Making History Come Alive
Collegian Maggie Slawson, Gamma Pi, loves history. “I have great appreciation about what set the foundation of our country,” says Maggie. “I think it’s important that we take the time to appreciate our roots, and giving people that opportunity is what speaks to me.”
It’s also what inspired her to pursue degrees in history and American studies at Lycoming College in Pennsylvania, in the hopes of becoming an archivist.
Her dreams came one step closer this past summer when Maggie was awarded an internship at George Washington’s home, Mt. Vernon, Virginia – one of only six students nationally. (More than 150 applied.) As an intern, she gave tours in period dress, and cataloged and archived papers in the Washington Library.
“I played a working-class woman in the 18th century,” she explains. “I learned how to spin, gunsmith, make boats, distill spirits, and work in a gristmill. I memorized scripts and told stories to 4,000 visitors a day!”
In the library, Maggie also worked on the papers of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association – the first national historic preservation organization and the oldest women’s patriotic society in the United States. She even got to work on George Washington’s papers, getting them ready for publication on the Mt. Vernon website.
This fall, Maggie is back at school where she is, naturally, Chapter Historian for Gamma Pi. She has an article coming out next month in the Lycoming County Historical Society journal. “I’ve been working on it for the past four years,” she says. “It’s about ordinary Revolutionary War soldiers from the Pennsylvania border area, and why they served.” To support her efforts, Maggie was awarded a research grant from the prestigious Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
“At the end of the day, it is important for people to have access to our history,” she concludes. “It’s important that we don’t forget what came before us, and to keep that history alive for those who follow.”