The
Morgan Library & Museum welcomes applications for its 2023–2024
academic year internship program. The program will provide an
introduction to the variety of career opportunities available in museums
and special collection libraries. Each intern will be assigned to a
department relevant to their interest and work with departmental staff
on timely topics in that area. Interns will also have the opportunity to
learn about the Morgan, and the museum and special collection fields
more generally, through professional development opportunities such as
facility tours and meetings with museum leadership.
These are on-site, paid internships for schedules of up to 14 hours
per week. Please see detailed application instructions below. The Morgan
especially seeks to provide opportunities to candidates from
backgrounds historically underrepresented in the museum and special
collection libraries fields. Please note that professional development
programming will generally be scheduled on Fridays, and so priority will
be given to applicants able to be at the Morgan on Fridays.
For the academic year 2023–2024, internships are available in the following areas:
Printed Books and Bindings Internship
This internship in
the curatorial department of Printed Books and Bindings offers a unique
opportunity to gain practical experience in the field of arts and
cultural heritage. The successful candidate will work closely with the
Astor Curator and Department Head on projects that may include the
following: assisting in the organization and facilitation of the Printed
Lives outreach project to local schools and in delivering engaging
presentations and workshops to students; organizing promised gifts and
collections as needed; supporting the Astor Curator in conducting
research on potential exhibition themes and artworks; collaborating with
the curatorial team to plan for proper care and preservation of donated
works; and assisting in the exhibition-related activities such as
labeling, signage, and layout design.
Drawings and Prints Internship
This internship in the
curatorial department of Drawings and Prints will enable a student to be
mentored in the history of nineteenth century French art through the
enhanced online presentation of works in the Morgan's collection. The
intern will assist the Eugene and Clare Thaw Curator of Printed Books
with the research and writing of interpretive texts devoted to the
Morgan's holdings by French artists active in France, North Africa, and
abroad during the period from the French Revolution to the dawn of the
twentieth century. The intern will also assist with entering and
proofreading the information on the works, in collaboration with
drawings department and Collections Information Systems colleagues, to
ensure that each drawing is accurately and fully presented in the
Morgan's online public access catalogue, paving the way for students and
scholars to engage more deeply with this portion of the collection.
Public Programs and Education Internship
The Education
Department intern participates in the Morgan’s school, family, and teen
programs, including the Morgan Book Project and exhibition programming.
The candidate should demonstrate a keen interest in the field of museum
education and in the visual arts, attention to detail, and solid writing
and communication skills. The intern will assist in the weekly
implementation of school programs, including set-up and clean-up of
classes, the maintenance of program supplies, and administrative
support. The candidate will observe the Morgan’s school programming and
be trained to teach school tours, including onsite and offsite events.
The candidate will additionally participate in family and teen
workshops.
Communications and Marketing and Internship
The
Communications and Marketing Department is interested in hosting an
intern to work in collaboration with the Morgan’s staff Outreach
Committee and the Director of Communications and Marketing to issue
weekly audience experience surveys and two reports on the findings. The
intern will also assist with seasonal updates to the contacts database,
provide support for the Morgan’s Centennial campaign, and help with
operating the College Ambassadors program.
Imaging and Rights Internship
This internship offers a
unique opportunity to gain experience in Imaging and Rights. The
successful candidate will assist on Morgan publications and exhibitions,
organizing images and spreadsheets, assisting with color proofing and
maintaining image and copyright credits. The intern will also update
metadata in image files such as Morgan Digital Assets (MDA) and continue
with ingesting digitized music images into MDA. This requires accessing
databases, embedding metadata into image files, and after MDA ingest,
reviewing, revising and correcting data when necessary.
Graham S. Haber Cultural Heritage Collections Photography Internship
This
internship will provide an introduction to the Morgan’s digital imaging
studio and training with professional digital imaging equipment. The
intern will learn to create archival quality digital images of rare
materials in the Morgan’s collection, which spans from Ancient Western
Asian seals and tablets to contemporary drawings and photography, while
also learning the crucial role of digital imaging in museums and special
collections, cultural heritage imaging standards, and the many uses of a
wide variety of images produced. Recent graduates may also apply.
Exhibition and Collection Management Internship
The
Exhibition and Collections Management department is interested in
hosting an intern to assist with the processing of paperwork for
acquisitions and objects on temporary deposit, help with the inventory
of collection objects, and also aid with label production, documentation
and data entry. The intern will also assist with filing and archiving
loan and acquisition related paperwork, TMS work (data clean up,
generation of loan records, and paperwork), the trafficking and
organization of exhibition graphics, and more!
Thaw Conservation Center Internship
The focus of this
internship will be the creation of preservation enclosures for fragile
collection materials, while also providing an introduction to the goals
and activities of the Thaw Conservation Center (TCC). Under the guidance
of the book and paper conservators in the TCC, the intern will learn to
identify and describe the vulnerabilities of books and archival
materials, and transfer them to safe archival housings where
appropriate. Depending on which days they work, the intern will also
participate in the weekly routines of the department, assisting in
activities such as gallery walk-throughs and environmental monitoring;
there will be opportunities to shadow conservators, fellows, and
preparators working on treatment and exhibition preparation.
Sherman Fairchild Reading Room Internship
The Sherman
Fairchild Reading Room is looking for a Library or Archival Science
undergraduate/graduate student who is interested in working in a special
collections, research library, or museum library environment. The main
responsibilities include: sorting, paging, and reshelving of reference
books and other secondary source materials, including microfilms and
internal files; inputting and updating reader records and files in
Voyager and Microsoft Access database (or related); photocopying and
scanning of reference books and archival documents, and working on other
Library projects and miscellaneous office tasks as assigned.
Eligibility
- Current enrollment as an undergraduate or graduate student.
- Strong interest in a career in the museum or library field.
- Eligibility to work in the United States (international candidates
must be eligible to participate in a paid internship program in the
United States).
- Strong verbal and written communications skills.
The Morgan requires all employees, including interns, to have
been vaccinated and received booster shots against the COVID-19 virus.
