Summer internship with the Rowntree Society

Posted on 25 July 2023

Undergraduate student Suzannah Binns reports on her public history internship with the Rowntree Society, creating an Instagram campaign based on research in the archives held at the Borthwick Institute.

This is a photograph of a drawing Jean did of flowers in Jamaica, I included this in the Jamaica post because of its eye-catching colours. (LROW/15/7)

My brief for the internship was to create an Instagram campaign that explored the extensive travels from Jamaica to America that Jean Rowntree took in 1920. Jean Rowntree was a fascinating woman as she helped Czech refugees escape the Sudetenland during the Second World War. In later life, she was also instrumental in the BBC and helped to develop broadcasting to assist adult education.

I have enjoyed discovering more about her travels and the experiences she had at a key point in history. For example, Jean’s experience of being on set in a Hollywood film studio captures the beginning of the mainstream film industry in California that we know today.

One of the most exciting parts of the internship was being able to go into The Borthwick Institute for Archives to read Jean Rowntree’s travel journals. I found interacting with the physical journals completely engrossing as the descriptions of Jamaica and America were vivid and gave me further insight into Jean’s personality.

Before researching the social and historical context of the time, I read through the journals and took pictures as I went along. This process worked well before planning the posts because it gave me a full idea of the whole journey and the range of activities I could mention in the posts. Once I had read the journals, I decided to centre the campaign around the Rowntree family’s love of travel, as the wealth of the business enabled travel to be a large part of their lives.

Alongside reading the journals, my research consisted of using Google My Maps to plot the journey Jean took, because it helped to visualise the large distances covered by boat and train. For the Instagram posts, I decided to include sections of the completed map, so viewers can see exactly where they went for each leg of the journey.

Creating the map was useful when I researched The Sunset Route, a railroad that goes from New Orleans to Los Angeles, because I could make sure the map was correct by referring to old railroad maps. I particularly enjoyed researching if locations that were mentioned in the journals still existed, such as the Hotel Green (now the Castle Green); it meant that I could compare any changes over time.

This is part of the Introductory post, the Google Map contains many locations mentioned in the journals. It starts from Scarborough and ends in The Isle of Wight. (LROW/15/7)

One challenge I faced was selecting the content for the posts because all the entries contained unique aspects I could expand on. To help me select the entries I wanted to post, I narrowed them down by location and how much of the individual entry Jean designated to a place. For example, New Orleans has a post because Jean recounted the unusual nature of their St Louis cemetery trip and the people they met on the tour.

Well explained details within the journals helped me to gain a sense of Jean’s personality and opinions of the places and people she interacted with. The journal entries about America were fascinating as Jean visited when it was becoming a more established superpower and at a time of technological change.

After spending time on the research process, I began drafting the posts on Canva. Due to my research being guided by how many journal pages Jean allocated the locations, it enabled me to already have an idea of posts to draft. At first this was a challenge, I enjoyed this process very much because it gave me the opportunity to learn how to use an editing programme to design the posts. In my free time, I enjoy using Instagram and find that having a mixed post format is an effective method to engage people.

For the campaign I created two reels, which are short videos with captions and effects, using this format means that it is possible to have more information in one place. A particular highlight was being able to demonstrate the postcards that Jean collected alongside the relevant journal entry because the art style brought the locations to life.

For example, I planned to do a post on the growth of the American automobile industry compared to England in 1920. I decided against this and included it in the post about New York, where traffic continues to be a major problem. As a result of my research, I feel that I can use technology to effectively provide a format to link history and audiences.

The opportunity to learn about Jean Rowntree and the 1920s through the journals has been a fantastic experience. The excellent guidance and assistance available to me has helped to further develop my research and teamwork skills to a point that I feel more confident in my abilities to work to a brief.

Bibliography:

LROW/15/7- Picture of flowers in Jamaica
LROW/15/7- Picture of the Google My Map of Jean’s journey

Photos courtesy of The Borthwick Institute for Archives.