Amy Grimes--alumni guest blog post

Amy Grimes received her BA in History & Political Science from Daemen in 2014. This past spring, she completed her MA in Museum Studies (with concentration in Visitor Experience and education) from SUNY Buffalo State College. In this guest blog post, Amy writes about her project and the focus of her graduate degree.

Amy Grimes

By Amy Grimes:

For my degree, I completed a research project about 982 refugees who came to Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York, from Naples, Italy, on August 3, 1944. For the project, "The Story of Oswego Refugees: A Virtual Exhibit," I focused on why they were chosen to come and their journey, their time at Fort Ontario, how they were able to stay in the United States, and how their story is preserved and remembered to the present day. The project included the creation of a digital exhibit as well as a seventy-page research paper.

(courtesy Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Museum brochure)

From this project, I learned that this was the only group of refugees fleeing from the Nazi regime who were allowed to come to the United States during the war. Since I chose to create a digital exhibit, I learned how to create a website to feature key images and research from my master’s thesis.

(from The Oswego Palladium Times, March 1, 2014)

Based on my experiences at Daemen, both with my degree and involvement in the History and Government Club, I realized that I enjoy education, museums, and interacting with people. Since I wanted to stay in the Western New York area, I chose to go to SUNY Buffalo State since it is the only school in the area that offers a master’s program in this field.

You can read Amy's full research paper at: https://digitalcommons.buffalostate.edu/museumstudies_projects/10/

...and you can view the digital exhibit here: 

https://oswego-refugees.my-free.website/https://oswego-refugees.my-free.website