Palo Alto Battlefield Continues Virtual Research Project

Thanks to dedicated Palo Alto Battlefield volunteers, the park can now tell a little-known story of Great Britain’s interest for preventing the U.S.-Mexican War. Britain wanted to prevent U.S. expansion and were worried a victory by the U.S. would lead to the extension of its territory all the way to California.

In 2018, NPS volunteer David Davenport donated six boxes of U.S.-Mexican War related primary documents to the park. Davenport had traveled to London, poured through the British archives, and photocopied handwritten documents about the War.

Palo Alto was thrilled by the donation of the documents but finding the time to decipher reams of 19th century cursive penmanship was a challenge. The park turned to the U.S. State Department’s Virtual Student Federal Service (VSFS) internship program for help. VSFS recruits college student volunteers to work on government projects during the academic year. After working with two VSFS interns last year, Palo Alto still had boxes of documents.

Now in its second year, the VSFS project is being led by history majors Darian Eudy of Texas State University and Dylan Jones of George Mason University. These dedicated interns spent 10 hours a week reading and reviewing copies of the handwritten historic documents to determine how the texts pertained to the War. The interns catalog their findings and document the date, author, subject matter, recipient, and synopses.

“This internship provided me with a sense of adventure that was lacking when searching other history-based careers,” Eudy said. “I do hope to one day work alongside park rangers and put my love and skill for history to the test.

”This internship “helped me build on my analytical and research abilities,” Jones said. “My career goal is to work for the U.S. Federal Government.”

The work produced by the VSFS interns will be an invaluable addition to the Palo Alto Battlefield Research Archives at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley-Brownsville Library.

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