| NOTES (ecp\5100023\00003)
DATE: August 15, 1997
Database: 5100023
Subject: . Presentation . ECP/ 51/ 3//
By midsummer, I attempted to calculate my end results for this summer's internship:
As a continuation of my research project on the construction of the State House Dome and Lightning Rod, this summer I attempted to produce an indepth study of its architect, Joseph Clark. During the past school year I uncovered many details of Joseph Clark's public career focusing primarily on his business affiliations with Robert Morris. John Nicholson, and James Greenleaf in Washington D.C. This summer I hope to place his experience as a contractual architect and builder within the context of Clark's larger public role as ardent federalist, deputy grandmaster of the Freemasons, architect of numerous Maryland public works, and later as an insolvent petitioner in Baltimore attempting to reclaim his due from Luther Martin and the State of Maryland. While attempting to do this, I often found that Clark's private life played a pivotal role in his career and vice versa. As a result, I also spent much of the first half of this summer on geneaolgical pursuits of Clark's wife, daughter, and brother. The results,in my opinion, reveal not simply a brief glimpse into the world of Joseph Clark but also offer the researcher a broader understanding of the country's early economic practices (speculation) , problems with building a new government ( both literally and figuratively), and relationships between men and women during the nation's infancy
In many ways I think I did manage to discovcer more information lending support to this idea. I found a lot of interesting information about Clark's family, I tracked his brothers lcoation in Baltimore, I traced descendants of Stephen Clark, I read newspaper after newspaper but more importantly I think this summer's pastiche taught me about process. Thinking in terms of how to extract data, store it in a systematic fashion, and the ability to retrieve data and make it useful to other people. I learned how to use new equipment and although at times photodulication could be quite tedious I think I have come to a much greater understanding of storing information in the "modern day"
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