Yellowstone National Park, Museum Internship, Summer 2023
Every summer, The Bill Lane Center for the American West offers many opportunities for Stanford undergraduates (including graduating seniors and co-terms) to work with organizations throughout the West. Through these internships, students can explore careers in natural history, conservation, land use, museum curation, resource management, energy and more.
All internships are full-time and last ten weeks during the summer. They are fully funded by the Lane Center.
The Lane Center has placed over 200 interns in positions across the West since 2005. As such, we have developed strong relationships with host organizations and work hard to ensure interns have successful and enriching experiences.
For more information about our internship program, please visit our FAQs page, or email Education Manager Corinne Thomas.
Read more about past interns' experiences here.
Stipend Information:
The Bill Lane Center will provide a base stipend of $7,500 with additional funding for student financial aid and cost of living adjustments for the internship location, if applicable.
Description of the Agency and an Internship Overview:
The mission of the Yellowstone Heritage & Research Center is the same as the National Park Service's Organic Act of 1916: "... to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations."
The internship at Yellowstone offers experience working with museum collections from the world’s first National Park. Located in America’s greatest concentration of hydrothermal features and diverse megafauna viewing, the intern will be exposed to once in a lifetime experiences. The intern will have the opportunity to work with a wide variety of museum collections, ranging from natural history specimens, photographs, historic vehicle collection and archeological collections.
The Heritage & Research Center protects and preserves the natural and cultural heritage of Yellowstone National Park, while providing access, education, and entertainment to the public. The museum, archives and library are owned by the public and for the public! We collect all things related to Yellowstone's history: archival, archeological, ethnographic, historic, biologic, paleontological, and geological collections.
Experience hands-on museum work and learn a variety of curatorial skills. Duties include, but are not limited to, assisting the Museum Curator for the Yellowstone National Park museum collection with cataloging, photography and rehousing of objects, assisting the park’s museum staff with its mandatory annual inventory, assisting with preventative conservation, historic housekeeping, and exhibit maintenance at multiple interior museum exhibits, assisting with the re-installation of exhibits, and preparing social media posts. The intern will have the opportunity to work with a wide variety of museum collections, ranging from a world-renowned wolf skull collection, taxidermy specimens, historic photographs, historic comprehensive vehicle collection and archeological collections.
Internship Work Environment:
The intern will work as part of a team with the majority of the work indoors. There will be cross training opportunities that may either be outdoors or in an office. Gain experience working with a diverse team of cultural resource managers: archeologists, archivists, librarians, and historian.
This is an in-person internship and housing will be provided.
Intern housing will in Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming, five miles south of Gardiner, Montana. No family housing is available for this internship. Housing will be in a shared setting with common living room, kitchen and bathroom facilities. It is anticipated that each intern will have their own sleeping quarters. Each person is responsible for cleaning their own space and common areas, as well as removal of all trash and recycling. There are laundry facilities onsite. Pets are not allowed in shared government housing.
It will be helpful to have a car for traveling the expansive distances in Montana and Wyoming.
There will be two Bill Lane Center interns at Yellowstone in the summer of 2023. The other opportunity is located five miles south of Gardiner in Mammoth Hot Springs, Montana, and is for the Yellowstone National Park, Archaeology Program Internship.
Gardiner has all of the major amenities of a small town including, gas stations, grocery store, drug store, bank, restaurants, bars, churches, library, hotels, and post office. 52 miles north of Gardiner is the city of Livingston, Montana and Bozeman, Montana is 26 miles west of Livingston.
Location: Gardiner, Montana (housing is provided in Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming).
- Assist with creating the framework and content for a museum exhibit and provide tours to the museum collections to the public weekly.
- Assist with museum annual inventories: locate collections, mark condition, and review primary museum documentation.
- Assist with researchers: researching collections, scanning museum collections, file renaming, pulling and rehousing museum collections for researchers.
- Preventative maintenance care of horse drawn wagons and historic vehicles.
- Gain experience working with a diverse team of cultural resource managers: archeologists, archivists, librarians, and historian.
Bill Lane Center internships are part of Cardinal Quarter opportunities and students from all disciplines are encouraged to apply. The opportunities are full-time (35-40 hours a week) for 10 consecutive weeks during the summer. Specific start and end dates can be coordinated directly with the supervisor.
Please note:
- Students are not permitted to engage in another full-time internship, job, or volunteer opportunity (whether funded by Stanford or otherwise) during this full-time, summer internship.
- Student athletes should confirm the impact of any awarded stipend on their athletic eligibility by contacting the Compliance Services Office prior to committing to a research project or internship.
All undergraduates, including graduating seniors, are eligible. Coterms are eligible only if they hold undergraduate status.
For more helpful application advice, please visit the BLC’s FAQs page.
Application Guidelines for this Internship:
This is a very remote internship so students must be independent.
Required Skills:
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Attention to detail and computer familiarity
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Excellent verbal communication verbally and strong writing skills
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Good time management
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Physical activity includes a lot of walking, stair climbing, lifting, bending and cleaning.
Desired Skills:
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Preferred academic background is history or museum studies with a strong interest in a museum career.
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Knowledge of working with databases is preferred but not essential.
Selection of Applicants:
Complete applications are screened and finalists are contacted for an interview with staff from The Bill Lane Center for the American West. The top candidates for the position are forwarded to the organization for direct interviews with their potential supervisors and other staff.
Host organizations will then notify the Lane Center of their preferred candidate and that applicant will receive an internship offer from the Bill Lane Center by email.
The applicant is expected to respond promptly (within 48 hours) via email to the offer or the offer will be rescinded.
Once an applicant accepts an offer, they should promptly notify all other Stanford and non-Stanford programs to which they have applied that they have accepted another offer and withdraw their candidacy from those other opportunities.
