Week One: The Art of the Spreadsheet

Hey guys, my name is Jodie Casleton. I'm a junior studying History at Loyola University Chicago and this semester I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to work on The Database of Court Officers from 1660 to 1837. This is an online computer database which provides the career histories of every officer and servant of the English royal household during this time period.

Now hold on, before everyone scrambles to look up and read the long list of names provided on this database, I should state the reason I am even able to help work on this. It turns out that the original volumes, which provide chronological lists of the holders of household offices, are missing quite a few people. Actually, less than half of the positions were originally recorded...so that's where I come in! Dr. Bucholz, the organizer of this internship and one of the original compilers of the database, is providing me with very long lists of household members who were not previously recorded. I then record in an excel spreadsheet the names, job titles, start and end dates, and a few other details about each person listed.

Sounds riveting...right? I'll admit, the idea that I'm going to spend hours recording names and dates in a spreadsheet does feel a bit daunting. It could very easily become mind-numbing work and I may be ready to throw my computer out the window if I have to type in one more job titled Groom of the Privy Chamber. However, despite the potential monotony, I'm actually quite looking forward to this work as well. My area of interest in history is Early Modern Western Europe and the courts in particular, so I think it will be fun to explore all the different job titles that were given during this time period. I will also be doing my own separate research on about a dozen people on these lists, which will give me a more in depth look at the types of people who worked for the English royal household during this time period.

Although my duties for this internship appear simple in some ways, I am excited to see what skills I acquire through this project, and I look forward to updating you guys on the progress I'm making and what I learn along the way! I promise I won't just be posting weekly pictures of the excel spreadsheet that I'm working on.....probably....maybe....I mean, unless I'm just feeling particularly proud of my work that day.

Thanks for reading! Or, at the very least, scanning quickly through.