Click to read more about recent internship experiences on our blog!

• Work­ing at the Camp­bell House Muse­um was an expe­ri­ence I will nev­er for­get. I am so thank­ful for all the mem­o­ries I made through research and giv­ing tours. I was about to learn so much about not only the his­to­ry of the time and the fam­i­ly but myself and my future work­ing with his­to­ry. I am so thank­ful for what the semes­ter brought to my life. ‑Lau­ren S.

• I had a love­ly time and a fun expe­ri­ence intern­ing at the Camp­bell House Muse­um this sum­mer! It was pret­ty neat to learn about the Camp­bell fam­i­ly and the home through the objects and sto­ries that were left behind. Here, I was able to have hands-on expe­ri­ence with the home’s col­lec­tion of arti­facts and doc­u­ments, learn how to use the Past Per­fect soft­ware, guide vis­i­tors through tours, and see what it is like to work at a small­er muse­um. Here you are able to get a taste of every aspect of run­ning a muse­um, and you get to meet a group of very nice staff and docents who are high­ly pas­sion­ate and heav­i­ly devot­ed to his­to­ry and the home. My expe­ri­ence here made me real­ize that I would like to pur­sue a career in muse­um stud­ies, and I hope to use the knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence I gained to work at a muse­um in the future. I would high­ly rec­om­mend intern­ing at the Camp­bell House! ‑Ari­ana G.

• My time intern­ing at the Camp­bell House was an amaz­ing expe­ri­ence. It was great work­ing with a group of peo­ple who are so pas­sion­ate about this house and the his­to­ry it rep­re­sents. I got to expe­ri­ence so many dif­fer­ent aspects of the muse­um; from giv­ing tours to doing an inven­to­ry of the arti­facts to research­ing Robert Campbell’s sib­lings. Intern­ing at the Camp­bell House gave me an immense amount of expe­ri­ence that I prob­a­bly couldn’t get at many oth­er intern­ships. I grew up around the St Louis area and I had no clue this muse­um exist­ed till I was look­ing for places to intern at. The Camp­bell House real­ly is a hid­den gem of St Louis and I’m very glad I found it. ‑Alyssa V.

• I had a won­der­ful time work­ing with the Camp­bell House in coop­er­a­tion with the Mis­souri State Archives. I have cre­at­ed a large, orga­nized, and detailed data­base of court cas­es involv­ing Robert Camp­bell and oth­er mem­bers of his fam­i­ly. I have learned a lot about the his­to­ry of the Camp­bell fam­i­ly and Robert Camp­bel­l’s deal­ings with debt, real estate, reli­gion and busi­ness. I’ve also learned much about the his­to­ry of the City of St. Louis. This has been a very reward­ing expe­ri­ence. ‑Tony B.

• My time at the Camp­bell House has been spent work­ing on the Muse­um’s Nation­al Land­mark nom­i­na­tion … I have also had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to take on oth­er posi­tions at the Muse­um by giv­ing tours and vol­un­teer­ing at events. This oppor­tu­ni­ty has real­ly helped me decide that I am in the right field and doing the right thing with my edu­ca­tion.” ‑Gab­by B.

• My expe­ri­ence while intern­ing at the Camp­bell House Muse­um this sum­mer was extreme­ly reward­ing.  Dur­ing the sum­mer I worked on the col­lec­tions inven­to­ry which allowed me to work with the museum’s exten­sive and unique col­lec­tion while also learn­ing the rich his­to­ry behind the Camp­bell House.  Work­ing at a non-prof­it, pri­vate his­toric site also taught me the val­ue of the involve­ment of a pas­sion­ate staff.  From the vol­un­teers, oth­er interns, and the staff, every­one involved at the Camp­bell House were hard­work­ing and pas­sion­ate about pre­serv­ing the his­to­ry of the home and friend­ly to work with.  Intern­ing at the Camp­bell House Muse­um allowed me to not only gain valu­able knowl­edge about work­ing at a muse­um, but to also have a fun expe­ri­ence with great peo­ple. ‑Rachel V.

• My expe­ri­ence while intern­ing at the Camp­bell House Muse­um this sum­mer was extreme­ly reward­ing.  Dur­ing the sum­mer I worked on the col­lec­tions inven­to­ry which allowed me to work with the museum’s exten­sive and unique col­lec­tion while also learn­ing the rich his­to­ry behind the Camp­bell House.  Work­ing at a non-prof­it, pri­vate his­toric site also taught me the val­ue of the involve­ment of a pas­sion­ate staff.  From the vol­un­teers, oth­er interns, and the staff, every­one involved at the Camp­bell House were hard­work­ing and pas­sion­ate about pre­serv­ing the his­to­ry of the home and friend­ly to work with.  Intern­ing at the Camp­bell House Muse­um allowed me to not only gain valu­able knowl­edge about work­ing at a muse­um, but to also have a fun expe­ri­ence with great peo­ple. ‑Aman­da J.

• Intern­ing at the Camp­bell House Muse­um for the sum­mer was an amaz­ing expe­ri­ence. I had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to work with love­ly peo­ple who are all pas­sion­ate about his­to­ry and the Muse­um. This made com­ing to work a blast! For my project I worked with the Vir­tu­al Cities pro­gram and built a vir­tu­al mod­el of the Lucas Place neigh­bor­hood. This allowed me to learn more about the his­to­ry of the neigh­bor­hood and use some of my com­put­er sci­ence skills in a muse­um set­ting, which was exact­ly what I was look­ing for in an intern­ship. CHM is a beau­ti­ful house with won­der­ful peo­ple and I would high­ly rec­om­mend an intern­ship there. ‑Anna G.

• Intern­ing at the Camp­bell House was a reward­ing way to spend my sum­mer.  I enjoyed engag­ing with St. Louis his­to­ry, learn­ing Past Per­fect soft­ware, under­stand­ing the inner work­ings of a small pri­vate muse­um, and con­tribut­ing to the house in a small way.  I feel that work­ing close­ly with and get­ting to know the muse­um staff and vol­un­teers was the most valu­able aspect of the expe­ri­ence.  Because this intern­ship pro­gram sparked a pas­sion for the home, I will be stay­ing involved with the home as a docent. — Rachel D.

• I thor­ough­ly enjoyed my sum­mer intern­ship at Camp­bell House Muse­um.  As some­one who is new to St. Louis, I dis­cov­ered many valu­ables in the house: a rich his­to­ry of a promi­nent fam­i­ly in the fur trade and their gor­geous belong­ings, a stel­lar exam­ple of a metic­u­lous­ly restored his­toric site, and a knowl­edge­able and friend­ly group of com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers who have incred­i­ble high stan­dards for pre­serv­ing and improv­ing the muse­um.  As an intern, I was able to gain expe­ri­ence in basic muse­um skills: giv­ing tours of the home, learn­ing how to inven­to­ry arti­facts, uti­liz­ing archival soft­ware, and study­ing the fam­i­ly’s cor­re­spon­dence and records to con­duct research.  With­out hes­i­ta­tion, I would rec­om­mend Camp­bell House Muse­um to stu­dents inter­est­ed in his­to­ry, art, preser­va­tion, and edu­ca­tion as well as any­one look­ing to give their time and resources to a wor­thy cause. — Heather W.

• Wow!!  There are so many pos­i­tive things to describe my time at Camp­bell House that it’s hard to find a place to begin.  You will not find a more ded­i­cat­ed group of peo­ple focused on the preser­va­tion and pre­sen­ta­tion of pub­lic his­to­ry, and the home itself is a nation­al trea­sure, unlike any­thing I’d had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to expe­ri­ence pre­vi­ous­ly.  A trade­mark of my year at Camp­bell House was the amount of hands-on, down and dirty work that I was giv­en the oppor­tu­ni­ty to do with arti­facts and doc­u­ments, from preser­va­tion pro­ce­dures to the design and imple­men­ta­tion of exhibits.  CHM also pro­vid­ed me with valu­able expe­ri­ence in Past­Per­fect muse­um soft­ware.  I would high­ly rec­om­mend an intern­ship or vol­un­teer expe­ri­ence with the Camp­bell House Muse­um to any­one plan­ning a future work­ing in archives or muse­ums, it is time well spent in a mag­nif­i­cent home with the best staff around. ‑Sam M.

• My time at the Camp­bell House Muse­um has been an absolute­ly amaz­ing expe­ri­ence. I was able to con­tin­ue to devel­op my skills as a stu­dent of muse­um stud­ies while work­ing with a close-knit, ded­i­cat­ed group of staff and vol­un­teers. In addi­tion work­ing with actu­al Camp­bell fam­i­ly arti­facts, I was also allowed to work with let­ters and pho­tographs from the archive. This dual expo­sure helped me to under­stand what being a historian/museum pro­fes­sion­al is real­ly about. The Camp­bell House has giv­en me more oppor­tu­ni­ties than I ever imag­ined and has pro­vid­ed me with a sol­id base on which to begin my muse­um career. I am tru­ly grate­ful for my time there. ‑Lind­sey D.

• I had a won­der­ful sum­mer intern­ing at the Camp­bell House Muse­um. I loved learn­ing about the Camp­bell fam­i­ly and their house, and shar­ing that his­to­ry with vis­i­tors on tours. Because I was inter­est­ed in learn­ing more about the family’s reli­gious his­to­ry, I spent the sum­mer research­ing and piec­ing togeth­er a time­line on that top­ic. I had so much fun! I also real­ly enjoyed get­ting to know every­one who works at the muse­um – the staff, the docents, and the oth­er interns. I’m so grate­ful for my expe­ri­ence at the Camp­bell House! ‑Syd­ney S.

• My intern­ship this sum­mer at Camp­bell House Muse­um was a tru­ly won­der­ful expe­ri­ence. One ben­e­fit of intern­ing at a small­er muse­um was that I got an under­stand­ing of how a muse­um is run in a lot of dif­fer­ent aspects. Camp­bell House Muse­um itself is such an incred­i­ble his­tor­i­cal resource, and the staff were amaz­ing­ly friend­ly and always excit­ed to help me with what­ev­er I was work­ing on! ‑Kather­ine N.

• My intern­ship at Camp­bell House Muse­um this sum­mer was very reward­ing! I learned so much about run­ning a muse­um and all the tasks that a muse­um direc­tor takes on. I have gained expe­ri­ences that I’m sure will be invalu­able in my future. Intern­ing at Camp­bell House opens a door to the past that any­one would love. Every time I come into the muse­um, I become a part of his­to­ry and I couldn’t ask for any­thing more. I feel as though I know the fam­i­ly and I am proud to say that I have been able to share their sto­ry with any­one who is inter­est­ed. Work­ing on the ser­vant exhib­it real­ly enabled me to do some orig­i­nal research. I was able to work with the muse­um staff to put togeth­er a project that will help every­one who comes through the muse­um to under­stand not only what it may have been like to live in this house, but also what it may have been like to work here. I have nev­er been more excit­ed to con­tin­ue on my path towards run­ning my own muse­um one day. ‑Erin V.

• My work as an intern at the Camp­bell House Muse­um was an amaz­ing expe­ri­ence that will help me in the future. This intern­ship pro­vid­ed me with an active, hands-on role in the muse­um. I have learned so much about the run­ning of a muse­um and the amount of detail that goes into the research for each exhib­it. Learn­ing from the oth­er interns and employ­ees added anoth­er ele­ment to my intern­ship, as every per­son at the Camp­bell House has a dif­fer­ent per­spec­tive and spe­cial­iza­tion to add to my knowl­edge. I was able to also work with the past per­fect soft­ware and cre­ate my own cat­a­logs of the muse­um arti­facts. I felt like an inte­gral part in the run­ning of the muse­um because the vari­ety of work I was allowed to par­tic­i­pate in cre­at­ed a diverse and well-round­ed expe­ri­ence. I hope to con­tin­ue work­ing with the muse­um and to stay updat­ed on all the new research being done, as I feel invest­ed in the Camp­bell his­to­ry. Over­all, I had a won­der­ful intern­ship at the Camp­bell House Muse­um and would rec­om­mend this intern­ship to any­one who is inter­est­ed in his­to­ry and wants to have an active and diverse intern­ship expe­ri­ence. Thanks again to every­one at the Camp­bell House! ‑Maya F.

• I had the priv­i­lege of being an intern at the Camp­bell House at two dif­fer­ent stages in my career.  The year before I went to grad­u­ate school (2007–2008) I came into the Camp­bell House as an intern who had nev­er worked or vol­un­teered in a muse­um set­ting.  The first intern­ship gave me the oppor­tu­ni­ty to get my feet wet and see what I liked and what I did not like; my first expe­ri­ences involved archives and col­lec­tions man­age­ment.  The staff was friend­ly and more than will­ing to share their knowl­edge of the muse­um.  They were so fan­tas­tic that in July 2010, I came back to intern at the Camp­bell House Muse­um.  This time I came with a Master’s degree in Muse­um Stud­ies and was ready to put into prac­tice what I had learned.  I felt more con­fi­dent in my abil­i­ty to man­age the projects I was giv­en, such as plan­ning and run­ning a project involv­ing the Camp­bell House and Saint Louis Uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents.  Along with the SLU project I was involved in doing research for the 150th anniver­sary of the Civ­il War to plan­ning and cre­at­ing an exhi­bi­tion.  My expe­ri­ences and what I learned from my time at the Camp­bell House are invalu­able. ‑Karen M.

• My intern­ship at the Camp­bell House was the most reward­ing and edu­ca­tion­al intern­ship I have had. Dur­ing my ten months at the house, I updat­ed the archival records in Past­Per­fect, tran­scribed let­ters writ­ten to a Camp­bell busi­ness asso­ciate, and assist­ed in the cre­ation of the sum­mer 2011 fab­ric exhib­it. This hands-on expe­ri­ence was a great way to learn about what it is like to work in a small muse­um. I have nev­er before worked with a group of such intel­li­gent, ded­i­cat­ed and inter­est­ing peo­ple. I real­ly enjoyed every minute I spent in the house. My time at the Camp­bell House inspired me to apply to Muse­um Stud­ies Mas­ters pro­grams in the hope that I will one day work at a house muse­um. I would high­ly rec­om­mend this intern­ship to any per­son inter­est­ed in his­to­ry, his­tor­i­cal hous­es or just muse­um stud­ies in gen­er­al. ‑Aman­da W.

• The Camp­bell House Muse­um has been, by far, the most reward­ing learn­ing expe­ri­ence I have had out­side of my class­room expe­ri­ence.  As an His­toric Preser­va­tion stu­dent, I have seen and vis­it­ed many house muse­ums. The Camp­bell House is by far one of the best pre­served and most authen­tic house muse­ums I have ever expe­ri­enced.  If that is not enough, work­ing at the muse­um you quick­ly learn to love the Camp­bell Fam­i­ly and to respect their lega­cy and home.  The Camp­bell Fam­i­ly wit­nessed and was a part of many great moments in North Amer­i­can his­to­ry.  They were friends and acquain­tances with count­less notable peo­ple as well. By intern­ing and vol­un­teer­ing in their home, one can almost begin to see one­self as an acquain­tance of the fam­i­ly today.  By work­ing here, one cer­tain­ly becomes part of their lega­cy.  Once you know the fam­i­ly, they cer­tain­ly nev­er leave you.  I can def­i­nite­ly see myself work­ing here or at least remain­ing involved in this muse­um for the rest of my life! ‑Vir­ginia S.

• Work­ing as an intern for the Camp­bell House Muse­um was a fantastic,hands on expe­ri­ence. As an under­grad­u­ate inter­est­ed in the field of muse­um stud­ies I was able to learn what it is like to work for a small staffed muse­um. Hands on is not an exag­ger­a­tion as I lit­er­al­ly touched every item on dis­play in the muse­um while learn­ing more about inven­to­ry, cat­a­loging, and using past per­fect com­put­er soft­ware. The staff was friend­ly and will­ing to make time to indi­vid­u­al­ly help me learn.  I would rec­om­mend an intern­ship at the Camp­bell House to any stu­dent look­ing for real work expe­ri­ence that they can apply to a career. ‑Danielle G.

• Spend­ing the sum­mer as an intern at the Camp­bell House Muse­um was extreme­ly enlight­en­ing. While my main project was revamp­ing and cre­at­ing find­ing aides for the muse­um’s archives, I was includ­ed in sev­er­al of the oth­er dai­ly aspects of the house; I assist­ed with the col­lec­tion inven­to­ry, answered phones, helped with large vis­i­tor groups and gave tours, just to name a few. But, I must say, that the most impres­sive thing about CHM was the ded­i­cat­ed staff and vol­un­teers.  Nev­er have a met a more friend­ly and live­ly group.  As a grad­u­ate stu­dent in a muse­um stud­ies pro­gram, I was excit­ed to be able to be a part of an insti­tu­tion whose vol­un­teers were so involved in the research and his­to­ry of the Camp­bells and whose staff allowed me to expe­ri­ence so many aspects of the muse­um. ‑Jes­si­ca K.

• Giv­ing tours at the Camp­bell House Muse­um helped me learn about the fam­i­ly and St. Louis, which was fas­ci­nat­ing.  Telling it to oth­ers dur­ing tours helped cement the infor­ma­tion into my mind and bet­ter taught me how to men­tal­ly orga­nize and present infor­ma­tion.  Enter­ing Robert Camp­bel­l’s let­ter infor­ma­tion into Excel was tedious but gave me a good idea of the immense amount of work that goes into his­to­ry muse­ums, his­toric sites, etc.  It is excit­ing to think that there are sources still to be explored and more sto­ries to be told, and I’m glad I could help out with this. ‑Hay­ley S.

• My two sum­mer intern­ships spent at the Camp­bell House Muse­um have been reward­ing, edu­ca­tion­al, and fun.  Hav­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty to work at a small muse­um allowed me to par­tic­i­pate in more impor­tant and larg­er projects that interns might oth­er­wise be able to at larg­er insti­tu­tions.  Over the last two sum­mers, I have worked on an exhib­it to go in the Museum’s spe­cial exhib­it spaces, and the entire process was mine to con­cep­tu­al­ize, orga­nize and design.  The diver­si­ty of jobs and skills that one learns at a small muse­um will be more ben­e­fi­cial to my future career in that I will have a back­ground in dif­fer­ent ele­ments of muse­um work.  At the Camp­bell House Muse­um I was giv­en respon­si­bil­i­ty and real­ly felt apart of the muse­um.  My opin­ions were always want­ed and con­sid­ered, which real­ly helped to enhance my feel­ing of impor­tance as a mem­ber of the museum’s staff. Sarah H.

• I real­ly liked my expe­ri­ence as an intern at the Camp­bell House because I was able to work hands-on with the col­lec­tion.  As the col­lec­tions intern, I com­plet­ed an inven­to­ry by myself of every piece in the whole house, a task that many muse­ums would not entrust upon their interns.  This was sup­ple­ment­ed by giv­ing tours of the house to vis­i­tors where I could share my knowl­edge of the objects and their his­to­ry with the guests.  Because of this, I was able to see what it would be like to work in a muse­um every day and it helped me real­ize that I would like to pur­sue a career work­ing with muse­um col­lec­tions. ‑Leslie H.

• Intern­ing at the Camp­bell House muse­um was an incred­i­bly reward­ing expe­ri­ence. The inti­mate nature of a small muse­um like the Camp­bell House enabled first hand inter­ac­tion with guests of the muse­um as well as expe­ri­enc­ing anoth­er facet through learn­ing about its busi­ness and mem­ber­ship man­age­ment. A huge bonus of work­ing at a small muse­um such as this is the expo­sure to the Camp­bell fam­i­ly’s orig­i­nal belong­ings which enlivens their fas­ci­nat­ing sto­ry. ‑Chelsey H.