History Internships
Are you a junior or senior in need of upper-level elective credits in History? Are you seeking opportunities to further develop and practice your historical, critical thinking, and problem solving skills beyond the traditional classroom setting? Looking to engage in experiential learning and earn ThinkAchieve: Beyond the Classroom credit? If so, consider “HIST 4920: Internships in History.”
This course offers students 3 hours of academic credit for 150 hours of internship work during a single semester; students alternatively can earn 2 credits for 100 hours of work, or 1 credit for 50 hours of work. Students who complete the course can earn 20 points in Beyond the Classroom credit.
The History Department has partnered with many of our area's most outstanding historical and cultural institutions to offer the for-credit/unpaid internships listed below (students are welcome to propose internships not listed here).
If, after reading the internship descriptions, you are interested in one of these opportunities or have any questions, please contact the History Department's internships coordinator, Dr. Mark A. Johnson. Professor Johnson will serve as the UTC faculty liaison between student interns and sponsoring institutions. Please note that some internships are competitive and limited to only one or two students each semester.
See what UTC History interns have been up to on the History Department Blog and the UTC Library Blog.
*Applications for Internships Accepted on a Rolling Basis*
Internship Opportunities:
Audubon Acres / Chattanooga Audubon Society
Chattanooga Audubon Society is an 80-year old organization with an immense and rich history and a National Trail of Tears Site. The site recently learned that much of what they believed to be true about Audubon Acres and the Cherokee people could be inaccurate. The history interns would be fact-checking the written and oral history that has been passed down within the organization against reputable historical records. The intern would be asked to sort through the documents currently housed at Audubon Acres, research the history of the Cherokee people and their potential ties to our property, document their findings, create a more accurate story of Audubon/Cherokee history, and create an interpretative guide for the docents.
Bessie Smith Cultural Center:
The mission of the Bessie Smith Cultural Center (The Bessie) is to become the premier interdisciplinary cultural center that promotes cultural, educational, and artistic excellence and fosters research and education of African and African American heritage; and provides a venue that allows the community to celebrate through education, art and entertainment. Student interns will assist the staff of the Bessie Smith in fulfilling this important mission.
Chattanooga Public Library
Special Project: In Spring 2025, CPL will work with Overlooked Materials to create an exhibit on distilling in SE Tennessee
CPL has recently acquired a collection of maps and need someone to go through them to create an inventory and do some light research on each (dates, creator/publisher, coverage, etc). They need someone to compare them against our current maps collection to sort out which maps fill gaps in the library’s holdings, which are duplicative, and for those that are duplicative - are they in better condition than our current copy? If this project wraps up sooner than expected, we're also looking to convert our map catalog, which currently exists as a card file, to a digital format. This part of the project would be a little heavier on the data-entry side, but would still require the intern to think about how maps are categorized/classified, what subjects/topics are represented by different maps, etc. Chattanooga Public Library also has a small processing project - this could entail rehousing, labeling, and inventorying archival collections, and researching the people/families/organizations that created them.
Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park (juniors preferred):
Interns participating in this opportunity at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park will engage with the profession of historical interpretation at the oldest and largest national military park in the United States. Interns will learn about what it means to connect the public to the parks in meaningful ways following the principles of interpretation laid out by Freeman Tilden and built upon by later generations of national park rangers. The internship will be completed through a series of online courses, meetings with a park ranger supervisor, hands-on activities, and programming in the park, culminating in the intern presenting programs to park visitors. This internship is unpaid, but is eligible for college credits and serves as experience with the National Park Service.
Creative Discovery Museum:
Creative Discovery Museum is one of the nation’s best children’s museums. The evaluation department conducts surveys, interviews, observations, and more to assess the impacts of the museum’s exhibits and programs. The museum’s intended impact is for children and families to engage in playful experiences that spark new passions, expand their curiosity, and deepen connections to their community and world. Interns will gain real world experience through assisting with the evaluation of exhibits and programs including collecting data and managing databases. Applicants should have good social skills including being comfortable approaching strangers and engaging in friendly conversations. Applicants should also have good organization skills and the ability to self-delegate.
East Tennessee Historical Society (Knoxville):
The Collections Department at the East Tennessee Historical Society seeks an intern who will assist the curator of collections in curatorial projects. The primary project will be to prepare the collections database for public online use. Tasks will include data entry, photographing objects, and research. There will be other opportunities for object rehousing, environmental monitoring, inventory of collections, condition reporting, and/or exhibit installation. Interns will be working on curatorial tasks that will teach them essential collections management skills.
Ed Johnson Project:
The Ed Johnson Project is a unique Chattanooga project that has the potential to promote healing and reconciliation in our community. Its goal is to remember the Ed Johnson story through a memorial which acknowledges the lynching of Ed Johnson, to honor the courageous work of his attorneys, and to recognize the resulting U.S. Supreme Court case. The project is also helping to fund a documentary and scholarship for criminal justice majors. Through all our efforts, we hope to share a message of remembrance of this important history, reconciliation to our entire community and unity in working towards a better future. An intern would work to help with research, organizing research and documenting oral histories, as well as other duties.
Historic Ramsey House (Knoxville):
The Historic Ramsey House in Knoxville is in search of a collections intern who would work closely with the collection to complete a full inventory and database entry. Tasks may also include research, photography, condition reporting, and rehousing as needed. This internship would allow for additional opportunities to work at events or provide tours if there is an interest. The intern will work directly under Kelley Weatherley-Sinclair (Executive Director, Historic Ramsey House) and given additional guidance by Rebecca P’Simer (Curator, East Tennessee Historical Society). The intern should have interest in collections management and ability to work independently.
Houston Museum of Decorative Arts:
The Houston Museum of Decorative Art’s mission is to protect and showcase the collection of one woman, Anna Safley Houston. Interns will work behind the scenes, assisting the Collections Manager with object research, photography and cataloging. Interns may also work with the Outreach Coordinator preparing for and assisting with classes and exhibits.
Hunter Museum of American Art:
The Hunter Museum of American Art offers a wide variety of internship opportunities for those interested in learning more about the museum. Internships are unpaid learning experiences for college students. In addition to adding practical skills to their resumes, interns gain a sense of the overall workings of the institution. Internship positions are project-based and scheduled on a rolling basis. While specific opportunities for placement change throughout the year, past placements have included Curatorial, Education, Membership and Development, and Marketing and Communications departments. For the 2022-23 school year available internships are
- Paid fellowship for BIPOC students interested in working with our education department in outreach programs in Chattanooga's historically marginalized communities. For more information on this contact Hunter Museum Curator of Education Adera Causey at [email protected].
- Paid summer internship for students with experience working with young children to work with children in the museum’s summer art camp. For more information on this contact Hunter Museum Curator of Education Adera Causey at [email protected].
- Unpaid internships with the museum’s communications department, ideal for students with a design and marketing background. For more information contact Hunter Museum Director of Communications Cara McGowan at [email protected]
Museum Center at 5ive Points:
The Museum Center at 5ive Points in downtown Cleveland, Tennessee, tells the story of the Ocoee Region. Through exhibits, public programs, tours, and special events, the Museum shares the local stories of our area’s past, present, and future. Competitive internship opportunities are available through both the Museum’s Education and Collections departments. Museum Education Intern projects include public history and community involvement, exhibit and related program planning, education program research and development (field trips and tours), volunteer training and management, and marketing and promotion. Meanwhile, the Museum holds a collection of over 7,400 objects including photographs, documents, and objects highlighting early settlement, agriculture, and industry. Museum Collections Interns work directly with the Curator of Collections to document, research, and maintain the Museum’s collections.
National Medal of Honor Museum:
The Medal of Honor Heritage Center was created to educate present and future generations about the extraordinary sacrifices of those who went above and beyond the call of duty to preserve the cause of freedom. Possible internship tasks include researching new exhibit content, writing interpretive panels, sourcing and inventorying artifacts, and creating collection finding aids.
National Park Partners:
The mission of the not-for-profit National Park Partners is to champion the conservation of the natural, historic, and cultural resources of Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park (CCNMP), including Moccasin Bend National Archeological District. educating the public about their significance, and promoting the park as a national treasure. As the country's first (and largest) National Military Park, CCNMP is comprised of six distinct units (Chickamauga Battlefield; Lookout Mountain Battlefield; Missionary Ridge; Moccasin Bend National Archeological District; Orchard Knob; and Signal Point) that commemorate Chattanooga's legacy of conflict followed by reconciliation, and tragedy followed by hope. These are places for remembrance, reflection and discovering more about what it means to be an American. Our role at National Park Partners is to preserve, promote, and enhance these national treasures and connect the community to the people and places that shaped our city. Interns will have the opportunity to research the 12,000 year history of Moccasin Bend and the more recent history of the Civil War Campaign for Chattanooga, as well as the arc of "Civil War to Civil Rights" stories that provide insight into American history that continues to be written every day. In addition, interns will gain valuable knowledge of the day-to-day operations of a small nonprofit organization in downtown Chattanooga. This internship offers college credit, flexibility, and opportunities for growth as a historian and professional
Overlooked Materials
Special Project: In Spring 2025, Overlooked Materials will cooperate with the Chattanooga Public Library to do an exhibit on distilling in Southest Tennessee. Ideally, both Overlooked Materials and CPL will have interns.
Overlooked Materials launched in Chattanooga in the summer of 2024 with the mission of connecting communities through experiential recycling. According to a 2022 study by the Recycling Partnership, less than half of residential recyclers said they believe the items they place in their recycling bin are made into new products and very few people (17%) feel well-informed about what happens to their recycling. To help increase public interest in recycling, Overlooked Materials draws on stories from Chattanooga’s past. At the facility in Ridgedale, they have created a small museum tied to the history of glass packaging in our area. With a lack of good, consolidated reference material, Overlooked Materials needs help from UTC students to share this rich history. They are seeking an intern(s) to help us tell fact-based stories tied to the antique objects in our collection, which focuses on pre-prohibition alcohol firms, the early development of the soft drink industry, late 19th century & early 20th century medicines, and the network of dairies in our region. Applicants should have an interest in storytelling and our mission of using stories from the past to promote sustainability for our future..
People’s History of Chattanooga Project:
There is a well-known narrative of Chattanooga history; Civil War battlefields, the ‘Dynamo of Dixie,’ ‘Dirtiest City in the U.S.,’ the Chattanooga Renaissance. A sanitized picture of progress for a mid-sized Southern city, this tale tends to focus on the political establishment, business leaders, and other movers and shakers while often ignoring the real perspective of marginalized communities, agitators, and working-class folks whose bitter fights for a better city have left an indelible mark. Chattanooga Organized for Action (COA) wants to tell this story; one that highlights the social movements, radical activism, dirty conflicts and everyday heroes that have often remained hidden from cultural awareness. Whether it is the legacy of white supremacy and anti-racist resistance, the rise of unions and industrial struggles, the complex battles for women's liberation, the strengthening of networks in the LGBTQ community, or the mobilization of citizens around numerous and diverse environmental issues, the time is right for a more full and honest portrayal of Chattanooga. The People’s History of Chattanooga Project looks to tie historical research to cultural production and public consciousness. Based on the amazing ‘Celebrate People’s History’ posters created by the JustSeeds Collective, the goal of the project is to work with local artists and graphic designers to create a series of posters relating to particular historical themes. With support from the University of Tennessee’s History and Graphic Design Departments, we are expecting to host a gallery exhibit launching the project at the end of Spring 2016. As a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, COA will actively distribute these posters around the city, maintain a display on our website, and work to schedule a rotating gallery and curated exhibits. This is meant to be a multi-year project with added content highlighting new stories. Chattanooga Organized for Action is looking to involve history interns in background research, primary source identification and oral history work relating to the People’s History Project. The intern program will be overseen and coordinated by Michael Gilliland, Board Chair.
Red Clay State Park:
For those interested in Early American, Cherokee or Native American studies, Red Clay State Historic Park has an opportunity for you with an internship program at the park in partnership with UTC. Student interns will have an opportunity to shape their own historical programs and present them to the public either as a living history participant or as a tour guide. Other students will help identify and arrange the park’s large store of archive materials and help make them easily searchable for researchers or the general public. Other opportunities include park trail guides, park event staff, museum tour guides, library reorganization, park resource management and other tasks as assigned.
RISE:
Started as a day-long festival in 2011 honoring Jazz Appreciation Month, RISE, formerly Jazzanooga, evolved into an independent and thriving, minority-founded, nonprofit organization dedicated to using the arts to transcend cultural barriers and to addressing the lack of diverse arts and cultural programming in the greater Chattanooga area. As Jazzanooga expanded its services, providing an array of cultural arts programming and initiating new opportunities for creative experimentation and community transformation, we were extremely fortunate to garner local and national attention for our arts and cultural programming. The position of Cultural Preservation Intern assists the Executive Director and other RISE staff in the visioning, planning, and execution of new cultural preservation project that aims to collect and communicate local histories from Chattanooga’s minority communities. We are looking for creative self-starters with a passion for people and their stories.
Essential Duties: Working with the Executive Director, RISE staff, and intern cohort to create a creative vision and plan for history collection and presentation; Researching the history and present of Chattanooga’s minorities communities; Performing outreach to community organization and community members about the project, including attending community meetings; Creating interview and/or questionnaire frames and informed consent documents for the project; Performing interviews of local community members; Managing and organizing qualitative data; Collaborating with RISE team and other creatives to develop an accessible and engaging presentation of the collected histories.
Scenic City Clay Arts:
Scenic City Clay Arts is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with a mission sharing access to all things clay through collaborative education in a community studio. SCCA is an active studio space offering ceramic studio memberships as well as a variety of clay art classes for all ages and skill levels. We provide community programs and partner with area service organizations to bring the joy of clay arts to all! Learn more about us on our website, www.
For their project, the intern will be asked to conduct independently led research into a select historical topic related to pottery and clay and tasked with developing a lecture series, workshop, or visual model highlighting the history of the selected topic. Examples of topics for research include: clay, glaze, kilns, local American Indian pottery, environmental impacts of clay/glaze, advancements from functional to decorative ceramics.
Interns may also have the opportunity to learn about the day-to-day operations of a nonprofit arts organization with an active maker space and studio classroom. Depending on student interests, this may include observation of ceramics studio operations, organizational management, sales and marketing, and fundraising activities.
Southern Railway Historical Association Archives:
The Southern Railway Historical Association has recently moved to Chattanooga its extensive collection of documents, drawings, and photographs, covering railroad operations, rolling stock, locomotives and structures, and dating back to 1894. SRHA has located these archives adjoining the campus of the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, and is in the process of evaluating, organizing and cataloging these materials. Interns will assist in this process by examining, logging, and sorting the items; packaging, labeling and shelving the collections; scanning original materials for digital storage; creating descriptive metadata in spreadsheets; and creating finding aids for search and retrieval of the historical documents.
Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum (New):
The mission of the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum (TVRM) is to collect for preservation, operation, interpretation, and display railroad artifacts in an authentic setting to educate the public concerning the role of railroads in the history and development of our region. Internship opportunities include assisting with collection management, hands-on preservation and restoration projects, exhibit preparation, creating and writing exhibit content, special events preparation, and customer service opportunities.
UTC Special Collections & Women's Oral History Project:
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Special Collections is responsible for acquiring, processing, preserving, and providing access to unique primary source materials, particularly those that focus on the university, Chattanooga, and the Tennessee Valley. Interns play a critical role in Special Collections by:
- arranging and describing archival collections;
- creating digital object metadata;
- using scanners and cameras to digitize archival materials and rare books;
- authoring lesson plans featuring local primary sources;
- conducting oral history interviews;
- and developing exhibitions, blog posts, and other outreach initiatives.
Interns and who successfully complete projects in Special Collections gain important transferable skills and exposure to professional software applications, descriptive standards, and controlled vocabularies that help prepare them for graduate studies or careers in libraries, archives, and museums. View past projects, details about the application process, and expectations on the Special Collections Internships and Practica page.