Teenage life makes great fodder for movies about summer camp and high school hierarchies, but what traces of the real lives of teenagers get documented and preserved? 

Georgina (Gigi) Broyles, a Master of Science in Information student focusing on library science at the University of Michigan School of Information, found herself asking that question over the summer. As a 2024 junior fellow at the Library of Congress, she developed and led educational activities for a team of teens enrolled in the LOC’s high school internship program. 

“Seeing the Library of Congress through their eyes made me curious about when and where we can find records of teenagers in the Library’s collections,” she says. 

Broyles, who earned the Rising Star Award at the 2023 Michigan Library Awards, documented her search in an interactive blog post for the Library of Congress. She tracked teenagers at work and at play, in photographs and recordings spanning the 20th century, even discovering an unexpected connection to her grandparents. (Curious about what she found? Follow along in her blog.)

Broyles accompanies each record with engaging commentary and questions that invite further exploration — a reminder that archives are very much alive.

“After seeing this photo, I wondered if Eleanor grew up to be a nurse in a hospital,” she writes in one instance. “Searching the primary sources in Chronicling America reveals that she did!”

Read Broyles' full blog post to encounter teens across a century. 

—Abigail McFee, marketing and communications writer

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Learn more about the Master of Science in Information program.