In January of 2024, Madeleine DeGrace had the opportunity to complete research for her Qualifying Paper at Beaulieu Palace House near Southampton, the British National Archives in Kew, and the Imperial War Museum in London.
How far along are you in the program?
- 2 years, this is my 4th semester! I am planning on graduating in December 🙂
What is your area of interest?
- English country house architecture and their uses in WWII as espionage training schools
Do you work? On campus/off?
- I have an internship at Minnestoa History Center in their Interpretive Programming division, and I am one of the gallery guards in the American Museum of Asmat Art at St.Thomas
Where were you traveling?
- I went to England for one week, specifically to Southampton and London to visit Beaulieu Palace House, the Imperial War Museum and the National Archives to see first-hand the sites and artifacts connected to my Qualifying Paper with Professor Victoria Young.
Image of Beaulieu Palace House from January 5th, 2024
Why did you have to go there?
- It was primarily to view Beaulieu House in person and gather as much information as I possibly could that wouldn’t be available in the US. For architectural research (as with all research) it’s important to see and be in the space you are interpreting, otherwise you don’t really feel a connection to the space. The British National Archives are pretty locked down in terms of online access, so a lot of the primary source documents I needed had to be accessed in person.
What institution/person did you work with at the location?
- I scheduled a visit with Beaulieu palace house staff to have them give me a private tour walking through the house, and that was quite valuable, but at the IWM and the National Archives, that was primarily led by me. I was able to reserve a ton of documents to view at the national archives and they had them ready for me to look through.
SOE field radio at the IWM’s exhibit on secret operations and spies
What was the content of your research?
- I was looking at the house and its history, most importantly, looking at how it was used as a training school for the SOE in WWII. Most of the documents I was pulling at the National Archives and the research I was doing at the Beaulieu House focused on the SOE training schools at these sites and how a grand old country house could be used as a training school.
How were your days structured?
- Most days were a quick breakfast, museum/site visit trip for the whole day, hunker down for dinner and relax. It was pretty lowkey and chill because it was pretty cold and got dark really early, and both my dad and I ran out of steam after a long day of museums (museum fatigue is really real!)
What was your favorite part of the findings/research results?
- This research is a continuation of my undergraduate senior thesis, in which I studied female agents of the SOE, so for me to get to walk on the same grounds as these women whom I looked up to is really important to me. I found that research so important since many of these women were looked down upon in the immediate post war, so for me to see them in exhibit galleries on walls or to see objects that were connected to them directly was my favorite part of the research. Also, at the National Archives, I pulled out the personnel files of all of the women I studied and to see their handwriting and look through their documents was also so special to me and important.
Madeleine pouring over SOE documents at the national archives
Anything else notable about the trip/the work you did?
- My dad and I drove on the wrong side of the road down country lanes in the New Forest and it was very stressful! But it was very fun! My mom is also a flight attendant for United so we flew standby there and back and we were able to fly business class both ways, which slays.
- I got to hear Big Ben and St Paul’s Cathedral’s chimes, which was very cool!
