Nancy Pickard

Peerless Rockville

This past Spring I was fortunate to secure an internship with Peerless Rockville, a multifaceted 501c3 preservation organization located in the old Brick Courthouse in Rockville, Maryland.  Peerless Rockville is a community based preservation organization that was launched in 1974 by a grassroots to citizens group interested in preserving the city’s history and historic buildings in the wake of rapid growth and urban renewal.  Peerless has expanded its focus over the years and today offers a full range of cultural and educational programs for the community, in addition to preservation advocacy and collections management.  Over the years, the Peerless Records Collection has grown steadily and now includes numerous documents, maps, photographs and other artifacts.  The primary focus of my internship was to assist with the collections, and in particular to inventory, and organize a large assortment of records pertaining to Rockville Urban Renewal in the 1960’s and 1970’s.  This responsibility included; assessing the materials, researching urban renewal programs, developing a system to classify and inventory the collection, completing an inventory, preparing documents for archival storage and creating a finding aid for future research.  In addition to working with the Urban Renewal records I was given the opportunity to learn about the day to day activities of the organization, which included working with numerous volunteers, assisting with publications and outreach, and conducting research on Rockville’s recent past buildings.  This was a rewarding internship that provided me with a realistic understanding of the scope of preservation activities and challenges that are present in nonprofit organizations.