San Angelo intern unearths history in Washington
By Jared A. Taylor
Scripps Howard Foundation Wire

WASHINGTON – When she arrived at the Library of Congress in June, Amanda Mueller had no idea what she’d find.

After spending 10 weeks poring though more than 7,000 documents, Mueller discovered some lost pieces showcasing America’s creativity.

A San Angelo, Texas, native, Mueller said when the Library of Congress began handling all of the U.S. copyrights in 1870, “They got a flood of paperwork in and just stuffed documents into these boxes.”

“Since then, a few people have gone through it randomly, but nobody has made an itemized list of exactly what’s inside,” Mueller said.

Among the thousands of documents she catalogued and mounted for display, Mueller said some of the more interesting items include a children’s biblical board game and a poster from the New York theater owned by Edwin Booth, the brother of John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.

Mueller said her favorite find is a collection of tobacco advertisements from the early 1870s that featured children smoking.

“It’s very shocking, nowadays. It’s not something you would see nowadays at all,” she said.

Mueller is one of 25 college interns from around the country who surveyed parts of the library’s non-book collections to identify unique items not catalogued. It’s the second year for the summer program.

Items discovered by some of the other interns include blueprints for a proposed expansion of the White House, early photographs of baseball great Cy Young and a 1916 play script by composer Cole Porter and his college roommate.

“You just see all kinds of wonderful things about our country, about the variety of creativity,” said James Billington, the librarian of Congress. “It speaks volumes about the energy and the power of you young people who come in and enriched this and made it a real treasure hunt.” He spoke at a ceremony last week at which the interns’ work was unveiled.

Mueller, an English major entering her senior year at Texas A&M University in College Station, said while she originally didn’t know what she wanted to do when she graduates in May, she now has a career path.

“After this summer, I’ve had so much fun – I want to be a librarian,” she said, adding that she wants to pursue a master’s degree at the University of Texas School of Information.

Mueller’s parents, Fred and Leslie Mueller, made the trip to D.C. with their two younger children to see her work.

“This has helped to focus her much more on what she wants to do for a career,” Leslie Mueller said.

Fred Mueller said his daughter’s internship is just part of chasing her dream.

“I went to work straight out of high school for my father, so I didn’t get to go chase my dreams, so to speak,” said Fred Mueller, who runs a family steel company. “So, I’ve always told my kids to do whatever you want to do and be happy.”