This week’s Project 100+ memory comes from Rachel Craft.  She was born in Wilmington, Delaware. She grew up in New Castle until she was about ten years old when her family moved to Mullica Hill, New Jersey.  Her father was a New Castle County police officer, retiring from active duty after twenty-five years of service.  However, he continues to this day to work for the New Castle County police department as a civilian helping to process evidence.  Her mother is a physical therapy assistant and works in nursing homes in Delaware.  Rachel attended Catholic schools until her family moved to South Harrison Township. There, she began attending public schools.  In 2012, she graduated from Kingsway High School.  That Fall, she began college at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia.  After one year, she transferred to Rowan University, graduating three years later with a history major, a concentration in International Studies, and minors in Spanish and Marketing.  In the Fall of 2016, she began studying history in the master’s program at Rutgers Camden where she was a Graduate Fellow.  In the Spring of 2018, after a memorable two years that included important mentorship from Professor Charlene Mires, she passed her oral exams and completed her master’s degree. By that time, she had already been hired by Hunter Research, Inc. in Trenton as an Architectural Historian/Historian.  Her varied positions included survey work at and research about various sites throughout New Jersey, and submitting required materials to the New Jersey Historic Preservation Office.  After five or so years, she became the Senior Architectural Historian, and she participated in more public history related projects such as exhibit designing, interpretative planning, and the creation of interpretative wayside panels.  In 2025, she resigned her position to focus on taking care of her young daughter, Isabella.  She misses her public history work but loves her time with her family at the moment.

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I always really liked school.  Neither of my parents earned a bachelor’s degree, though my mother did attend college and earned an associate’s degree.  Yet, as soon as I was aware that you could keep going to school after twelfth grade, I knew that I wanted to do that.  This made my parents happy of course, and I don’t think there was ever a serious discussion about my not going to college.  There was some discussion about where I would go because it was not going to be easy to afford.  I took a bunch of Advanced Placement classes in high school to get a start on my college credits, and my parents really wanted me to go to Gloucester County College because it was affordable.  For reasons I don’t fully understand, however, I was determined to go to a four-year college even if I had to take out loans.

I wanted to return to Delaware and be closer to my cousins and other family members who still lived there.  I applied and was accepted at the University of Delaware, but it was too expensive.  I also applied to Kean University, Seton Hall, and Chestnut Hill College.  I got the best scholarship offer from Chestnut Hill, and so I went there. I also loved the way that the campus looked, very much like a castle.  I began as a business major because of my parents. They thought it would be the safest path for me.  I never felt completely comfortable at Chestnut Hill.  The business classes did not excite me, and I was torn over living away from my family.  Some of the time I really liked it and other times I regretted it.  So, I transferred to Rowan.  However, I chose to live on campus with a roommate from high school. 

I was undecided on a major that first semester.  In the Spring of 2014, my uncle asked me to print out an obituary for a friend of his.  While I was doing this for him, I read the obituary and found out that he had been an archivist for the National Archives in Washington.  I thought this sounded like a great job, and I can remember coming downstairs and telling my parents that I knew what I wanted to do and was going to become a history major.  They didn’t completely understand and kept asking me, “what are you going to do with that?”  Eventually, I mapped out a plan for them, and they understood a bit better.

I had always liked history, but I had never really thought about studying the subject in college.  I didn’t know that the major could lead to anything except teaching.   Still, I had long been drawn to the past. I had taken three AP history classes in high school, and I can remember spending a lot of time at Historic New Castle, a national historical park, which includes one of William Penn’s landing sites, a cool old courthouse, and much more.

My first history class at Rowan was Historical Methods with Dr. Cory Blake.  It was really different from my history classes in high school.  I enjoyed those classes, but they were traditional textbook-focused affairs.  This course was focused on research, and I loved it.  The deep diving for primary sources felt like sleuthing to me, and I just thought it was a lot of fun.  I later took Dr. Blake for Ottoman History, which I also enjoyed very much.  Like several classes that I took in the Department, it opened up my eyes to a part of history and the world about which I knew so little.  The same was true for Chinese Cultural History, which I took with Professor Edward Wang.  Again, I had never had any type of course like that.  The fact that Professor Wang had both personal and scholarly knowledge of the subject made the experience so rich. It was so amazing to learn from him. 

I took your Civil War and Reconstruction course in an accelerated format in the summer, but I still remember it very well.  We took a trip to Gettysburg, and I especially loved that part of the class.  Being able to take what we were learning in the classroom and see it come alive at the sites we were visiting was very moving. In hindsight, this was one of several moments that strengthened my already strong appreciation for public history.

By the time that I took my Senior Seminar, I knew that I wanted to work in museums or something similar.  So, I was very happy to be able to study with Dr. Stephen Hague who had experience with historic sites and architecture.   For his class, I wrote a paper on the American Museum in Bath, England.  My paper focused on how the Museum’s exhibits interpret American history, and I fondly remember doing research for the project at the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library because Henry Francis DuPont had donated materials to the site in Bath. 

For my Marketing minor, I took a capstone course with Dr. Berrin Guner.  I really enjoyed the course and our final project, which was to create a strategic plan for a local business.  Even more memorable, however, was a week-long study abroad trip to Ireland in the middle of the semester.  We had a great time and did many things in Dublin but also went up to Northern Ireland and saw Belfast and the Giant’s Causeway.

During my senior year, I began working at the Red Bank Battlefield for Jen Janofsky who oversaw the Whitall House and historic interpretation at the Park.  I remember beginning there shortly after they had found a canon fragment at the site.  I was the site manager and oversaw the volunteers and was the point person for any school visits.  During this period, I also helped during the transition from Jen to Nicole Belolan.  I continued working there until I realized that I could no longer balance the position and being a full-time graduate student and teaching assistant at Rutgers-Camden. 

The faculty in the Department of History were so helpful to me as I tried to figure out my path to becoming a public historian.  Dr. Blake was always willing to talk to me about graduate school or any other question that I had.  I can remember her telling me that I needed to have a hands-on graduate program instead of an online one. 

Your recommendation to Dr. Janofsky that I would be a good fit at Red Bank was also really thoughtful and important in my development.  Even though I never had her for a class, Dr. Janofsky ended up being very important to me.  Like Dr. Blake, she helped me understand what type of graduate program would be a good fit for me.  Perhaps more importantly, I also just learned so much from observing how she juggled all the challenges of being a public historian, balancing the volunteers, the public, the county government, and Rowan as well.  Later, at Hunter, when things got really complicated and busy, I would think back and remember that Jen had figured out how to keep the balls in the air. This gave me confidence to push forward.

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This is part of the Department of History’s “Project 100+,” an ongoing collection of memories by Glassboro State College and Rowan University alumni and staff that began as part of the celebration of the 100^th anniversary of the founding of Glassboro Normal School, later Glassboro State College, and now Rowan University.  Thanks to Laurie Lahey for helping proofread and edit the final versions.  Email carrigan@rowan.edu with questions or corrections.  You can find the Link to all of the Project 100 and Project 100+ entries on the Web:  https://www.rowan.edu/ric-edelman-college/departments/history/alumni/