At Preservation Long Island, our headquarters and historic properties have been bustling with the activities of six interns who have joined the team for the summer, and our Peggy N. Gerry Curatorial Fellow, who started in June and will be with us through 2027.
From collections and historic preservation research projects to fieldwork at our historic houses, every day brings something new. Their contributions are a tremendous help to us, and we hope their varied assignments provide them with a deeper understanding of Long Island’s rich history and an appreciation for the work and rewards of stewarding historic sites and collections. We are pleased to share their bios and an overview of some of the projects they have been working on.
From left to right: Genevieve Barbee (2025 Gardiner Young Scholar/Historic Preservation Intern), Steve Baltsas (Peggy N. Gerry Curatorial Fellow), and Sarah Eagan (Graduate Curatorial Intern) visiting our historic Custom House in Sag Harbor; Friends Academy High School interns: Sydney Wang, Lizzy Gokey and Tommy Kurita; and College Curatorial Intern Sarah Torres.
Peggy N. Gerry Curatorial Fellow:
Steven Baltsas received his BA in Art History and English from SUNY New Paltz and his MA from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture. A historian of furniture and architecture, his work examines the conditions of their patronage in Atlantic port cities. He has published and lectured on the nineteenth-century Hudson and Mississippi River Valleys, especially their domestic interiors. Steven is eager to share Long Island’s rich furniture history with audiences in his native New York State and beyond. Steven collaborates with Lauren Brincat, Chief Curator & Director of Collections, and takes a leading role in a multi-format project focused on the study and interpretation of early Long Island furniture (ca. 1640–ca. 1860). This position is funded by The Decorative Arts Trust curatorial internship grant program.
Graduate Curatorial Intern:
Sarah Egan joined Preservation Long Island as a curatorial intern, working under the direction of Lauren Brincat and focusing on collections-based research and digitization. She is a current Master’s student at the Bard Graduate Center, focusing on 19th- and 20th-century American material culture and its intersections with the history of childhood and education. She is a Wisconsin native, receiving her BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and holding previous positions at the Wisconsin Arts Board and the Miller Art Museum. Click HERE to read Sarah’s blog, The “Clifton” Birdhouse: Victorian-Era Bird Architecture on Long Island.
2025 Gardiner Young Scholar
Genevieve Barbee joined Preservation Long Island this summer as an intern in our Preservation Program, working under the direction of our Preservation Director Tara Cubie and focusing on the Endangered Historic Places Initiative. A rising junior at Cornell University, majoring in Urban and Regional Studies in the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, Genevieve brings strong experience in historic preservation and documentation. She has contributed to History Forge in Ithaca by transcribing historical census data and helping build an interactive map that connects people and places from the city’s past. While at The Brearley School, she completed a detailed research project on 18th-century built environments in New York City, including fieldwork at several historic sites. This position is funded by The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation.
College Curatorial Intern
Sarah Torres is a rising Sophomore at Mount Holyoke College. Sarah is working under the direction of Lauren Brincat on the Long Island Furniture Project, with a focus on the cataloguing and digitization of Preservation Long Island’s furniture collection.
High School Interns from Friends Academy
Sydney Wang is conducting research and digitization of Preservation Long Island’s institutional history back to its founding documents in 1948 – then known as the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities (SPLIA).
Lizzy Gokey assisted with Preservation Long Island’s marketing communications by creating posts, reels, and stories on our Instagram and Facebook pages to help promote our events and share the latest news about our work.
Tommy Kurita worked as a summer collections intern, assisting with varied projects including photographing furniture at Joseph Lloyd Manor, reconciling the catalogue of books at our headquarters library, researching objects in Preservation Long Island’s collection, and writing a guest blog post for our website. Click HERE to read Tommy’s blog, Beauty in Captivity: Obadiah Jackson Downing and the Craftwork of Prisoners of War.
