A common complaint that arises during student placements is that the work is not varied enough, often involving miles-high mounds of filing. I can gladly say that this was definitely not the case with my virtual placement as a Research Assistant for the hopeful ‘Birthing Stories’ project at George Marshall Medical Museum.
One of the highlights for me was being able to work as part of a team: Louise Price (the museum Curator), Nadia Stone (the Director of heritage organisation Storypinned) and Sally Boyle (a fellow student working as an Engagement Assistant). Given current social distancing measures, we have been having weekly Zoom meetings for the past eight weeks, in which we have shared the work we have been doing and planned our next steps in the project. Being able to communicate effectively online, whether through Zoom or via email, is certainly a valuable skill to have developed, especially in the current situation. Thanks to the passion of the Birthing Stories team, it almost felt like I was in a non-virtual meeting room!
My work began with some research into the oral history transcripts from the 2001 ‘Medicine in Worcester’ collection. My aim during this research was to pick out any information related to birth and obstetrics in Worcestershire and provide detailed summaries of the information I found. I had never read an oral history transcript before this placement, so learning about the processes behind recording and transcribing oral histories was fascinating.
The stories told in the oral histories ranged from the hilarious to the very gloomy, providing a wide range of opinions on twentieth century medicine. I had not properly studied medical history before my research began: the knowledge I have accumulated in this area shall certainly be useful during my current History degree.
After I had completed my research, Louise gave me a very useful lesson on how to schedule posts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Using Audacity, I would edit and clean various audio clips from the oral histories before using editing software to add subtitles and bind an image to the audio, thus creating a video. With the world heading in a digital direction, this social media and video editing experience was very valuable. After sharing the social media posts, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing followers engage with the content through likes, retweets and comments. During the ongoing pandemic, social media is now the major platform for local communities, and I felt very lucky to be a part of the Worcestershire community in this way.
Additionally, I have been writing blogs on my findings from the oral histories for the Worcester Medical Museums website. In order to achieve this, Louise gave me and Sally a tutorial on how to use the website’s software, Squarespace, and publish blogs. Given my love of writing, I very much enjoyed being able to write up my findings. Using my newly acquired Squarespace skills, I then created a Birthing Stories web-page (which can be found here) providing more information on the project. It was so rewarding to be able to draw together all our work so far into one concise web-page and then share this on social media.
For anyone who has a passion for history or is interested in working in the heritage sector, I highly recommend a placement at George Marshall Medical Museum. The work was so varied, interesting and tailored to my own interests that I often found myself exceeding the recommended 7-hour weekly dosage of work! What was so satisfying about the placement was being able to support such an important local museum during a very difficult time, and crucially being able to help build the foundations for such a valuable project. I look forward to hearing updates on the project’s progress and, provided the application for funding is successful this year, I am very confident that Birthing Stories will inform and empower many mothers and healthcare professionals in Worcestershire to come.
