Public History is a field of practice. Many skills are best learned through experience and under the supervision of experienced professionals. Our public history students undertake a 120-hour internship (HIST 698) by participating in a substantive project at a local community organization, museum, or public institution. Internship placements are highly individualized; we work with students to determine their career goals and/or particular skills that they hope to gain in a field placement.

A young man stands on a gray metal ship with the Boston skyline in the background.
Intern Charlie Borsos in front of the “hedgehog launcher” on Cassin Young, December 2, 2020.

The Greater Boston area offers an abundance of cultural organizations and historic sites that can host and train our students, although some students have undertaken internships outside of state.

Our students have held internships at Adams National Historical Park; Baker Library, Harvard Business School; Boston Athenaeum; The Boston Museum Project; Boston National Historical Park; Boston Public Library; Boston Women’s Heritage Trail; Buttonwoods Museum; Cambridge Historical Society; Commonwealth Museum; Countway Library, Center for the History of Medicine; Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative; Facing History; Heinz History Center; Historic New England; Historic Newton; The History Project; Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center, San Francisco Public Library; The House of the Seven Gables; International Tennis Hall of Fame, Newport, RI; Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; John F. Kennedy Library and Museum; Kalaupapa National Historical Park, Molokai, Hawai’i; Leventhal Map Center, Boston Public Library; Lowell National Historical Park; Lynn Museum; Maryland Historical Society; Massachusetts Historical Commission; Massachusetts Historical Society; Massachusetts General Hospital Archives; Massachusetts History Day; Mass Memories Road Show (UASC); Mount Auburn Cemetery; Museum of African American History, Boston;  Museum of Fine Arts (Boston) Archives; Nantucket Historical Association; National Archives at Boston, Waltham, MA; New Bedford Whaling Museum; Nichols House Museum; Old Colony History Museum; Olmsted Center for Landscape Studies; Paul Revere House; Pilgrim Memorial State Park; Plimoth Patuxet Museums; Shirley Eustis House; Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College; Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary; Tracing Center on Histories and Legacies of Slavery, Watertown, MA; The Trustees of Reservations; Tsongas Industrial History Center, Lowell; USS Constitution Museum; UMass Boston, Healey Library, University Archives and Special Collections; West End Museum

Read First-Hand Accounts of UMass Boston Internships