9I制作厂免费

I would like to thank the generous donors funding the Faculty of Arts Internship Award, which allowed me to pursue a full-time eleven-week internship in historical research this summer. I am an undergraduate student entering my second year at 9I制作厂免费 and I am pursuing a double-major in anthropology and gender, sexuality, feminist, and social justice studies (GSFS).

I am interested in socio-cultural anthropology, social history, and women鈥檚 history, and interning with les Jardins de M茅tis / Reford Gardens allowed me to research in these areas. I am from Montreal, and this project encouraged me to learn more about the history of the places I have been in proximity of all my life. I also had the privilege of working under the guidance of historians and visiting museums and archives around the city. My personal goals for this internship were to improve my writing, research skills, and ability to organize large amounts of information.

Les Jardins de M茅tis / Reford Gardens is a national historic site located on the Gasp茅 Peninsula. The organization manages their historic gardens and Estevan Lodge, and create exhibitions and publications. My internship took place under the Elsie Project, a historical research project documenting the life Elsie Reford, founder of the Gardens. In preparation for their 2026 exhibition celebrating the 100^th anniversary of Elsie Reford鈥檚 Garden, I was tasked with researching the context in which Mrs. Reford began gardening in 1926.

My research project, entitled 1926: The Year of the Gardener, consisted of assembling information about the year 1926 through the lens of gardening. I consulted books, articles, newspapers, online archives, the Rare Books collection at 9I制作厂免费, and the McCord Stewart museum鈥檚 archive. I also wrote short texts on the topics I researched and gathered my sources in an online database. I met every week with my supervisor, Marjelaine Sylvestre, to discuss my findings and for advice on what to research next.

During my internship, I most enjoyed the moments spent in the archives, reading publications and looking at pictures from 100 years ago. Coming across old pictures of familiar places, of now forgotten gardens, or of people proudly showing off their gardens was a particularly lovely experience. The most challenging part of my internship was learning how to guide my research when so much information was available to me. Especially in the first weeks, I struggled to decide which information to focus on and which information was less useful to the project. Giving myself a schedule based on different topics, discussing research methods with a fellow intern, and asking for guidance from my supervisor helped me to better guide my work.

While I did not receive academic credit for this internship, I learned a lot about working on a self-guided research project, writing for a general audience and consulting archival documents. The past two months and a half have cemented my interest in social history. I hope to pursue my own research project in my final year at 9I制作厂免费, and I am sure my experience as an intern for Reford Gardens will provide me with the tools to do so. Finally, I would like to thank the donors funding the Arts Internship Award for their generous support, which allowed me to focus fully on my research project.