Welcome!

As part of my academic requirements, this blog will follow my activities and experiences as a museum intern at the NPS Yellowstone Heritage and Research Center in Gardiner, Montana from May through August of 2009. The HRC is an 32,000 square foot collection management facility that houses the 5.3 million items in Yellowstone's enormous archives, library, and museum collection and features a small rotating exhibit space.

This will be my first museum internship, so I am looking forward to learning a lot this summer. I will be working closely with the supervisory museum curator, Colleen Curry. My responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

• Cataloging objects
• Scanning historic photographs and logging them into the ANCS+ collections database
• Interpreting exhibits and giving tours of the storage areas
• Working on rotating exhibits for the museum space
• Performing collections management work for the museums in the park's interior
• Meeting with other branch staff (historian, archivist, librarian, anthropologist, historic architect, archaeologist, wildlife biologist, fisheries staff, biologist)
• Working with five other interns (one museum intern, two library interns, and two archival interns)

I am a graduate student in the Museum Studies program at the University of Florida. This spring I finished the first of three years in the program. My interdisciplary focus is history, specifically the history of the American West and I will also pursue a certificate in historic preservation. My dream job is a position with the National Park Service, so this internship is a step in the right direction. I hope you enjoy my blog!