Staff & Volunteer Spotlight — Meet Sabrina Kirchner

By Sabrina Kirchner, Education Intern, Earlham College

Hello, everyone. My name is Sabrina Kirchner. I am a student at Earlham College in Indiana, where I am a Museum Studies major with a History concentration. I have been the intern at Rokeby this summer and have had an incredible experience here. I could probably write a five page essay about my experience, but I will keep this blog post to a brief summary. 

I chose Rokeby as the place for my summer internship for a variety of reasons. The Northeastern region contains so much vibrant American history, and I was especially drawn to the way Rokeby emphasizes the connection between past and present on the Underground Railroad. I appreciated that the story told at Rokeby today is not a white savior narrative nor a glorified tale of complete freedom in the north, but the story of the fight led by free Black people for freedom even in the northern states. 

I was also drawn by a Quaker connection. My school, Earlham College, is a Quaker school, so I was intrigued by the fact that a Quaker family once lived here. I was surprised by just how close that Quaker connection is. A descendant of Abigail Robinson Hoag (second generation at Rokeby) was one of the first teachers at Earlham!

My primary goal for this summer was to apply the skills I learned in my interpretation class to history. Earlham’s museum studies program is primarily focused on natural history, because it is home to the Joseph Moore Museum, which is a natural history museum. The skills I learned in that class were of course applicable to any museum, but I did not get the chance to interpret history until I started this internship. It has been fun to think about what information is most important for a visitor to know and how long they would be willing to stand in front of a sign and read it. It was also, admittedly, a little frustrating because there was so much fascinating information that I could not include because it was not relevant enough to the signs.

…one of the most important takeaways I have is that the information you are searching for can often be found in unexpected places when doing historical research.

There are many things that I have learned here, but I think one of the most important takeaways I have is that the information you are searching for can often be found in unexpected places when doing historical research. I spent most of my time here doing research on the sheep and dairy at Rokeby for the dairy barn, sheep dip, and sheep barn signs. I spent quite a bit of time combing through the paper collections, checking our index for anything that might be relevant. I found many things, but after a while I felt I had exhausted every possible relevant document. However, a few weeks later, Tucker pulled out a school essay by an 11 year old Mary Robinson to show the kids at theater camp. In that essay, she mentions the waterfall where her grandfather used to wash the sheep! I would have never thought to check a child’s school essay for information about life on the farm, so it was a good lesson in thinking outside of the box.

Theater camp was a lot of fun as well. I’ve never considered myself a theater person, but the kids were so wonderfully creative and it was amazing helping them figure out their characters and seeing the play come together. I already miss the kids who participated in camp this year and their creativity inspires me.I can’t pick one thing that was my favorite part of this internship, it has all been so wonderful. I am going to miss Rokeby and Vermont deeply, but I don’t plan to be away for too long. I’m sure I’ll be back within a few years, seeking out more fascinating history.