John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History
John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History

Nau Center Paid Summer Internships

The Nau Civil War Center is sponsoring seven paid summer internships for UVA students.

Applications are due by Sunday, February 15, 2026. 

To apply, please email the following information to our director Caroline E. Janney (cej4b@virginia.edu) and our managing director Brian C. Neumann (bcn3xu@virginia.edu):

  1. Your name and email address
  2. Your academic year (1st year, 2nd year, 3rd year, etc.)
  3. Your major(s) and minor(s)
  4. Your top three internships in order of preference
  5. Would you like to be considered for other internships outside your top three?
  6. A copy of your resume or CV
  7. A copy of your unofficial transcript
  8. A short essay (roughly 2 pages, double spaced) that discusses your academic interests, your relevant experience, and the reasons you are interested in applying. 

In addition, please arrange for a professor, teaching assistant, or other supervisor to email a letter of recommendation to Caroline Janney and Brian Neumann by the deadline. 

Unfortunately, students graduating in May 2026 are not eligible to apply.

List of internships:

Manassas National Battlefield Park (Manassas, VA)

  • ​Terms: Manassas National Battlefield Park is seeking two undergraduate or graduate 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 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 an undergraduate 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 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 an undergraduate or graduate cultural resource management intern with a background 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. 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 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! 

 

Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library (Charlottesville, VA)

  • Terms: The Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library is seeking an undergraduate intern with strong research and writing skills and coursework in American History for preliminary work on an exhibition that focuses on the American Civil War. Experience with archival materials and reading 19th century handwriting is a plus. The intern will report to the Associate University Librarian for Special Collections and Preservation and will work closely with staff curators and archivists. This internship pays up to $4,600 for the summer ($15.33 an hour, 30 hours a week, for up to 10 weeks).
  • Goals: This hands-on internship invites you to dive deep into the Nau Civil War History Collection, where you’ll search for compelling materials—military documents and ephemera, letters, photographs, newspapers, and more—that could be featured in a major upcoming exhibition that celebrates John L. Nau III’s transformational gift of his Civil War history archival collection. As you explore the Nau Collection, you’ll help shape themes centered on the everyday soldier, Civil War medicine, the home front, United States Colored Troops, and the environmental and landscape history of the conflict. By identifying potential material for the exhibit, your work will directly influence how these stories are shared with the public
  • Throughout the summer, you’ll collaborate closely with archivists, librarians, and exhibition curators, gaining valuable experience in exhibition pre-production—especially the art and strategy of selecting items for display. By the end of the internship, you will create and present a curated list of potential exhibition materials to Nau Civil War Center staff and Special Collections curators. You’ll also prepare a brief, two-page summary reflecting on your work and discoveries. This is a rare opportunity to shape a major exhibition, develop archival research skills, and contribute to public history in a meaningful way.

  • About: The Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library is part of the University of Virginia Library system. We steward a collection of rare and unique materials to advance the research, teaching and learning priorities of the University of Virginia and make this world-class collection accessible for use by researchers and scholars worldwide. We build collections for research use, describe and make collections accessible and discoverable, house and keep collections secure, assist researchers in accessing materials, in person and online, and interpret collections through instructions, exhibitions, and programs.