Interview with Kevin Sheehan
Cassie Olson: Why did you choose to get a Ph. D in history?
Kevin Sheehan: I’ve always been interested in history and back from the time that I was at school I did a lot of reading. Looking back at the story of England and the Middle Ages or military history, the story of Australia, maritime history, that sort of thing. So I’ve always been drawn to history but when I came to studies I realized I was pretty bored and one of the things I did want to do is make a career out of history if I could and with the aptitude that I had, the interest that I had I decided that history would be the best thing to focus on. So it was one of those things that I felt I had a skill and had an interest and had the opportunity.
CO: Why did you chose UC Berkley? Did you think it was a good fit for you?
KS: It was, well, it was the place I got into. That was the other stance. I applied to other schools around the U.S. and that was the class I got into. Also happened that my wife, my future wife was also at UC Berkley and so it would have meant that if I had gone to a different school we would have been living apart, we didn’t want to do that so it worked out pretty well. Berkley was the place where I wanted to go and I was lucky enough to get into.
CO: Do you think there is a reward for doing what you do?
KS: Well the reward is part of being satisfied, I think, and sort of having the sense of achievement and doing something very original. It doesn’t pay as well as some other jobs do obviously if you want to get a higher paying job you would go into the sciences and focus on that. On the other hand, doing history was where my interests were I would have been, I think, very frustrated doing some other sort of job and it also has made that I can talk to other historians as a peer rather as someone who doesn’t have a degree. So that’s really important for me too but it’s not just about having letters after your name it’s also about really having a sense of satisfaction and pride in what you do.
CO: If you could have any job in the world would it be this job or would you have a different job?
KS: Well that’s a really good question. I don’t know. I would like to do work in maybe a museum that was maybe a little more secure in terms of funding, a little more endowed in terms of resources, with a bigger staff and that sort of thing but at the same time there is advantages in working in a smaller place because you get a lot more experience that you would not get working in a bigger place. I have a much more diversified job than maybe someone in my position in a larger institution so that’s the advantage. What else would I like to do? Well I enjoy teaching and I would like to teach in a college environment but that can be very hard to get into and it’s also really hard to juggle say two different staffs at jobs so I feel very lucky at the moment that I have this job. It may change in the future, we may move somewhere else, and I might have quite a different job but we’ll see. We’ll see.
CO: When you were a kid did you ever think that maybe you would do this job?
KS: No I never had any inkling that I would do this job. I always thought I was going to be a lawyer or something like that and that’s sort of what my teachers at school sort of advised me to do. To go and become a lawyer because I was good at humanities instead I chose to do history.
CO: What led you to your job at the Maritime Museum aside from coming to San Diego?
KS: Well, it’s kind of pure luck in a sense because I came down here because my wife got a job at San Diego State when we were in San Diego and then I looked around and started teaching part time at colleges and I was still finishing my dissertation, working towards my Ph. D. and then I gave a paper to a conference here at the Maritime Museum, got to know the guy who was the librarian at that stage and once I spoke to him I realized you know this would be a really neat job to have and he mentioned that he was going to be moving on from this job sometime in the future, and it just was by chance that he told me that he was moving on. I came down, interviewed, and got the job. So it was...I was really very lucky.
CO: Why do you take on interns?
KS: Interns? Because interns are a...well they...interns make a real contribution to the museum in terms of, you know, what the work that they do here. You guys do here. The photo scanning and working in various aspects of our operation and it’s also satisfying to have younger people come in to do work in the library because most of our volunteers are actually older, they’re retired so we have the other spectrum here. Most younger people don’t have the time to come and volunteer so interns add a sense of life to our operation in the library and also they often have interesting insights into technology and how to do things, stuff that we don’t get around to doing ourselves, so interns really contribute by broadening the experience here and hopefully HTH Institute interns live up to their name of being students who have a real affinity with technology and know how to use it.
CO: What do you think is the most important thing you’ve learned working for the Maritime Museum?
KS: The most important thing...It’s hard to say as you pinpoint one important thing but probably the most important thing that I have a lot of skills in terms of coordination of volunteers which is not a job I would have chosen for myself. Probably 80% of my work here is really about coordinating the work of other people rather than doing my own particular research on my own particular paperwork or collections management or whatever. That’s not a job I would have originally chosen for myself but it’s one that I’ve learnt that I can do fairly well and really by working with others I get better results than if I were just here by myself, doing it all by myself which would have been my natural inclination so that’s probably the principle learning that I’ve had.
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