Nau Center Paid Summer Internships

The Nau Civil War Center is sponsoring up to nine paid summer internships for UVA students.

Applications are due by Sunday, February 2, 2025. Applications must include: your resume or CV; your unofficial transcript; and a short essay (roughly 2 pages, double spaced) that discusses your academic interests, your relevant experience, and the reasons you're interested in applying. In addition, please arrange for a professor, teaching assistant, or other supervisor to email a letter of recommendation to managing director Brian Neumann (bcn3xu@virginia.edu) by the deadline.

Click here to apply!

 

List of internships:

Manassas National Battlefield Park (Manassas, VA)

  • ​Terms: Manassas National Battlefield Park is seeking an undergraduate or graduate intern with a background in 19th-century American history to work at the national park. This internship pays up to $6,760 for the summer ($14.08 an hour, 40 hours a week, for up to 12 weeks) and includes housing at the park.
  • Goals: Duties may include historical research, frontline interpretation, content development for the park website and social media sites, and curatorial assistance with routine museum housekeeping.  The intern will be required to write a 2-page summary of their summer activities at the end of the internship. 
  • About: Manassas National Battlefield Park comprises approximately 5,000 acres and preserves the site of two major battles of the American Civil War – the First and Second Battles of Manassas (Bull Run).  Among the park’s historic features are multiple 19th century structures, military and civilian cemeteries, and commemorative monuments. Areas of interpretive emphasis include: the military events surrounding the First and Second Battles of Manassas (1861 & 1862); how the two battles reflect the transformation of the Civil War in purpose, scale, and method; the experience of civilians, both free and enslaved; and the memorialization of the battlefield landscape.
  • Click here to read a blog post about this internship! 

 

Appomattox Court House National Historical Park (Appomattox, VA)

  • ​Terms: Appomattox Court House National Historical Park is seeking an undergraduate or graduate intern with a background in 19th-century American history to work at the national park. This internship pays up to $6,760 for the summer ($14.08 an hour, 40 hours a week, for up to 12 weeks) and includes housing at the park.
  • Goals: The intern will assist the park's Curator and Historian. In the curatorial realm, the intern will assist the museum technician and the museum curator with routine housekeeping, and environmental monitoring in historic houses, exhibit spaces, and collection storage areas. The intern will also assist museum staff with conducting the mandatory Annual Inventory of Museum Property and help correct deficiencies in locations and documentation. The intern will learn to safely handle museum objects while unpacking and packing museum objects for storage, exhibits, or loans, as well as work on cataloging artifacts for the Park’s collection. For the Park Historian, the intern will research and help compile a master list of Appomattox Campaign casualties. Some transcription work of letters and diaries may also occur. The intern will be required to write a 2-page summary of their summer activities at the end of the internship.
  • About: The National Park Service unit at Appomattox Court House encompasses 1,700 acres, including the historic village and two Civil War battlefields, numerous cemeteries—military and civilian, several monuments from the commemorative era, and historic structures dating from to the 19th century. The site interprets a wide range of events, including the Appomattox Campaign, the battles of Appomattox Station and Appomattox Court House, the African American and white civilian experience, the surrender, and the events/results stemming from the surrender on April 9, 1865.
  • Click here to read a blog post about this internship! 

 

Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park (Fredericksburg, VA)

  • ​Terms: Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park is seeking up to two undergraduate interns with a background in 19th-century American history to work at the national park. These internships pay up to $6,760 for the summer ($14.08 an hour, 40 hours a week, for up to 12 weeks) and include housing at the park. ​
  • Goals: Duties may include leading battlefield tours, research, engagement with park visitors, preparation of historical papers, and work for the NPS websites.  Each intern will be required to write a 2-page summary of their summer activities at the end of the internship. 
  • About: The National Park Service unit headquartered in Fredericksburg encompasses four major Civil War battlefields, cemeteries containing U.S. soldiers, monuments from the commemorative era, and historic structures dating from the 18th through the 20th centuries. The site interprets a wide range of events, including the battles of Fredericksburg (1862) Chancellorsville (1863), the Wilderness (1864), and Spotsylvania (1864); the experience of black and white refugees; the trauma of civilians caught in the path of war; and postwar activities that recalled and interpreted the conflict.
  • Click here to read a blog post about this internship!

 

Antietam National Battlefield (Sharpsburg, MD)

  • Terms: Antietam National Battlefield is seeking an undergraduate or graduate intern with a background in 19th-century American history to work at the national park. This internship pays up to $6,760 for the summer ($14.08 an hour, 40 hours a week, for up to 12 weeks) and includes housing at the park or in the local community.
  • Goals: Duties may include historical research, frontline interpretation, working at the park visitor center, and content development for the park website and social media sites. The intern will be required to write a 2-page summary of their summer activities at the end of the internship.
  • About: This National Park Service unit encompasses roughly 3,000 acres, including the battlefield site, national military cemetery, field hospital museum, and nearly one hundred monuments. Areas of interpretive emphasis include: soldiers' and civilians' battlefield experiences, slavery and emancipation, and Civil War memory.
  • Click here to read a blog post about this internship! 

 

Shenandoah National Park (Luray, VA)

  • Terms: Shenandoah National Park is seeking up to two undergraduate or graduate cultural resource management interns with backgrounds in archeology, landscape architecture, architecture, history, museum sciences, social sciences, or natural sciences. Portions of the park lie within the traditional territory of the Monacan Indian Nation, and students with an interest in Native American Indigenous studies are encouraged to apply. These internships pay up to $6,760 for the summer ($14.08 an hour, 40 hours a week, for up to 12 weeks) and may include housing at the park, depending on availability.
  • Goals: Duties may include historical research and documentation, frontline interpretation, writing for the web and social media, archeological and cultural site condition assessments, archeological monitoring, National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and National Historic Protection Act (NHPA) compliance analysis and monitoring, curatorial and collection management assistance, design development for cultural resource projects, and maintenance of cultural landscapes. The intern will be required to write a 2-page summary of their summer activities at the end of the internship.
  • About: Shenandoah National Park lies along the crest of the Blue Ridge less than 90 miles from Washington, DC. The 197,000-acre park preserves and protects nationally significant natural and cultural resources, scenic beauty, and congressionally designated wilderness within Virginia’s northern Blue Ridge Mountains, and provides a broad range of opportunities for public enjoyment, recreation, inspiration, and stewardship.
  • Click here to read a blog post about this internship! 

 

American Civil War Museum (Richmond, VA)

  • Terms: The American Civil War Museum in Richmond is an undergraduate intern with coursework in history (19th-century US preferred but not required) and the following qualifications: some experience in primary source research and secondary reading, and effective written and verbal communication skills. The American Civil War Museum is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to diversity and inclusion. Candidates who bring diverse experiences, perspectives, and talents are especially encouraged to apply. We believe that an inclusive culture among our staff is critical to implementing our mission to understand the Civil War era’s history and its impact on our lives today. This internship pays up to $4,600 for the summer ($15.33 an hour for up to 300 hours of work over the course of 8 weeks).
  • Goals: The intern will help create an online, interactive timeline using Knight Lab’s open source timeline software. Specific tasks will include researching key Civil War events and writing short entries about those events, then using the museum’s object collection database to find artifacts within the collection to help illustrate those events. Additional research for primary sources also may be done through other institutions such as the Library of Congress and the National Archives. Upon request, the intern will have the opportunity to shadow selected departments of the museum for a comprehensive experience. The intern will be required to write a 2-page summary of their summer activities at the end of the internship.
  • About: The American Civil War Museum is a national resource for connecting people to the history and legacies of the American Civil War. With locations in Richmond and Appomattox, Virginia, the Museum explores the stories of the Civil War Era through our award-winning exhibits and programs. The Edward L. Ayers Center creates on- and off-site interpretive offerings that are strategic, engaging, accurate, relevant, and audience-centered. Through these offerings, visitors both emotionally and intellectually explore the cause, course, and legacies of the American Civil War era. Such offerings support the mission of the American Civil War Museum; enhance relationships between the museum, its audiences, and its partners; and support the desired impact of the museum’s larger interpretive plan and strategic plan.
  • Click here to read a blog post about this internship! 

 

Nau Civil War Center Digital Research (Charlottesville, VA)

  • Terms: The Nau Center is seeking an undergraduate or graduate intern with a background in 19th-century American history to assist with our new digital history project, entitled Letters Home. This internship pays up to $4,600 for the summer ($15.33 an hour, 30 hours a week, for up to 10 weeks).
  • Goals: Duties will include conducting research on Ancestry.com, writing biographies of soldiers and their families, and uploading transcriptions of letters to the project website. The intern will be required to write a 2-page summary of their summer activities at the end of the internship.
  • About: The John L. Nau III Civil War History Collection, located in UVA's Special Collections Library, contains thousands of letters, diaries, and photographs from the Civil War era. The Nau Center is creating a database and website to make this material accessible to scholars around the world. The website will feature transcriptions of the letters along with biographies of the soldiers and their families, interactive maps, and interpretive essays. 
  • Click here to read a blog post about this internship!