Reflections from our Summer 2015 Interns

Hi, my name is Natalia. I am 15 years old. I was given the opportunity to work as an intern at the Wistariahurst Museum in Holyoke, MA for 5 weeks. Throughout these 5 weeks I have learned so much. I have always been interested in history, so for me, working here and learning the history of the city I was born in was a phenomenal experience. Everyday after work I would see my dad and go on and on about what I learned. I would tell him about the old letters I worked with in the archives. I would also tell him about the different plants and weeds I pulled and all the gardening techniques I learned. I am very grateful to have spent my summer here at the Wistariahurst Museum and to have met all the wonderful employees and volunteers.

Hi my name is Tatiana. I am a youth who started working in Wistariahurst museum for my summer job. My experience working here was great. I learned so much about this place, and the history of it really caught my attention. But let me tell you a little secret: I never liked history. To me it was all boring stuff. But when I arrived here I started to actually like history. There are many things I learned, like who lived here or about the archive room and how you can come any time to do research of your own.

The history I learn here is that this place use to be run by William Skinner who was successful with his silk business. William left the house to one of his daughters named Katharine Skinner, who later on left the museum to the city for educational and cultural purposes.

The garden is incredible and all taken care of by volunteers which I thought it was very nice. The garden is filled with all different flowers and it also has a beautiful history to it. The garden use to be filled with trees back then like peach, pear, apple, maple tress and now is filled with flowers and free for anybody to come and have a picnic or just to have fresh air.

The museum got is name by the vines surrounding the house. When you walk up the stairs you will see roses in the side of the staircase and once you walk up you see how the flower changes and starts blooming – it’s amazing.

So as you can see, there are a lot of things in Wistariahurst that you can learn about. It is not just a museum with doors and pictures, but each painting or door or room has a little history behind it or a story to be told. So if this museum changed my mind about how I used to see history I am pretty sure it can change yours to.