Remarkable student earns Luckay Fellowship
Sabrina Kellams stands proudly behind her files of research. Image courtesy of Ellie Pursley
“History is something important to IU students. The Wylie House Museum should definitely be one of their first stops,” Sabrina Kellams, museum assistant, says. Each student can walk into the home of the Wylie family, the first IU presidential family who occupied the house from 1835 to 1913. Kellams, recipient of the inaugural Sarah L. Luckay Fellowship, feels that’s an extraordinary opportunity. She explains how Andrew Wylie, the first president, and Theophilus Wylie, his cousin and faculty member who was also an IU vice-president, were innovative and forward-thinking. “That’s really helped IU to get to where it is today, and how it continues to grow.”
Kellams, who is a sophomore studying history and anthropology, fell in love with the Wylie House as an IU freshman employed there. “Working here has given me on-deck experience with research,” she explains. It’s helped focus her career goals. “I really love this type of museum. It’s very much like you step in, and you feel like you're back in that era. You’re back in the 1850s, and you're looking at it through that lens.”
Like a linguist on a mystery
Equipped with her own three-ring binder of information, Kellams is serious about her research. What is remarkable is that Kellams, who fulfilled her language credits before starting IU, brought her skills in German to the museum and dug into letters only touched briefly in 2005 by someone who arranged them by date. Not only has Kellams organized these letters by day and month within those years and in file folders, but she has started translating and transcribing them. This is no small matter considering some of them are written in Kurrentschrift, an old German cursive style.
“I found an online AI called Transkribus,” Kellams explains. She uploads a picture of a letter. “Sometimes the words are just too mashed together, so I have to do it manually, but it kind of helps me get started and have an idea of what they are saying in the letter.” Then, she looks at the bigger context. What was being said in the last letter or the other letters at Wylie House? What was going on during that time? She may use a dictionary and her Kurrentschrift alphabet. Having multiple resources at her fingertips helps her reason out what is being said.
Kellams explores the letters of some of the first international students who came to IU. Hermann Boisen, IU faculty member from Germany, married Louisa Wylie, daughter of Theophilus and Rebecca Wylie. His brothers Christian and Anton came to IU. They lived with the Wylies and appeared in Theophilus’ book about Indiana University. In the collection, there are letters to and from Hermann’s family and his students. Overall, the letters written in English are easier for Kellams to translate. “While their handwriting can be very beautiful and seem like they really know what their saying, a lot of times I'm reading something and it doesn't make sense,” Kellams states. These are letters where the writer’s first language is German, not English.
Translating 19th century German letters from the beginning of IU has led Kellams to the path of genealogy. “One of the earliest letters we have is from Peter Frederick. He is Hermann’s mother’s brother. We didn’t have that in our original family tree, so adding him was important, understanding how they relate.” By reading letters, Kellams has noted family relationships, professions, corrected names, and properly identified images in the photographic record of the museum.
Sarah L. Luckay Fellowship
Generous donor and friend of Indiana University, alumna Sarah Luckay (1944-2023) was “committed to supporting students’ attainment of professional skills in historical research, instructional activities, museum and garden interpretation, and collections management at Wylie House Museum,” according to Wylie House Director Carey Champion. A public-school librarian, the experiential learning experiences at the museum, along with the garden, drew Luckay to provide funded research experiences to capable and engaged students.
In the official letter informing Kellams she was to be the first Luckay scholar, Champion wrote, “I could not imagine a more capable or deserving student than you. The projects you embarked upon with great determination and initiative this past year are exactly the type that Sarah had in mind. Your attention to detail and your commitment to learning as you pursue Wylie-related projects is commendable, and your contributions to Wylie House Museum have already been notable.”
Kellams’s binder is full of valuable information. She made a timeline of the lives of Hermann and Louisa Boisen. By consulting it, she can see if someone was having a baby or if another milestone in the family was happening. This helps her figure out who a letter might be to or from. She’s made lineage charts of the Boisen family. It initially helped her figure out who was who. Her notebook also contains preservation information about how to handle the letters. "For the most part, they are pretty well preserved. The envelopes are the most fragile.” She pays attention to how the letter was folded before unfolding them. Once unfolded, keeping them flat helps preserve them.
“I love working at the Wylie House. I love the atmosphere. I feel like I’ve really grown into what I love doing,” Kellams says.
