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Internship Project Descriptions
Atlanta History Center
(revised December 2012)
An internship at the Atlanta History Center is a challenging, educational experience designed for undergraduate and graduate students interested in pursuing a career in any aspect of museum administration and/or public history. Working alongside AHC staff in a tutorial arrangement, interns gain valuable skills and training in their chosen field. While specific projects vary with AHC needs and priorities, opportunities will be available in a variety of areas. Placements are subject to availability.
Internships at the Atlanta History Center carry no stipends or wages.
Public Programs/Education/Interpretation
Summer History Camp Teaching Assistant (Summer)
- Description: The museum field is quickly moving away from an emphasis on collections and curation, and in the direction of public history, museum education, and interpretation. This internship provides college students the opportunity to work with seasoned museum interpreters on a variety of subjects to experience many different methods of teaching history to children. Interns will also get an inside look at how museums work, and the various career opportunities available in the museum field. It is our hope that this internship will help direct you toward teaching and interpreting history for the public, in order to produce a new generation of museum educators that possess these important skills right out of college.
- Duties: Interns will assist the counselors in teaching and supervising groups of up to 20 campers during week long, full day summer history camps. A typical day’s lesson plan includes a gallery or grounds tour, craft projects, indoor or outdoor games and activities, experience with touchable artifacts, and journal writing. Interns will assist the counselors with student and classroom management, instruction, preparation for the day’s activities, lunches/snacks, and administrative tasks. Interns will also assist the Summer Camp Director in supervising Junior Counselors (14-18 year old high school students) throughout the summer.
- Desired Qualifications: The ideal candidate is pursuing a degree in History, Museum Studies, or Education, and has experience working with preschool, elementary, and middle school aged children. Candidates should have good customer service skills and a great rapport with children. Creativity, patience, flexibility, a sense of fun, and eagerness to learn are necessities.
- Time Commitment: Summer camp hours are 8:00 AM–5:00 PM in June and July. It is required that you attend a pre-camp orientation and training in late May.
- Description: The Margaret Mitchell House, the midtown campus of the Atlanta History Center, hosts creative writing camps each summer in the very house where Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone With the Wind. These camps are designed to help further develop the skills of gifted young writers as well as to improve the skills of students that are struggling with writing. This internship will provide college students the opportunity to work with seasoned Educators on a variety of creative and technical writing genres, and to experience many different methods of teaching good writing skills to kids in a fun and engaging way.
- Duties: The intern will assist the camp counselors in teaching and supervising groups of up to 15 campers during week long, full day summer creative writing camps. A typical day’s lesson plan includes a field trip, group discussions, games and activities, and time for campers to work on their writing projects. The intern will assist counselors with student and classroom management, instruction, preparation for the day’s activities, lunches/snacks, and administrative tasks. The intern will work with groups and individual campers to help them develop and improve their writing creatively, technically, and grammatically. Intern will also assist the Summer Camp Director in supervising Junior Counselors (17-18 year old high school students) throughout the summer.
- Desired Qualifications: The ideal candidate is pursuing a degree in English, Creative Writing, Journalism, Education, or other related field, and has experience working with elementary, middle school, and high school aged children. Candidates should have excellent writing skills, enjoy working closely with children, and have the ability to provide positive, constructive criticism and encouragement. Good customer service skills are important. Creativity, patience, flexibility, a sense of fun, and eagerness to learn are necessities.
- Time Commitment: Summer camp hours are 9:30 AM –5:00 PM in June and July. You will need to arrive by 9:15am and stay until 5:00pm. It is required that you attend a pre-camp orientation and training in May.
- Description: An internship in the Public Programs Department will provide experience in all aspects of Public Programs operations at the Atlanta History Center. The museum field is quickly moving away from an emphasis on collections and curation, and in the direction of public history, museum education, and interpretation. This internship provides college students the opportunity to work with seasoned Public Program and interpretation professionals on a variety of subjects, and to experience the many aspects of developing educational programming for school, family, and adult audiences. Interns will get an inside look at how museums work, and the various career opportunities available in the museum field.
- Duties: Assist with the organization and execution of Poetry Out Loud regional and state competitions. Create new activities for the Kid’s Corner and maintain the space. Mail school tour brochures. Contact GA state social studies coordinators regarding upcoming school programs. Make confirmation calls for upcoming school programs. Prep materials for community outreach programs/events. Attend community outreach events. Fact check websites for program content. Research what programs other institutions offer. Assist with lecture series duties as needed. Assist with basic department organization and other duties as assigned.
- Desired Qualifications: The ideal candidate is pursuing a degree in Museum Studies, History, or related field. Candidates should be comfortable working with children and the general public, and have good customer service skills. Candidates must be organized, reliable, creative, flexible, and have a sense of fun and eagerness to learn. Time Commitment: Ten to twelve weeks (may have the opportunity to extend the time). Interns are required to work a minimum of 10 hours a week, and be available to assist with occasional weekend/evening programs or events.
Smith Family Farm: Administrative Intern (Spring, Summer, Fall)
- Description: The Historic House Interpretive shift intern will assist Smith Family Farm Manager in creating a new interactive, historically accurate, and participatory guest experience/interpretation for the Smith Farm, and assist in implementing training with SFF staff and volunteer base.
- Duties: Assist the SFF Manager in coordinating, developing, and leading new training (working farm demonstrations, historical knowledge, first-person interpretation) for staff and volunteers. Schedule artisan craft workshops and create craft demonstration schedules. Assist SFF Manager in researching and implementing thematic guest interpretive experiences via first and third-person interpretation techniques. Topic examples could include but are not limited to: 19th-century medicine, African-American history with a focus on the 19th-century enslaved period, technology, agricultural science, commerce, or textile manufacturing as they pertain to the Civil War. Intern will research relevant topics and create on-going guest experiences, activities or demonstrations to be offered to museum visitors. Demonstrations of skilled labor or crafting could also be utilized. Examples include but are not limited to: open-hearth cooking, blacksmithing, woodworking, or textile arts such as weaving and dyeing.
- Desired Qualifications: The ideal candidate has experience and comfort working with public speaking and an interest in all aspects of history. Experience with museum education and interpretative development is a plus but not required. Creativity, flexibility, historic insight, and a sense of fun and willingness to learn are necessities. Intern will be in period-appropriate costume attire for demonstrations and guest interactions (provided on loan from AHC).
- Time Commitment: 150-200 hours, depending on intern’s need or educational institution requirements. Estimate of up to 100 hours will be devoted to research, development and training; the remainder will be utilized during daily operations for the implementation of guest experience (during the hours of 10:30-5:00 Mon-Sat or 12:30-5:00 on Sundays). Scheduling is flexible and supervised by the Smith Family Farm Manager.
Smith Family Farm: Historic House Interpretation Intern (Spring, Summer, Fall)
- Description: Work with Smith Family Farm Manager to create interactive and participatory guest experiences at the 1860s-era Smith Family Farm.
- Duties: Assist Smith Family Farm Manager in researching and implementing thematic guest interpretive experiences via first or third-person interpretation techniques. Topic examples could include but are not limited to: 19th-century medicine, African-American history, technology, agricultural science, or textile science as they pertain to the Civil War. Intern will research a relevant topic and create a 20-minute guest experience, activity or demonstration to be offered to museum visitors. Demonstrations of 19th-century skilled labor or crafting could also be utilized. Examples include but are not limited to: open-hearth cooking, blacksmithing, woodworking, or textile arts such as weaving and dyeing.
- Desired Qualifications: The ideal candidate has experience and comfort working with public speaking and an interest in all aspects of history. Knowledge of 19th-century Georgia and the Civil War a plus but not required. Experience with museum education and interpretative development is a plus but not required. Creativity, flexibility, historic insight, and a sense of fun and willingness to learn are necessities. Intern will be in period-appropriate costume attire for demonstrations and guest interactions (provided on loan from AHC).
- Time Commitment: 150-200 hours, depending on intern’s need. Estimate of up to 50 hours will be devoted to research, development and training; the remainder will be utilized during daily operations for the implementation of guest experience (during the hours of 10:30-5:00 Mon-Sat or 12:30-5:00 on Sundays). Scheduling is flexible and supervised by the Smith Family Farm Manager.
- Description: The Historic House Interpretive shift intern will assist the Swan House Manager in creating an interactive, historically accurate, and participatory guest experience/interpretation for the Swan House. The intern will also assist in implementing training with Swan House staff and volunteer base.
- Duties: Assist the Swan House Manager in coordinating, developing, and leading new training (historical knowledge, first-person interpretation) for staff and volunteers. Assist Swan House Manager in researching and implementing thematic guest interpretive experiences via first and third-person interpretation techniques. Topic examples could include but are not limited to: the Great Depression, African-American history with a focus on Jim Crow and the early civil rights movement, technology, domestic science, women’s history, decorative arts, and architecture. Intern will research relevant topics and create on-going guest experiences, activities or demonstrations to be offered to museum visitors.
- Desired Qualifications: The ideal candidate has experience and comfort working with public speaking and an interest in all aspects of history. Experience with museum education and interpretative development is a plus but not required. Creativity, flexibility, historic insight, and a sense of fun and willingness to learn are necessities. Intern may be in period-appropriate costume attire for demonstrations and guest interactions (provided on loan from AHC).
- Time Commitment: 150-200 hours, depending on intern’s need or educational institution requirements. Estimate of up to 100 hours will be devoted to research, development and training; the remainder will be utilized during daily operations for the implementation of guest experience (during the hours of 10:30-5:00 Mon-Sat or 12:30-5:00 on Sundays). Scheduling is flexible and supervised by the Swan House Manager.
Archives/ Kenan Research Center (Summer)
- Description: An internship in the Archives department of the Kenan Research Center of the Atlanta History Center is designed to expose students interested in history, to all aspects of operations involving the Archives department. An Archives intern will learn research and processing skills by hands on experience with historical material.
- Duties: The intern will conduct research and create finding aids for primary resource collections at the Kenan Research Center. Interns will be supervised by staff and receive an evaluation form at the end of their program.
- Desired Qualifications: Excellent research and writing skills are required as well as the ability to work independently. History or American studies students preferred; no library or archival experience necessary.
- Time Commitment: Minimum 3-6 month commitment.
- Description: An intern is needed to facilitate ongoing digitization and cataloging of approximately 1000 video tapes in the audiovisual collection. Duties: The intern will work with the audiovisual archivist to digitize the analog video tape collection and catalog the material. Under the direction of the archivist, the intern will create access/preservation copies by converting them from analog format to DVD. In addition, the intern will copy the DVD, save the information to a file on the server, and create a separate compressed file. Also, during the transfer process the intern will complete a basic catalog sheet for each tape.
- Desired Qualifications: Interest in video preservation and a basic understanding of how to use analog and digital audio-visual equipment. Open for undergraduate and graduate students.
- Time Commitment: Minimum 3-6 month commitment.
- Description: Intern will help select, prepare, digitize, and quality control items from the collection. Experience using flatbed scanners and Adobe Photoshop is preferred, but training will be provided. Interns may also assist in creating catalog records for items such as photographs, postcards, or other selected material. Training will be provided on applicable software and in cataloging standards.
- Training: On-the-job, experience in digital imaging preferred, but is not required.
- Time Commitment: Minimum 6 month commitment.
Collections/ Registration (Summer) (Collections care and management)
- Description: An internship in the Atlanta History Center Collections/Registration Department will provide experience in all aspects of museum and/or archives collections care and management.
- Duties: Interns will have the opportunity to assist the Collections Manager with duties in museum collections management and/or archives collections management. Basic duties may include packing museum objects or archival material for shipping, monitoring the environment and condition of exhibit galleries, assisting with installation and deinstallation of exhibits, and working with permanent records.
- Specific projects, depending on the intern’s interests and experience and supervised by the Collections Manager, include Database – Assist with data clean-up in ReDiscovery Proficio or Archives Database; Inventory of Museum objects – Work with collections staff to verify object locations; rehouse artifacts; take digital images of these artifacts, and link the images in the database; Inventory of Archival material – Work with collections staff to verify locations; rehouse materials if necessary; create inventory lists; update database; Special projects may be available, or specific interests may be accommodated.
- Desired Qualifications: Computer proficiency, accuracy, attention to detail, ability to work alone and as a team, and the ability to work according to established procedures. Previous experience with museum or archival collections and databases is preferred.
- Time commitment: 8-12 weeks (may be able to extend time); Flexible scheduling; Will accommodate those needing specific hours for school credit.
Community & Collegiate Relations (Fall, Spring, Summer)
- Description: An intern is needed to assist the Community Initiatives Manager with general publicity for the Atlanta History Center. The intern will have the opportunity to assist with cross promotional opportunities as well as grass roots marketing.
- Duties: Intern will learn how to uncover and assist in fulfilling cross promotional opportunities, attend tourism industry and related meetings, work with other departments in order to promote all programs, discover and reach out to target markets, build and maintain contact databases, and learn how to implement a successful grass roots marketing strategy. Wrap-up reports of all projects completed will be required.
- Desired Qualifications: Public relations, communications, tourism or journalism course of study and/or experience desired. Intern should be detail-oriented. Strong writing and communication skills, knowledge of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel are a plus.
- Time Commitment: 10-week commitment. Flexible work schedule. Will have to work some weekends.
- Description: As a web and social media intern, the student will assist with the maintenance and promotion of our web sites (including GWR.com, iTunesU and HistoryBabble), social media profiles (YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace) and perform internet research.
- Duties: Responsibilities will include, but are not limited to the following: Web site maintenance (add/edit content, videos, images, etc.) ; Assist with social media efforts ; Facebook: research other groups and pages on FB and see how we could share our information with their fans and brainstorm different ways to drive people to our FB pages ; YouTube: Prep, upload videos and metadata ; Twitter: Tweet, retweet, special offers, etc. find relevant followers ; Monitor blogs, social media accounts and web sites to find promotional/PR opportunities
- Desired Qualifications: Intern must possess strong knowledge of the Internet, general knowledge of social media platforms (i.e. must have active accounts), and have strong writing skills. A background or interest in public relations or marketing is preferred but not mandatory.
- Time commitment: 8-10 week commitment. Flexible work schedule.
- Description: Interns will gain valuable experience working in the field with the Communications Department. Play a major role in helping to communicate relevant information on Atlanta History Center’s special programs, historic homes, lecture series, exhibition openings, announcements, accolades, and so much more.
- Duties:
- Assist in updating photo libraries
- Assist with writing and distributing calendar listings
- Assist with research, planning, and distribution of press releases
- Supervise and maintain database of various communication listings
- Assist with communication station and clippings maintenance
- Assist with creating and distributing general marketing collaterals
- Research and assist grass roots efforts
- Assist with basic department organizations and other duties as assigned
- Time Commitment: Ten to twelve weeks. Interns are required to work a minimum of 12 hours a week, with occasional weekend duties.
Special Events Special Events/Facility Rentals Intern (Summer)
- Description: The Events department at the Atlanta History Center coordinates and promotes the use of their facility for business meetings, weddings, corporate, social and non-profit events. An intern is needed to assist with projects, planning and managing detailed event logistics as well as marketing our event venues. All interns will be exposed to what it’s like to work for a non-profit museum and historic house event venue. Through a hands-on approach interns can begin to understand the complexities of balancing a cultural institute and its mission with renting the facility for earned revenues to support the History Center.
- Duties: The intern will usually work with all members of our team, helping with both large and small scale projects to bolster their knowledge of events, create an understanding of how an event progresses from beginning to end, and provide them with new skills. Duties include, but are not limited to:
• Assisting with analyzing web sources, advertising campaigns and marketing strategies
• Discovering and soliciting new leads via email and telephone
• Promoting the History Center as an event facility
• Shadowing and assisting with site tours and event managing
• Creating event floor plans, time lines and necessary paperwork/BEOs
• Coordinating communication between vendors, planners and clients
• Assist with the building and maintaining contact databases, event files and vendor information
• Learning how to uncover and assist in fulfilling cross promotional opportunities
• Other duties will be assigned depending on the intern’s interests and skills
- Desired Qualifications: Candidates must demonstrate excellent and professional writing and communication skills, a comfortable and confident phone manner, as well as be proficient in MS Word, Outlook and Excel. Interns should have a friendly, outgoing personality with a talent for organization and skilled at managing details. Hospitality, public relations, marketing, communications, tourism, event coordination or journalism course of study and/or experience desired, but all fields of study are welcome. Weekend availability and having reliable transportation are extremely helpful.
- Time Commitment: Prefer a minimum 15 hours per week flexible work schedule with at least 12 hours per week during a 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. workday. Internships last for at least 10 weeks with flexible start and end dates. Due to the nature of the work, the Special Events Department is open to non-traditional internships and non-credit internships that could easily extend passed the 10 weeks in order for students to gain the necessary experience before graduation and entering the professional arena.
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