The Many Tasks of an Intern at a Small Historic Site

By: Dominique Romero, Public History Track

A few months ago, I was sifting through the websites of various institutions in the pursuit of finding an internship that would fit my career goals. I looked through opportunities’ at large institutions, museums that had a wealth of resources, and other internships that were not in my career focus. I eventually found the President James K. Polk State Historic Site, a small museum in Pineville, North Carolina, which hosts an exhibit development internship that called to me. Given my career goals, an internship focusing on the preparation of a temporary exhibit, including research and writing the exhibit text, sounded like a dream to me. I was excited to be offered the position and I knew it would be an extraordinary educational opportunity for my career.  This internship, however, has prepared me and challenged me in ways I did not expect.

My responsibilities went beyond exhibit text and research, to include visitor services and social media. While it was not what I initially expected, my various responsibilities allowed me to be involved with different areas of daily operations and to learn about how small historic sites function. The 10 hours a week that I worked on-site, across two days, focused on learning about visitor services. Having worked at a historic site in Downtown Boston in visitor services, I fully believed I was prepared enough to master visitor services at the James K Polk site quickly. This was not the case because the two sites cater to different audiences and experiences.

Leading a tour in front of the cabins on site. Credit: The President James K. Polk State Historic Site.

The experience at the James K Polk site requires more interaction between the staff and the visitor because of the guided tour component. At Polk, my role demanded immediate and consistent connection with visitors, from the moment they walked through the door when I greeted them and explained the available activities.  After visitors viewed a short film on President Polk, I led them on a guided tour through the site, which I conducted every two hours.  Exceptional and individualized visitor experience is a priority for this state-managed site, which includes offering multiple opportunities for learning. Learning how to lead a tour and interact with people during a tour was one of the major challenges of my internship. I arrived at Polk without prior experience or training in guiding.  Over the course of the summer, I discovered that the job requires a lot of improvisation and thinking on your toes to read the impressions of the group. During this internship, I’ve gained a new skill set with creating an engaging experience for visitors and I’m excited to continue using it throughout my career.

My internship with Polk also gave me opportunities to build skills in interacting with online audiences through social media posts. The staff has been committed to expanding its social media audience for a few years now. They prepared a social media plan as a foundation for setting their goals for each social media platform and the desired online presence they seek. Site staff use a datasheet to analyze the success of posts and the number and nature of interactions on certain platforms. Their goal is to strategically use each platform to effectively reach an audience. I found it challenging to write in a voice that fits with the site and to choose an interesting topic that would entice social media users to engage with a post. The process of trial and error has given me insight into what users want to read and how to present, and crafting these posts has been a new source of learning for me.

While I dedicated 10 hours each week to crafting my visitor services skills on-site, I spent the other 10 hours of my week immersing myself in the exhibit planning process. Throughout this project, I gained knowledge in the exhibit planning process that I was looking for in an internship. At this stage of the planning process, I began by evaluating preliminary research already undertaken by the previous intern. Reviewing the information at hand, I identified areas for further research that helped form my initial exhibition outline. This outline included a general summary, main themes, influential figures to highlight, and strategies for organizing and presenting information on each panel. My work on the exhibit outline guided the draft of the exhibit text that completed my internship process.

Figure 2: Headquarters for the North Carolina Equal Suffrage Association in Raleigh, NC. Date. C.1910’s- ‘20’s. In 1894, the North Carolina Equal Suffrage Association was formed in Asheville, North Carolina to champion women’s equality and campaign for the right to vote. The NCESA did not gain political momentum until 1913, but its formation marks the beginning of the organized suffrage movement in North Carolina as the first suffrage club in the state.
Credit: Courtesy of the State Archives of North Carolina.

My work on this exhibition demonstrated to me the essentially collaborative nature of the exhibit planning process, at multiple levels. Early in the project, I collaborated with my supervisors to choose exhibit themes and storyline, and draft panel layouts. I reached out to higher-ups at the state level for help creating an artifact list and researching artifacts to be displayed in the exhibit. As I entered the home stretch, I worked with my supervisors on editing drafts of the exhibit text and labels, in preparation to send it on to the exhibit planning committee of state officials for approval. This aspect of the internship reinforced my own career goals and proved the many rewards of working collaboratively to create an exhibit.

My internship at the President James K Polk State Historic Site gave me insight and opportunities to learn a variety of skills necessary to practicing at a small historic site— in visitor services, guiding tours, exhibit planning, and daily operations. Performing so many tasks at a small historic site may be challenging, but it is an enriching experience that will teach you something new every day.