Historically significant 100-year-old architectural drawings of landmark buildings in Yellowstone National Park were preserved this summer by four University of Colorado at Boulder undergraduates.
Ashleigh Mayer, Rachel Newton, Anne Getts and Elizabeth Campbell returned from their 10-week assignment in Yellowstone earlier this month. The students worked in close coordination with officials to catalog and archive drawings and documents related to historic concessionaire buildings in America's first national park.
"We worked with very fragile documents that are important to the history of this park, and preserving these documents for future generations is a big responsibility," said Campbell, a junior majoring in English literature and elementary education.
The students were hired for the summer through an agreement between CU-Boulder and the National Park Service. Funding was provided by a federal Save America's Treasures grant along with support from Canon USA. The students arrived at the park May 24 and earned an hourly wage in addition to food, housing and travel expenses. During the school year, the four work for Professor Bruce Montgomery and David Hays in the CU-Boulder Archives.
Scott Pawlowski, who helped coordinate the project for the National Park Service, explained that the work affects source documentation for five historic landmarks, and National Historic Structures in four National Historic Districts.
"The drawings document construction that plays a part in major themes of American history," Pawlowski said. "They provide insight into how our country recovered from the Civil War, what role the military played in Western expansion and settlement, how railroads crossed the states, how the Depression impacted arts and crafts through the Civilian Conservation Corps, how our country responded to World War II and how the burgeoning environmental movement changed the political landscape."
Scholars from around the world use Yellowstone's archive to research eminent architects like Robert Reamer and Herbert Maier, Pawlowski said.
"There were so many beautiful, priceless drawings that we worked with," said Mayer, a psychology and sociology major entering her junior year at CU-Boulder. "Not many people get to see an original Robert Reamer drawing every day."
Getts, a sophomore biochemistry major, said Yellowstone was an amazing place. "Since I had never been there before, the buildings were all new to me and I learned a lot about their construction and history, as well as their relationship to the history of the park," she said.
Of course, the students also had time to explore the natural wonders of the park. The local wildlife got a little too close for comfort one morning as the group was walking to work.
"Rachel and I were laughing about the difficulty of the 45-degree inclined path we climb to get to our office," Campbell said. "While laughing, we suddenly heard 'clop-clop.' Freezing where we stood, we both turned our heads and saw a female elk right behind us."
The girls took off running. "As we jumped over the brush and logs in our way, I glanced back to see the elk, whose nose was about six inches from my neck," Campbell said. Fortunately no one was hurt and the elk disappeared into the woods.
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