By Guus Robroeks
Finding an internship as a student of history can be quite the challenge. While many students manage to find themselves a spot, others are not quite so lucky. After dozens of applications I was sure I’d belong to the latter group, until I realized that Prof. Henk Nellen worked at the Huygens ING, an institute for Dutch history and culture. I had participated in a very interesting course given by Prof Nellen about war and morals in the seventeenth century, and wanted to know more about the Huygens ING. After some research online, and some guiding tips from Henk Nellen, I was able to apply for an internship at the institute. It turned out that I was more lucky than most of my co-students: Dr. Suzan van Dijk happened to be looking for a new intern who was willing to work for the HERA “Travelling TexTs” project with materials found in the archives of the Letterkundig Museum, a literary museum in The Hague. I was allowed to dive into stacks of letters and texts from nineteenth-century female Dutch writers, for whom reception documents are collected in the museum.
The willingness to dive into archival documents might just be the biggest difference between someone who is interested in history and those who’d rather forget they ever had to learn about history in High School as soon as possible. Trying to make sense of dusty letters, ostentatious writings, old fashioned language – who could see that as a hobby? I could, and it’s exactly what I did. Every illegible world is a puzzle, each discovery of connections between the contents of letters is fascinating and every unopened file a potential treasure. You can find charming items, such as a little girl who starts her letters with “Lieve Dikkertje”, which roughly translates to “Dear Fatty”, or tragic moments, like the probable cause of death of a young poet, Johanna Constantia Cleve, which could very well have been rabies. Everything is a mystery, waiting to be solved. Every answer provides ten new questions that spark your curiosity. It makes you feel like a work-day is over in the blink of an eye, and the weeks fly past at lightning speed. As I’m getting close to the end of my internship a melancholic feeling has set in, and a silent wish that the time could slow down just a little bit.
Another reason for the time flying past at supersonic speed is the fact that there is so much to do. Thanks to the Huygens ING I’ve had the chance to attend DH Benelux, a congress about Digital Humanities, and the oration of a professor; as a result of these opportunities I’ve been able to get a taste of the work environment, and participate in actual research. As previously mentioned, I know I have been incredibly lucky. The fact that this blog post has unintentionally turned into an advertisement speaks for itself.