January 23- January 25

On January 23, I decided that I would focus upon metadata. Also, I received an external hard drive that would allow me to backup my files easily. This was very good news and I was grateful to receive this item. Spending the whole day cataloging the metadata I began to truly get a grasp on how time consuming it was. I was entering the metadata into an excel spreadsheet based off of a template made by Mr. Cravero and I was able to copy and past many entries. However, entering in the descriptions took up a lot of my attention because in order to craft one I needed to look at the document multiple times and had to compare the document with others. Also, finding other sources that were related to the document was sometimes a challenge because some of the things the documents brought up are not well known in the present. For example, one document mentioned the Orlando Ministerial Association taking a tour of a place only identified as the "Martin Plant." It took some time for me to discover that this was a reference to the Martin Company's Electronics and Guided Missile Plant which was built in 1956. The plant was run by the Glenn L. Martin Company which as since merged with another company to become the now current Martin Marietta company. Another example of something that was hard to find a source for was the mention in one document of bombings that occurred in Jacksonville. No one was harmed in these bombings so perhaps that was why they were not more famous. After some researching I was able to find two articles on a Jewish website that were excerpts from the Orlando Sentinel 1958 issue that mentioned the bombings. Researching these things I learned that it is much harder to find information about the past than I previously thought. I have always taken it for granted the convenience of finding historical information at the library or on the internet.

On January 25 I spent more time on metadata. The reason for this being how time consuming entering metadata was and how I had scanned a lot of documents last week. I talked with Mrs. Wojtyto about my progress and I told her that I would most likely be done scanning and entering the metadata of the Orlando Ministerial Association documents by February. She assured me that there were plenty of other documents to scan and that there was an older member of the First Unitarian Church that I could interview. I welcomed this possibility because the documents provided me with an unsatisfactory view of the Orlando Ministerial Association. The documents never mention how the association ended, the last document being an invitation that was sent out in 1966. By interviewing someone that was alive during the time period the Orlando Ministerial Association existed in I could possibly learn more about it. Also, there is most likely plenty of information about the Orlando Ministerial Association that was never included on the documents I am scanning. Most of the items I have examined are minutes of meetings, many important things are only mentioned in passing. A living person could help shed light on these things.      

I arrived at the location of my internship on January 18th, a Wednesday. This was done because Monday was Martin Luther King day and the RICHES office was closed. This day I mainly focused on reading and scanning documents with the intention of compiling metadata on them at a later date. Since my fellow intern was using a computer I had previously been using I used a different one this time. Reading through the documents I saw that the Orlando Ministerial Association became a lot more active in the 1960's. They issued resolutions in support of lunch counter protests in Orlando and wrote letters demanding that the FBI investigate the bombings of a synagogue and African American school in Jacksonville. It was in response to this tragic event that John Fuller of the First Unitarian Church of Orlando wrote a document titled the Declaration of Conscience. In this document the Orlando Ministerial Association condemned the actions of the bombers and stated their view that all people regardless of race were equal under God. However, this group of progressive clergymen were facing a problem. Numerous meeting records indicated that a low turnout of members at the meetings was a common problem. Having spent a lot of time sitting I decided to go for a walk but when I returned the digital files containing the scans on the computer had disappeared before I could back them up. I was very frustrated but I had little time to attempt to solve the problem since my shift was ending. I left very unsatisfied.

On Friday, Geoffrey Cravero and I tried to find my files but to no avail. This forced me to re-scan the documents I examined on Wednesday. Since I already read the documents, I focused on scanning them which allowed me to make up my lost progress and make some more. The new documents I scanned were in most part copies of the ones I read previously so not much information was learned. Leaving at the end of my shift I decided that I would focus on metadata next week.   

      

On the Monday of this week I arrived at Colbourn Hall and entered the RICHES office where my internship was to take place. I met Mrs. Wojtyto and together we went over all the files that made up the archive of the First Unitarian Church of Orlando. These files dated from the early 1900's to our present time and consisted of newspaper adds, letters, photographs, printed records along with many other types of material. While the abundance of archival material interested me there were two collections that caught my attention at first glance. The first was a box of documents concerning Adele Fuchs, a woman who traveled to German during the 1930's in order to find a church. She wrote extensively about what life was like in that location through her letters and they detailed the rise of Nazism. The second collection that interested me was a folder of documents concerning the Orlando Ministerial Association, an interfaith and interracial group of clergymen who championed civil rights activities during the years 1958-1965. Viewing these collections I was drawn towards the one concerning the Orlando Ministerial Association. The text of the OMA papers was very eligible, being printed and its ties to the civil rights movement in Florida I found to be interesting. I have always been interested in Florida history and being able to look at these primary sources excited me. I decided that I would make this collection my primary focus. After making this decision I learned how to operate the scanners thanks to the direction of Mr. Geoffrey Cravero. Knowing how to use the scanners, I began scanning some of the documents while researching the First Unitarian Church of Orlando's history.

On the second day I learned how to enter metadata concerning the documents I was scanning. I was already familiar with the concept but it was not until I began entering the data that I realized how much work went into assembling it and how much information it encompassed. I entered the metadata in an excel spreadsheet that was provided by Mr. Cravero and found out that entering the metadata was a time consuming process. However, this process allowed me to glean a lot of useful information from the documents. The documents I scanned were mostly printed records of the meetings held by the OMA. I found these documents very revealing and was fascinating reading information about such an inclusive organization that existed in a very unlikely place. The documents I scanned mostly concerned the internal workings of the association but the member's enthusiasm was very apparent, especially the enthusiasm of the late reverend John Fuller. John Fuller was a reverend of the First Unitarian Church and the secretary of the association, being an author of all the documents I scanned. I found John Fuller to be a fascinating man and Mrs. Wojtyto promised that she would find some records of his sermons so I could have a look at them. My hope is that by looking at his sermons I can learn more about John Fuller and maybe more about the Orlando Ministerial Association.