Summer Opportunites for Undergrads: Local History, Material Culture, and Digital Collections

Go behind the scenes at area museums, gain hands-on experience with artifacts and archives, and support the local community. Become a Material Culture Summer Service Learner! This summer, the Material Culture Program is partnering with local historical societies in the Madison area to sponsor two summer service-learning opportunities for UW-Madison undergraduate students studying anthropology, art, art history, design studies, folklore, history, landscape architecture, and related fields.

Position 1
Middleton Area Historical Society
Work with the Middleton Area Historical Society to research and write descriptions for a digital collection of historic photographs and inventory and catalog museum collections.

Position 2
McFarland Historical Society
Partner with the McFarland Historical Society to select, photograph, research and catalog items from the Society’s collection of Norwegian and Norwegian-American folk art and household objects.

Requirements:

200 hours of work are required between June and August 2012.

Must be available to attend a half-day introductory training session in Madison in late May or early June.(date TBD).

Must be able to provide own transportation to and from local sites.

Preference will be given to candidates who are currently working toward a Material Culture Certificate at UW-Madison.

Thanks to a generous grant from the Caxambas Foundation, the Material Culture Program will offer an honorarium of $2000 for each position.

To apply for either position, submit a cover letter and resume to Material Culture Program Director Ann Smart Martin (asmartin@wisc.edu) or Wisconsin Heritage Online Outreach Specialist Emily Pfotenhauer (epfotenhauer@wils.wisc.edu).

Application deadline: Friday May 11, 2012

Internship Opportunity: Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts Summer Institute

June 25 - July 20, 2012

The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts is accepting applications from graduate students, decorative arts professionals, and independent scholars for the 36th MESDA Summer Institute. The 2012 Institute emphasizes the material culture of the early southern Backcountry, including Tennessee, Kentucky and the piedmont and western
regions of Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. Students study the region’s economic, social and cultural history through a multidisciplinary approach that includes current methods of research, interpretation, preservation, and analysis of material culture. The program’s month-long curriculum includes lectures, discussions, workshops, artifact studies, research projects, and a six-day study trip to Tennessee.

The UVA Resident Scholar for the 2012 Summer Institute is Dr. Carroll Van West, Professor of History and Director of the Center for Historic Preservation at Middle Tennessee State University.  In addition to Dr. West, the faculty is composed of members of the staffs of MES¬DA and Old Salem Museums & Gardens, the University of Virginia, and several guest lecturers. The MESDA Summer Institute is a partnership between the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts and the University of Virginia’s Graduate Program in the History of Art and Architecture.   Students receive three hours of
graduate credit through the University of Virginia.

Applications are due April 20, 2012.

For more information - and an application - visit the 2012 Summer Institute
website: http://www.MESDA.org/SI

Class Opportunity: Ten Chimneys' Historic Preservation and Interior Design

Historic House Preservation

Instructor, Keith MacKay, Director of Historic Preservation, Ten Chimneys

Join the historic preservation movement by exploring the history of house museums such as Mount

Vernon, Fallingwater (Frank Lloyd Wright’s design with Edgar Kauffman) and Tenement buildings in

New York City.  Led by Keith MacKay, the director of historic preservation at Ten Chimneys, discover

and learn in one day about the earliest efforts to save places such as these, and the tasks needed

to preserve these historic houses.  Following this class step into the past with an option in-depth

preservation focused tour of Ten Chimneys. Class is held at the Lunt-Fontanne Program Center at Ten

Chimneys, S43

W31575 Depot Road

, Genesee Depot, WI 53127.  .2 CEU

Sat, March 10, 10:00am-12:00pm, $59   (optional tour immediately after class)

History of Interior Design:  The 20th Century

Instructor, Keith MacKay, Director of Historic Preservation, Ten Chimneys

Be in style! Delve into the historical development of American interior design from the late 19th

century until today.  Led by Keith MacKay, the director of historic preservation, we will explore and

focus on immigrant upholsterers, the legendary Lady Decorators who helped pioneered the field,

as well as professionally trained designers and reality television stars who’ve had a hand in interior

design.  Discover the individuals who defined stylish living, including Elsie de Wolf, Eero Saarinen,

and Billy Baldwin and join us for an option in-depth decorative arts-focused tour of Ten Chimneys. 

Class is held at Lunt-Fontanne Program Center at Ten Chimneys, S43 W31575 Depot Road, Genesee

Depot, WI 53127. .2 CEU

Sat, Apr 28, 10:00am-12:00pm, $59 optional tour to begin immediately after class)

Register through UW Waukesha Continuing Education 262-521-5460

Internship Opportunity: Historic Indian Agency House, Portage, WI

Historic Site Nature Trail Self-Guided Tour Internship

$1,800 for 400 work hours (or approximately 10 fulltime work weeks)—with half ($900) paid at the inception of the internship, and the remaining half paid upon satisfactory completion of the project.
Application Deadline: April 15, 2012

The Historic Indian Agency House (HIAH) is owned and operated by The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Wisconsin, one of 42 historical properties owned outright by the Colonial Dames of America, with an additional 28 affiliated with this genealogical association. The Historic Indian Agency House was built in 1832 by the United States government as a residence for John Kinzie, Indian Agent to the Ho-Chunk people, and still sits on its original foundation on a 226-acre expanse of land nearly untouched by modern encroachment. The site holds the story of the fur trade, the opening of the West, and the accompanying demise of the Native way of life. Our mission is to "preserve, interpret, and promote this historic site in order to educate the public about the cultural, political and natural history of Wisconsin, including the Ho-Chunk/Winnebago Nation, during the Commission of the United States Indian Agent John Harris Kinzie." The site was opened to the public in 1932, and since then has maintained a regular May 15 to October 15 open season. During this season, guided tours of the Agency House are offered for a nominal fee, with the permanent introductory exhibit and annual rotating exhibit available free of charge in the Visitors’ Center.

A generous grant from the Great Circle Foundation of East Northport, New York allows HIAH to seek a qualified intern for the 2012 summer season to carry out the Historic Site Nature Trail Self-Guided Tour Internship. The Historic Site Nature Trail Self-Guided Tour Internship will result in a cohesive and thought-provoking interpretive guide to accompany a 1.2 mile walking trail debuting in May 2012. The candidate will also manage a small-scale budget specifically intended for research materials and printing costs. This internship will begin the interpretive process related to what will eventually become a multi-faceted trail system. The selected intern will research and create an interpretive tour and accompanying guidebook/pamphlet for the first trail segment slated to debut this spring.

The position will require approximately 400 hours of work between June 01 and September 01, 2012. The selected candidate will preferably work a regular 40-hour work week for 10 consecutive weeks, but flexibility to accommodate specific needs is possible.

Graduate student (or advanced undergraduate, based on the recommendation of professors or other acceptable references) enrolled at an accredited college or university, preferably in History, Public History, Museum Studies, Anthropology, Environmental History or Education. Must be creative, have good communication skills, possess an attention to detail, and be both self-directed and able to work within a team. Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite (including Publisher) preferred but not required. Background in Wisconsin history preferred but not required.

Applicants should submit a resume that details their relevant work and educational experience, including the contact information for THREE references (two professional/academic and one personal). Applicants should mail all materials, along with a cover page outlining your interest in the position, to:

Destinee K. Udelhoven, Executive Director
Historic Indian Agency House
P.O. Box 84
Portage, Wisconsin 53901
destineekae@hotmail.com

Internship Opportunity: New York Historical Society Curatorial Internship in American Art

The internships will take place from June 11 through August 3 and interns will be awarded a $2,000 stipend. Applications are invited for two different internships:

American Colonial Portraits

The American art intern will work with the curator of American art. The intern’s main duties will involve researching colonial portraits and miniatures in the collection, investigating attribution questions, and assisting in logistical tasks toward developing an upcoming traveling show of colonial portraits. The internship will offer the opportunity to develop connoisseurship, investigate archival and secondary resources in the New York area, and learn about the early stages of exhibition development. The intern will also assist with ongoing projects and other collection research as needed. A graduate student with strong research skills and a background in American art is preferred.

1913 Armory Show

The New-York Historical Society is organizing The Armory Show at 100: The New Art Spirit, a large-scale exhibition celebrating the centenary of the legendary 1913 Armory Show. The exhibition will take place from October 2013 through February 2014. The intern working on this project will report to the co-curators of the exhibition and will work on numerous tasks such as: assisting in researching and writing descriptions for the exhibition website (for example, researching key works that will appear on the website); researching prints and photographs to be included in the exhibition; providing support in acquiring images of key works, and other general exhibition support. The internship will offer the opportunity to develop research and writing skills and participate in preparations for a major loan exhibition. A graduate student with strong research skills and a background in American art is preferred.

Applications are due by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, March 16. To apply: Email a cover letter indicating the position you are applying for, a resume, a five to ten page writing sample from a research paper or a piece related to the position, and two letters of recommendation. Application materials should be emailed with “2011 Summer Internship Application: Applicant’s Name” in the subject line to kimberly.orcutt@nyhistory.org, marilyn.kushner@nyhistory.org  and copied to interns@nyhistory.org.

Upcoming Lecture: 'Is There Paper in Our Future? Early American Perspectives on Contemporary Media Shift'

A talk given by Jonathan Senchyne, PhD
Cornell University

School of Library and Information Studies and

the Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture

February 6, 2012 11.30-12.30

SLIS Commons (HCW 4207)

This talk reads reactions to the shifting contemporary landscape of paper and digital publication through 18th- and 19th-century American poems and narratives that track the rise of paper as a kind of social medium. Recovering how early Americans saw themselves and their communities archived within paper itself, Dr. Senchyne argues that what often seems like mere nostalgia for paper can be an index of important affective connections between readers and material texts.

Jonathan Senchyne received his PhD in English at Cornell University in December, 2011.  His dissertation is titled, "'Our Paper Allegories': Intimacy, Publicity, and Material Textuality in Colonial and Antebellum American Literature."  His article, “‘Bottles of ink, and reams of paper’: Clotel, Racialization, and the Material Culture of Print” will appear in Early African American Print Culture in Theory and Practice, edited by Lara Langer Cohen and Jordan Alexander Stein, from the University of Pennsylvania Press in April 2012.

Upcoming Lecture: "Arthur Dove's Meteorology" with Dr. Rachael Z. DeLue, Princeton University

Thursday, February 2, 6:30pm
Elvehjem room L140

The American artist Arthur Dove (1880-1946) is well known for being one of the earliest abstract painters in America.  Less known is his career-long preoccupation with the nature and properties of human expression and the sign systems used therein.  In this talk, Professor Rachael DeLue of Princeton University discusses how Dove explored these matters in his art and developed a visual vocabulary for use in imagining novel forms and means of communication and interchange.  His project entailed a utopian vision of radical connection, a totalizing network of relationships among objects, phenomena, and beings.  The science of meteorology--the study of the earth's atmosphere and its weather--served as a model for this vision.