Internships

Three people at a table in front of a window having a discussion. (Sean Flynn/UConn Photo)
(Sean Flynn/UConn Photo)

Internships offer valuable opportunities for students to test out career options, gain valuable practical experience, and build relationships with professionals and organizations in their areas of interest. Internships often provide not only useful work experience, but also letters of recommendation, personal references, and sometimes even a job offer. Connecticut and New England are particularly rich in historical organizations providing internship opportunities during the semester and over the course of the summer. Descriptions of some opportunities are available from the links below. Most historical organizations are very receptive to working with interns, so if your favorite museum or historic site is not listed here, contact the organization's director or education department and ask if they would be interested in sponsoring an internship.

Ongoing Internship Opportunities Through the History Dept - Spring 2025

The History Department offers internships working with faculty and select institutional partners. Descriptions of those opportunities are listed below. If you are interested, please complete the interest form. We will contact students at the beginning of each semester to fill internship vacancies.

Instructions:

  • Examine the list of internships and ensure that you are clear about the (a) campus (b) transportation required and (c) time commitment. For example, one (1) credit corresponds to 3 hours weekly and this is the minimum number of hours for which you can be assigned. The maximum is 10 hours weekly and this corresponds to 3 credits for the semester. If you would like a remote only option, some of these can converted to that option.
  • We will request that there are no hours during midterms and finals.
  • Multiple positions are available per research project, unless noted.

Hartford Bound

Assist the project Hartford Bound with identifying individuals who have lived in Hartford between the 1790s and  2020. Phase 1 of the project will focus on 1790-1900. 

Responsibilities include: conducting research in archival sources, historical newspapers, community archives to find sermons, speeches, editorials, and letters, written by African Americans, Puerto Ricans and West Indians to accumulate a total test sample of 100. 

A separate sample will include  audio from 100 oral histories Dr. Vernal has conducted. Interns will assist with transcribing these writings and excerpt relevant audio and then provide historical introductions, annotations, images, and commissioned/customized drawings to contextualize these writings.

Once these have been transcribed, annotated, and indexed, we will create a custom vocabulary, a master set of themes, and set of maps for each entry. Sample vocabularies and themes from the 57 articles include: suffrage, temperance, freedom, equality, justice, citizenship, lynching, Negro, Colored, African American; Talcott Street Congregational Church, slum clearance, urban renewal. 

These new set of maps will help to show vibrant networks of benevolent societies, lodges, social clubs, community centers, athletic clubs, schools, and churches that integrated the community into a dense web of mutual aid, civic engagement, political and social activity. The maps will also show how African Americans, West Indians, and Puerto Ricans engaged their diasporas.

Historical photographs and commissioned drawings will provide another medium to aid in visualizing the themes.  There may be opportunities to help shape public programs, presentations, and content delivered via a variety of media and in-person events. 

Participation may be virtual, hybrid, or in person, though attendance will be required at team meetings.

Engaged, Public, Oral, and Community Histories (EPOCH)

EPOCH has a number of Initiatives this year that students can select 

  1. Assist with EPOCH initiatives, including research on African American, Puerto Rican, and West Indian  settlement in Hartford,  neighborhood change, and community succession, the history of black churches and social justice activism in Hartford. Check out carribeanmosaics.com and hartfordbound.com for segments of the project to see if you are interested in developing these stories. Our new landing page is here:https://museumconnectx.com/ 
  2. Hartford Bound: help to conduct research for development of story maps of 50 stories to capture the history of African American settlement in Hartford;
  3.  Shade Tobacco: exhibition on labor and migration and the evolution of Connecticut’s boutique industry for a summer premiere; conducting research in archival sources, historical newspapers, community archives on the crop, its farmers and its laborers;
  4. Puerto Rican Oral History initiative: assist research and Black and Puerto Rican caucus;
  5. Caribbean Museum: assist with visioning and creation of curriculum development, activities and games for K-12 and adults. 

UConn Manuscripts and Archives 

Project Description: Collaborate with a University librarian to conduct research in the Duffey Collection focusing on the insurgent senatorial campaign of Joseph Duffey.

Joseph D. Duffey was a politician, statesman, and university chancellor. Dr. Duffey's ideas, thoughts and opinions on a variety of topics are articulated in the notes, articles, photographs, monographs (some inscribed), correspondence, campaign ephemera, speeches, and topical clipping files found in the collection, including a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) file on Dr. Duffey. Researchers should note that many of the issues and concerns Dr. Duffey researched and later spoke and wrote about cross over the general series into which the materials have been sorted. Research will inform exhibition planner for 2026. 

One position available.

Mill Museum, Willimantic CT –  Development Intern

Overview: The Mill Museum (Willimantic, CT) is seeking a Development Intern to support the museum’s fundraising, grant research and writing, and membership initiatives. This internship offers hands-on experience in nonprofit development, providing valuable insight into how museums sustain operations and grow through community engagement and support. The position is ideal for students interested in museum work, fundraising, or nonprofit management.The intern will report to the Executive Director. One position is available.

Possible Responsibilities  

  • Fundraising and Grant Research ◦ Conduct research on potential donors, corporate sponsorships, and grant opportunities. ◦ Assist with the development and submission of grant proposals and reports. ◦ Support fundraising campaigns, including preparing solicitation materials and monitoring campaign progress. 
  • Membership Management ◦ Help process membership applications and renewals. ◦ Assist in creating member engagement materials, including event invitations and benefits packages. ◦ Provide support for member events and programming.
  • Administrative Support ◦ Organize and maintain development files, ensuring confidentiality and accuracy. ◦ Prepare materials for board meetings and development committee meetings. ◦ Perform other administrative tasks as assigned to support the development team. ◦ Support preparation for event logistics. 

Qualifications 

  • Current student with an interest in History, Museum Studies and Management, Nonprofit Management, Marketing, Communications, or a related field.
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills.
  • Detail-oriented with excellent organizational and time-management skills.
  • Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint). Experience with Google Suite of tools preferred.
  • Interest in museums, arts, culture, and/or nonprofit work.

Schedule and Compensation

This internship requires a commitment of 2 credit hours/6 hours per week for an academic semester. This position is hybrid. The hours are flexible and a consistent schedule can be worked out after the finalization of an offer.

New Britain Industrial Museum, New Britain CT –  Collections Intern

Overview: The mission of the New Britain Industrial Museum is to collect, preserve and exhibit to the general public examples of industrial artifacts representative of the ingenuity and creativeness of generations of Hardware City people in a continuing effort both to cultivate awareness of their past productivity and to inspire future industrial accomplishment.

The New Britain Industrial Museum is grounded in a proud tradition of innovation. We celebrate the contribution of New Britain to the region’s present and future development. The Museum makes our community stronger by increasing cultural & historic awareness through exhibits and programming for children and adults.

There are two positions available:

  • An archive inventory project is ongoing. This project involves working directly in our archive storage, going through shelves one by one to record the archival and collections material, assign inventory numbers, and do condition reporting. The goal of this project is to create an inventory and finding aid for our archive, in order to gain intellectual control over our collection. There may also be some re-housing of materials involved in this project (TBD). The student who takes this project will learn about object handling, documentation and condition reporting, and registration and collections management best practices. Approximately 2-4 hrs/week on Wednesday mornings.
  • We are also currently working on a new inventory of our off-site collections storage. The purpose of this project is to reconcile inventoried collections objects with their ID numbers and box/shelf placement into a single source of truth document. This involves unpacking and repacking collections objects, identifying candidates for conservation or deaccessioning, and re-arranging collections storage space as needed. Approximately 2-4 hrs/week on Tuesday morning/afternoons.
Either of these projects could also include writing 1-2 articles for the museum's blog inspired by the collections and New Britain history.
Students will report to the Museum's curator, Riza Brown.