Jackie Perkins
Division
- Agricultural, Rural and Environmental History
Classification
- PhD Student
Title
- Maroon and White Scholar
Contact
Professional Profile
I am a first-year Ph.D. student at Mississippi State University, expected to graduate in May 2026, focused on environmental history. My current research examines the mixed legacy of invasive and introduced plants in America, with the emphasis on how Gilded Age house gardens helped accelerate this botanical revolution.
Education
MASTER OF ARTS| MAY 2021 | WRIGHT STATE UNIVERSITY
· Thesis: “Gardening the Gilded Age: Creating the Landscape of the Future”
BACHELOR OF ARTS | MAY 2016 | PURDUE UNIVERSITY NORTH CENTRAL
· Major: History
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE| MAY 2016 | PURDUE UNIVERSITY NORTH CENTRAL
· Major: Psychology
ARCHIVE INTERN | KETTERING FOUNDATION| NOVEMBER 2019-APRIL 2021
· Main duties include organizing collections of documents and creating records with the online system KIMS.
HERITAGE INTERPRETER | BARKER MANSION| SEPTEMBER 2016-AUGUST 2019
· Main duties included leading tours, planning events, research, creating exhibits, supervision of interns, and working in the archive to organize, digitize, and maintain collections.
· Use of computer to create finding aids, spreadsheets, informational PowerPoints, and the start of a digital archive with the use of the online software Archon.
· Working within the community of Michigan City, Indiana to incorporate local history both inside the Barker Mansion and within the community itself through various programs.
· Maintenance and research of historic items throughout the Barker Mansion.
ARCHIVE INTERN| PURDUE UNIVERSITY NORTH CENTRAL| AUGUST 2015-DECEMBER 2015
· Main jobs included taking unorganized information and sorting it into collections, creating finding aids for the collections, and the creation of a display to advertise the new archives.
· Use of a computer and scanner when creating the collection.
· Created sixteen complete collections from scratch.
Exhibits
· "Traveling Through the Gilded Age” On permanent display at the Barker Mansion.
· “Footwear and Fashion in the Gilded Age” On display at the Barker Mansion.
· “Ornaments of the Mansion” 2017 Christmas display at the Barker Mansion.
· “The Barkers at Christmas” 2016 Christmas display at the Barker Mansion.
Presentations
· "Industrial Digitization: Preserving the Documents of the Gilded Age” 2020 Wright State University Public History Symposium (Event cancelled due to COVID-19)
Publications
· Contributing author to Purdue University North Central: The History of a Regional Campus, published October 2019.
Phi Kappa Phi