanently displayed in front of the store. The community presence at the ceremony exceeded my expectations. Descendants of the Brandons, local and state officials, media stations, historians, and many others attended the event, and each person understood the significance of the marker to both how we tell Huntsville history and how we engage with it in the present. Daniel Brandon’s civic leadership as a city alderman, voting rights activist, and local businessman make him deserving of a name on a plaque like Huntsville’s other notable leaders from the time. The Brandon’s history cannot be separated from the history of the post-Reconstruction and Jim Crow South, but it should be measured with the same level of respect as that of other city leaders who shaped Huntsville as we see it today.
Bringing my research interests to a public forum.
After the marker dedication, we took a break and regrouped on our ongoing research plans, and I started my next individual project: finishing the digital exhibit I started in 2023. The goal for my RCEU was to create a public-facing digital exhibit for my research, but I did not finish the exhibit. It was my goal to finish this part of my research before graduation and using the new information I found on my topic through my senior capstone and internship at the HHF I was able to finish it. I spent over 50 hours uploading digital artifacts, writing metadata, designing, and writing the exhibit. “Merchants and Mill Workers: Harrison Brothers and Huntsville Commerce, 1897-190” is now publicly available through the UAH Archives’ digital collections.
“Merchants and Mill Workers” is comprised of three different intertwining stories. The first: Harrison Brothers’ change at the end of the nineteenth and first decade of the twentieth century. Harrison Brothers’ story is told in three phases: Harrison Brothers Tobacco, Harrison Brothers Queensware, and Harrison Brothers Hardware. The change in name refers to the primary product that Harrison Brothers sold in different periods. Intertwined with Harrison Brothers’ history is the history of Huntsville “At the Dawn of the Twentieth Century” and the role of local businessmen and Progressive organizations in enacting change in the city’s industry, consumer economy, and livelihood. The last story this exhibit tells is a new story about Huntsville’s cotton mill workers. Local history tends to exclude cotton mill workers as active participants of change in Huntsville because they were excluded from the city limits. However, Harrison Brothers changed their business to appeal to the needs of cotton mill workers and the mill workers were avid consumers in the downtown economy. “Merchants and Mill Workers” sheds new light on the history of
Harrison Brothers as a central part to the changes occurring in Huntsville and the role that cotton mill workers played as active members of Huntsville society.
In my time at the Historic Huntsville Foundation, I had the opportunity to expand my knowledge of local history and engage in public history through community programming and exhibition design. My time at HHF began before January 2025. It began when I first met Donna during the 2024 AHA conference and experienced the power of public history in uniting historical scholars and the community around a common appreciation for history.
