This blog post was written by Madelyn Barton, a summer 2025 intern in Towson University’s Special Collections and University Archives department, and student at Notre Dame Preparatory high school in Towson, Maryland.

During my time at the Towson Special Collections and University Archives, I went from having no prior experience with archives to learning so many incredible skills and information that are applicable to almost any field of my choice.   

Before beginning my internship, I was expecting the collecting categories to be much narrower and harder to navigate. However, I soon discovered that not only is there so much material, but it is all quite vast and covers a large variety of topics.  I had no problem finding information on any topic I was interested in. 

During my internship, I did research and compiled information for a wiki article about Towson University’s Women’s Gymnastics Team.  I detailed the development of the program by the Women’s Athletics Department, some of the issues faced by the team because of gender inequality, and the accomplishments and legacy of the team.  I also discussed some important figures in the team’s history that helped them grow and achieve more success. 

During my research, I found that the most helpful source was the university newspaper, The Towerlight (Student Newspapers).  I looked up editions of the paper from when the program was first developed to get a sense of the public’s first impressions of the team.  The paper also provided me with articles detailing the careers of the program’s founder and coach, which helped me map out a timeline of the team’s accomplishments.  Also, I found the articles about Towson University’s men’s sports teams quite helpful when comparing their experience to the women’s teams.   

I enjoyed this process very much and am particularly interested in the complicated history of women’s sports at Towson.  Therefore, I think that if I had more time to work with the archives, I would delve deeper into the formation of the Women’s Athletics Department and their fight for respect and opportunity for expansion.   

To learn as much as I did, there were many challenges I learned to overcome during my research.  I had to learn how to properly keep track of my materials, and I think finding materials that were created during the same time frame was sometimes difficult to find.  Also, navigating the website of digital materials to pull the best information possible was a bit tricky at first. 

Overall, I am very grateful for this experience, and I learned so many versatile skills and information.  There were so many interesting collections that taught me so much about Maryland history and the university’s history.  I was given the opportunity to see how things like new school leaders, social change, and world events directly impacted the student media and life.  I saw so much of how Towson has evolved as a university through unique and important lenses.