Collections Management Intern-Auburn Valley State Park

Auburn Valley State Park is looking for a dynamic, creative and enthusiastic individual to help conserve and exhibit a historic house museum with its own collection spanning three centuries of Americana emphera. As a Collections Management Intern, you will work alongside our professional staff and gain hands-on experience with Delaware State Park’s historically significant collections across a wide span of cultural and historic periods. You will use Past Perfect Museum software, take and upload photos, label objects with their accession number, conduct object inventories, and other associated tasks involved with maintaining physical and intellectual control on the collections. It is a varied collection ranging from furnishings, historic objects, archival materials, art, and ephemera. The Intern may also assist with resource and collections- based public programming.

Interns will also participate in intern-wide professional development activities and experiential learning opportunities that may require them to be off-site or away from their placement. Each intern will complete a personalized “demonstration of learning” project. At the conclusion of the internship, all interns will present their projects during a poster session for peers and Delaware State Parks staff.

Responsibilities

•              Be a part of the team taking care of the 1897 Auburn Heights Mansion with weekly housekeeping assignments.

•              Assist in the inventory, documentation, maintenance, and cataloging of Park collections

•              Help overhaul and update listing of the park collection on Past Perfect to deaccession objects no longer included.

•              Entering objects into the Past Perfect database

•              Performing environmental checks on storage spaces

•              General housekeeping of the mansion

•              Other duties as necessary

Required Skills

•              Must be able to work flexible hours, as some weekends may be required to join us for big park wide events.

•              An interest in history, collections, or small museums

•              An awareness of the challenges that face small house museums and a passion to face them head-on

•              Willing to learn collection management database software

•              Able to do basic research of objects and documents in the collection

•              Professional appearance and demeanor, responsible and trustworthy

•              Good customer service skills as you help educate the public on the collection

•              Works well independently or as a cooperative, contributory team member

•              Able to use basic computer equipment and standard Office software programs

•              Organized and detail-oriented

•              Performs duties in compliance with Division and Park Customer Service Guidelines and Safety Guidelines