Forging a Career in History and Archives: An Interview with El Anastasio, the Drexel University Archives’ Co-op Student

During a recent interview with Drexel University Libraries staff, Archives Assistant El Anastasio spoke about her research into Drexel’s history and her goals for the last three months of her co-op with the Drexel University Archives.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Q: Tell me about a project you’re working on right now as the Drexel University Archives’ current Archives Assistant co-op. 

I’m working on two projects right now. One new task I’ve been doing is getting familiar with digitally processing archives by working with files from Drexel’s former Judaic Studies program, which [ended around 2017]. Since a good amount of [the files are online in Sharepoint,] I’ve been going through all of those and looking at dates, mentions, context, potential duplicates, broken files, or anything else to take note of. Afterwards, the duplicates and broken files are deleted and everything is sent off to the University Archivist.

I’m also studying Seymour Eaton, he was an author who worked with Drexel in the late 1800s. I’m making a list of his books that are stored in the Archives’ Reading Room and also finding information about him to help me write a biographical note for ArchivesSpace.

[Researching Eaton] has been pretty cool. From 1893 to 1898, he was the head of Drexel’s Business Department in its very early years, and he did some really cool stuff in the progression of how that came to be. He was also a children’s book author around the time that Teddy Roosevelt was President. There was this whole situation where Teddy Roosevelt didn’t want to kill a bear on a hunting trip in 1902. Eaton heard the story and felt inspired to write The Roosevelt Bears, and he’s credited with coining the term “teddy bear.” 

Q: What do you want to learn or gain experience doing during your time working for the University Archives?

I want to gain more hands-on experience processing both physical and digital archives. I’ve worked in archives before, but it’s usually been research work. This position is about directly contributing to the process of getting material ready for researchers.

Q: What’s your favorite thing you’ve discovered while working for the Drexel University Archives?  

I would say the absolute coolest thing was when I was working on the James Creese papers. There was a lot of material for him, including a lot of newspaper clippings. Some of the clippings date back to 1916! I’m such a history nut that being able to hold newspaper clippings from over 100 years ago in my hands and just really know that “Wow someone 110 years ago—the original owner of this newspaper—was also holding this in their hands for the first time” is just so crazy to me.

Another interesting thing I came across when I was looking at Seymour Eaton’s books was a book marker that was his in the late 1800s-early 1900s. This book marker had his initials on it and had a beautiful, intricately drawn design. 

Q: What’s something you have you learned about Drexel’s history that you didn’t know before? 

I’m much more familiar with certain Drexel University presidents, specifically James Creese, since I did work on processing the James Creese Papers. Also, for a little while I was going through old Triangle newspapers looking for information about another president, Dr. Parke Kolbe, and I learned about him as well. I’m also more familiar with the way that certain departments functioned in the early years of the University, such as the Business Department.

I think the most noteworthy piece of information that I find super cool is Drexel’s history of women admittance; they started admitting women quite early in comparison to a lot of other colleges and universities—around the mid to late 1800s is when they were admitted into Drexel, and the first dormitory hall was specifically created for female students.