PROJECT SUMMARY
In the spring and summer of 2025, Chesterwood will continue with a major relocation of its sculpture collection from the basement of a nineteenth century barn to a new state-of-the-art facility within the recently renovated historic residence. This project is scheduled for completion by August 2025 with plans to open the collection to the public for research before the end of the season in late October. As part of the relocation process, the works will continue to be examined, cleaned, catalogued, and photographed. Approximately 100 works have already been moved to the new storage facility and approximately 100-150 more objects await examination and transfer.

Concurrent with the move of the sculpture collection, a new Study and Resource Center adjacent to the storage area has been created that will include Chesterwood’s extensive archival and resource materials relating to the life and work of Daniel Chester French, his family, friends, colleagues, and contemporaries, as well as the more general categories of painting, sculpture, garden design, and interior decoration. These materials include books, periodicals, museum catalogues, exhibition brochures, photographs, and extensive research files. This resource collection must be reviewed, arranged, shelved, and described in a cataloguing system, thus creating both virtual and physical access to the collection for Chesterwood staff, researchers, scholars, and the general public. This resource collection will be open to the public for regular Reading Room hours, tours, and special programs. The Collections Cataloguing Project Intern will be engaged in assisting staff in the aforementioned site initiatives over the course of the summer.

National Trust internships are temporary experiential learning opportunities with no expectation of employment at the conclusion of the internship.

For this internship, the National Trust is offering a stipend of $4,000 to help offset expenses. The period of the internship will be from June 2 – July 25, 2025 (8 weeks) for approximately 28 hours per week.

DUTIES

• Support staff in transferring and arranging the sculpture collection.
• Support with installation, photography, and cataloguing.
• Complete cataloguing Chesterwood’s historical book collection into the NTHP Collections Database, ReDiscovery.
• Review the contemporary print resource materials collection and propose a plan to arrange and describe.
• Catalogue reference materials into Libib database following best practices in library science and archival management.
• Create a Finding Aid to the reference collection; and create a Resource Collections Use and Policies document.
• Create a loan system for books and other resources for use by Chesterwood staff.

EDUCATIONAL VALUE TO THE INTERN
The intern will gain experience under the mentorship of respected preservation and museum professionals, in an educational setting at one of the nation’s premier historic house museums. The intern will also have the opportunity to participate in educational programming offered via the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s organization-wide internship program. Students may also be eligible for college or graduate school academic credit at the discretion of their institution.

Specifically, the intern will gain knowledge in the following areas:
• Considerations in moving a sculpture collection and its shelf arrangement.
• Best practices in cataloguing and collections storage.
• Best practices in arrangement and description of print resource materials.
• Create a Finding Aid, develop policies and a resource material loan system.
• Master two database systems for collections management.

At the end of the project the intern will have completed the digital catalogue of the resource collection, as well as created a Finding Aid, a Collections Use and Policies document, and a loan system document, which can be added to their professional portfolio in support of their future career pursuits.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Current (or recently graduated) student in Library Science, Museum Studies, or Curatorial Studies programs.
• Must have own transportation and lodging, and work on site at least 4 days a week.
• Basic analytical and problem solving skills, including issue identification and prioritization. Basic project-organization skills.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Ability to collaborate and achieve results with supervision, including ability to interact professionally with key internal and external stakeholders as needed. Ability to work successfully in close proximity to others required.
• Strong organizational skills required, with ability to prioritize, multi-task efficiently, and meet deadlines in a timely fashion.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Familiarity with collections database systems software a plus.

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