Home > About Us > Student Faculty And Alumni Stories > Student, Faculty & Alumni Stories

Historian in the Making

Lauren Odell loves history and she loves stories. A senior in the history program at UNH Manchester, Odell's interest in historic buildings was sparked after taking Urban History with Dr. Robert Macieski. A project in the class required her to analyze the demographics of an assigned city block in Manchester. She found herself taking census records, talking with local business owners and studying the history of the buildings. Odell said, "I wanted to learn more about the City and the historic buildings even though my area of study is modern American race relations, especially women in the civil rights movement transforming into the women’s liberation movement."

Odell decided to explore her new interest and signed up for a summer internship with the Millyard Museum in Manchester. Her first assignment was to organize photographs of historic buildings that have either won preservation awards or have been part of the Museum's historic house tours. Odell found that many of the photos needed to be updated so she struck out with a camera in hand. It occurred to her that the process might be faster on a bicycle so she began to map a bike route. Aurore Eaton, Interim Executive Director of the Millyard Museum, liked the idea of an historic bike tour. Odell decided to run, or pedal, with the idea and spent the rest of her summer internship developing a bike tour the museum can make available to its patrons. Her father helped make a trial run of the mapped route.

Of the internship experience, Odell said it’s been great. "I love reading about the different properties. I like the stories!" she said. "History is nothing without its background, it’s just dates." Following graduation this September she hopes to continue her education through to a Ph.D. She hopes to stay in academia as a researcher and/or a professor.