Graduate Internship
Graduate Intern for The Alexandria Black History Museum Collections
Overview
The Office of Historic Alexandria is delighted to offer a paid 13-week internship in spring/summer 2022 funded by a Museum Grant for African American History and Culture from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
The Alexandria Black History Museum is currently undertaking a two-year project to digitize, interpret, and make four of our important archival collections publicly accessible. The digitization process includes creating or updating catalog records in the museum database Past Perfect, and scanning or photographing collections items, resulting in records with images for public access.
As part of the project the Museum will produce a series of small online exhibitions that will explore the stories of historical figures from the archives and their respective roles in the overarching theme of civil rights and equity. These archival collections contain a wealth of material that will allow the Museum to better tell the story of the civil rights movement, self-empowerment, the African American image in American society, and the re-positioning of the African American and the wider American culture.
The internship will encompass the full range of tasks from sorting and digitization of the primary archival material to the researching and production of an online exhibition. This internship is ideally suited to anyone with an interest in archival management, library sciences, museum collections management, public history, curatorship and/or digital exhibitions under the supervision of the Director of the Alexandria Black History Museum.
The internship project will cover the following processes:
1) Processing of a section of the Moss Kendrix Collection, including sorting, rehousing, physical numbering collections items where necessary.
2) Scanning or photographing the original archival items
3) Cataloguing the archival items by creating new or updating existing database records for the archival items in Past Perfect including attaching digital images
4) Researching an exhibition subject using original archival material from the Moss Kendrix Collection and other resources
5) Creating an online exhibition (in PowerPoint) about the subject and the Moss Kendrix Collection
About the Department
The Office of Historic Alexandria (OHA) enhances the quality of life for city residents and visitors by preserving and interpreting Alexandria's historic properties, archaeological sites, cultural resources, artifact collections, objects, archives, records, and personal stories and by encouraging audiences to recognize Alexandria’s diverse historic heritage and its place within the broader context of American history.
Minimum & Additional Requirements
All applicants must either be enrolled in an accredited college/university and have completed at least two years of academic coursework (60 credit hours or equivalency); have earned a Bachelor's or master's degree within the previous two years; or currently enrolled in an advanced degree program from an accredited college/university with museum and/or history course-work; proficiency in MS Office Suite reflective of their tier of education.
To Qualify:
Per the grant, graduate-level candidates from HBCUs with experience in scanning and documenting historic documents and materials, using Past Perfect application as well as collection-management classes.