UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, BOTANICAL GARDENS

great deal of experience, and I now understand the work of archivists far more. This in turn

has given me quite a lot of insight into this career, which will help me greatly when I am

making decisions about how to progress in the future. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience,

and I loved working with such a variety of documents. It was a steep learning curve for me

because I was used to working fast-paced jobs where completing tasks as quickly as possible

was key, whereas in this internship I was encouraged to slow down and take my time, and

to enjoy the materials I was reading!

What practical advice would you give to future interns?

Don't be afraid to ask for help or advice if you're not sure about something! And take your

time looking through and reading all the documents - it's about fully understanding,

enjoying and detailing the contents of them, rather than trying to get through them as fast

or efficiently as possible.

Nathan Cornish, Trinity College, Second Year Undergraduate, BA Ancient and Modern History, A Mixture of in-person and remote working

Work Projects

My internship was cancelled due to the

Covid 19 pandemic, but the Careers Service

worked with me to find another project and

I was able to find a supervisor and

undertake a 4 week research project with

the Oxford University Botanical Gardens and

Herbarium in Early Modern illustrations of Rhubarb.

Through this I gained experience in using Early Modern Herbals and plant catalogues as

historical sources as well as a foundation of knowledge around 17th and 18th century

botany which I plan to build on in the rest of my degree. I also completed an article on the

rhubarb illustrations, the specific experience from which will go towards my undergraduate

thesis and hopefully further study. I also explored new digital approaches to online essay

presentation. I taught myself how to use Jstor's new Juncture software and used it to create

my own site which I could post the rhubarb article and hopefully further work.

My supervisor was fantastically helpful, sending all the resources I needed and meeting me

regularly to talk through the information and plan how to continue. This internship allowed

me to do exactly what I needed to progress in the areas I was interested in and I am very

thankful to the careers service for helping me find this at the last minute.

Daily Life

I was fortunate to intern in Oxford part of each week so was already fairly at home in the

City and had some friends who I could spend time with. This made my downtime much

more enjoyable, and I enjoyed having some more independent study time and socialising in

the vacation, particularly after so much lost in person term time. I spent most of the day in

various parts of the Bodleian libraries and the evenings taking time to see my friends and

play some music with one of them which was something I had missed over lockdown very

much.

In the parts of my week that were remote I made sure I brought back enough resources to

carry on working and managed my time similarly with home friends and home working. I

found that the mixed style suited me very much at this time because it meant that I could

balance my time between home and Oxford and access plenty of resources and study

spaces to get the work done. I had thought I would be lonely in Oxford but luckily made

enough friends last year who were staying over the summer which meant that it was a lot of

fun in the end.

Lasting Impressions

The internship has confirmed my career ambitions in the short term to pursue further study

in biological humanities, environmental history, and the history of science. I enjoyed

researching and learnt some of the skills which are vital to this sort of work. The funding

from the careers service allowed me to experience what It would be like to do a research

degree and I enjoyed it very much.

The opportunity to dig into a field which I knew very little about and get my bearings gave

me a foundation which I can build on towards further projects, as well as the skill to