Exhibits Intern; RMF

Department: First Division Museum

Reports to: Exhibits and Collections Processing Technician

Time Frame: May - July 2019

Compensation: $14/hr.

The First Division Museum is a world class museum dedicated to American military history and specifically the history of the Big Red One, the famed 1st Infantry Division of the U.S. Army. Located on the grounds of Cantigny Park in Wheaton, Illinois, our 38,000 square-foot facility includes 10,000 square feet of interactive and experiential exhibits. The museum has a wide variety of exhibits including life‑size dioramas, Virtual Reality, and tanks found in the outdoor military park.

The McCormick Research Center, located in the First Division Museum, is home to thousands of books, donated papers, photographs, and oral histories that tell the story of the 1ID.

The First Division Museum offers a structured, formal internship program that provides exposure to specific departmental activities and museum-wide initiatives. This is an exciting opportunity to gain hands‑on experience in museum exhibitions including artifact handling and care, display research and labeling, pop‑up exhibit projects, and multi‑media gallery updates. We do our best to offer an experience that matches the interests of our interns with the priorities of our team at the museum.

Each intern is given a thorough orientation, syllabus, is well supervised, and evaluations are completed by both the student and the supervisor at completion, ensuring a strong learning experience. Our past interns have a strong track record of moving on to successful careers. Ideal candidates have a strong interest in preservation, collections and exhibits, museum studies and operations more broadly, and/or military history.

This is a part‑time position (approx. 20 hours/week) for three months from May through July 2019 that reports to the Exhibits and Collections Processing Technician.

• Artifact Rotations: Assist with rotating artifacts in the permanent exhibitions. This includes selecting appropriate replacement artifacts, conducting object research, writing label text, locating photos, and working with the collections team on potential graphic and artifact layouts and mounts.
• Graphic Updates: Assist with updating artifact labels and exhibition interpretation graphics. This includes conducting research, writing text, locating photos, and working with the collections team on graphic design and layout.
• Anniversary Pop‑up Exhibitions/Temporary Displays: Assist with the development and installation of two anniversary displays. There are two important 75th Anniversaries in 2019: D‑Day on June 6th, 1944 and the Battle of the Bulge on December 16th, 1944. To commemorate these important events we are planning special pop‑up exhibitions and temporary displays. This includes conducting research, writing text, locating photos, working with the collections team on graphic design and layout, and final install.
• Exhibition Evaluation: Assist with follow‑up evaluations and surveys to the museum’s 2018 AASLH Visitor’s Count survey. This includes surveying visitors, conducting visitor observations and dwell studies, and tabulating and analyzing evaluation results.
• Duty First Exhibition Updates: Assist with Duty First gallery updates. The Duty First gallery tracks the 1st Infantry Division’s history from post‑Vietnam to yesterday. The use of technology and multi‑media allow the gallery to be updated quickly and easily. This includes editing content and uploading text and photos to the various exhibit displays.
• Gallery Maintenance: Assist with maintaining the gallery and ensuring the displays and equipment are in good, working order.

• Currently enrolled in an accredited undergraduate or graduate degree program (graduate students preferred)
• Some experience in and knowledge of exhibition development, design, or fabrication
• Some experience in and knowledge of museum collections (management, care, and artifact handling)
• Comfort with subject matter that can be challenging and at times disturbing as it deals with war and its consequences
• Efficient and…