The Harpers Ferry National Historical Park collections include a wide variety of museum objects ranging from historic furnishings, natural history collections, archival documents, historic photographs, and archeological collections. The main focus for this internship will be assisting the park curator in inventorying archeological collections for removal to the region’s central storage area, the Museum Resource Center (MRCE), in Landover, MD. As part of this project, overnight travel to MRCE is planned for delivery of these collections, and working on another project once delivery is complete.

The internship will focus on verifying objects are in the bags/boxes they are listed in, replacing housing materials as necessary, and marking the boxes as appropriate. A secondary project is organizing, rehousing, describing, and scanning archeological field documents and final reports for long-term storage. The intern will assist the curator in other aspects of managing and operating a robust museum program such as developing social media posts, performing basic housekeeping, integrated pest management, and environmental data collection.

This position is part of the Internship Program administered by the National Council for Preservation Education (NCPE). The program is a partnership between the National Park Service and NCPE. Eligibility requirements apply; visit https://preservenet.org/ncpe-internships/ for details and instructions on how to apply.

Qualified NCPE interns who successfully complete their internships may count their position towards earning a Public Land Corps (PLC) Non-Competitive Hiring Authority certificate.  Once earned, the PLC hiring authority certificate may be used to apply for eligible Federal temporary, term, or permanent positions. Visit the website listed above for details about this benefit. Successful completion of the internship does not guarantee Federal employment.