Researching Times of the Past: Interview with Senior Spencer Balter

By Julia Jaramillo

Spencer Balter, FCLC ’24, had the chance this past summer to work as a Social Media Aid at Northwestern University’s Charles Deering McCormick Library in the Special Collections and University Archives. From 4,000-year-old cuneiform tablets to black and white photographs, the role allowed them to research and resurface old stories of the past.

Balter found out about the job in a Fordham English email while they were studying abroad last spring in London. The opportunity caught Balter’s eye because they planned to stay with their sister in Chicago over the summer. Along with a personal love of history, the job also appealed to them because their mother was a Northwestern alum. 

The email allowed students to reach out before the official job listing went up, giving Balter the chance to meet their potential employer early over Zoom. Shortly after, they asked Balter to apply. One of their bosses, Dana Lamparello, a Fordham alum who graduated in 2002, has had other Fordham students work in the library before. She recently spoke at Fordham English’s career panel last Spring.

“As I was talking about it more in the interview and heard about what they had there, it was like ‘oh, that’s the icing on the cake.’ They were really happy that I am excited about history,” Balter said. 

Along with two other student workers, Balter managed the library’s two social media accounts on Instagram. Their job was to create posts based on what was found and researched at the library — an expansive archive. According to Batler, the archive had objects like old yearbooks, clothing, cameras and monitors. Cabinets upon cabinets were filled with photographs and special collections that include rare books and medieval manuscripts. The McCormick Library in particular held items related to Northwestern, but there were also a number of separate collections about people and things unrelated to Northwestern, like cuneiform tablets. Balter recalled how they didn’t initially realize just how much history there was there, and they were blown away by the volume and variety.

“I got there and saw it and I was like ‘Whoa, there’s coffins here.’ They literally have old coffins in their death collection because of course they have a death collection,” Balter exclaimed. 

Balter began work in May, averaging four days a week. They recalled how their bosses were really open to any ideas on what to create for the library’s social media. As long as deadlines were met, there was a lot of freedom for how workers could utilize their time. Balter usually spent the first half of the day researching in one of the library’s reading rooms, looking through articles and photos or searching in boxes for items to use as materials for posts. Balter explained that each idea had to be culturally relevant while also having some sort of relation to Northwestern. During Pride Month, Balter found information on the university’s past involvement in Pride and Pride Parades. Another topic they researched was Shakespeare, during which Balter found a painting done by a Northwestern alum of the church Shakespeare was married and buried in.

Researchers from all over the world came to the McCormick Library, and a small part of Balter’s job was to prepare materials they requested. After lunch, Balter would work on writing captions for their these materials, which they explained was a new form of writing for them. While Spencer was used to writing long essays or short stories, caption writing took some getting used to. 

“You have to be able to get as much information as possible into as little words as possible and you have to be interesting, exciting, and entertaining enough that somebody’s actually gonna want to read it,’’ they said.

The most research-heavy project Balter worked on was related to the “Barbieheimer” phenomenon in which the highly-anticipated “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie” both released in July ‘21. A co-worker planned to release a video using a 40-year-old Barbie doll from the archives, while Balter pitched an Oppenheimer-related post. At the time, Balter’s boss could only think of one possible connection between Oppenheimer and Northwestern.

After days of reading yearbooks and newspapers and trying to reach out to researchers, Balter eventually uncovered an alum whose mining company provided the uranium used in the Manhattan Project. The research process was long and complicated due to a civil court case that questioned the mining company’s involvement in selling uranium to the Soviet Union — which Balter had to piece together through news articles.

“It was crazy. It led me down this whole thing. I was researching it for like, a week or two. And then the post didn’t really have as much information anyways because that could’ve been a whole paper!’’ they described.

Balter recalled their favorite project was a post about spirit photography — a personal fascination of theirs — for World Photography Day on Aug. 19.  Much of the research involved flipping through actual photo albums from families in the 1900s. Balter found ten photos with ghostly translucent figures in the background. The caption gave some background on spirit photography and explained some of the specific photos used in the post. Being able to pursue and share one of their niche interests while working was a fun experience for Balter. 

“Just being able to hold something like that, that somebody had in their home was crazy,” Balter said. 

According to Balter, working in social media was a really helpful experience to have, especially in the world right now. In addition to their work at Northwestern, in their freshman year before transferring to Fordham, Balter worked in the English Department at the University of Nebraska where they managed the department newsletter and Facebook. Having that experience helped them get other jobs, like the one at Northwestern.

Balter also majors in visual arts and does photography for FLASH magazine. After graduating, they hope to go to graduate school. Their main goal is to become an art director in the future.