History internships span museums, archives, historic preservation offices, government agencies, libraries, documentary production companies, and policy research organizations. Start seeking opportunities by sophomore year. History doesn't have corporate recruiting pipelines, so you'll need to apply directly and build connections through your department's network.
Carlos told people he was a history major and immediately got two responses: "So you want to teach?" or a polite silence that communicated the same doubt without saying it. He didn't want to teach. He wanted to work with primary sources, tell stories that help people understand the present through the past, and work in a setting where analytical thinking mattered. He just couldn't name a specific job title.
The hidden frustration for history majors is that the skills are transferable — research, analysis, writing, argumentation — but the career path is invisible. Unlike nursing or engineering, there's no obvious employer waiting at the end of the degree. History students have to build the bridge between their training and the job market themselves, and an internship is the first plank in that bridge.
If you're weighing whether a history degree is worth it, the internship landscape reveals where historical thinking has professional value. Our history careers guide maps the full range.
When to Start Looking for History Internships
History internships don't follow corporate recruiting calendars, but starting early still gives you an advantage.
Freshman year: Start using your university's special collections and archives. Volunteer at local historical societies or museums. Develop research skills beyond Google — learn to use primary source databases, archival finding aids, and historical newspapers.
Sophomore year: Seek research assistant positions with professors in your department. Begin applying for summer positions at local museums, historic sites, and archives. Look into the National Park Service and Smithsonian Institution summer programs.
Junior year (October through March): Apply to structured programs at major institutions. The Smithsonian, Library of Congress, National Archives, and presidential libraries all have formal internship programs with fall or winter deadlines. Also target state historical societies, state archives, and regional museums.
Senior year: Your thesis research can serve as a capstone project that demonstrates professional-level historical work. Continue applying for positions and leverage connections built through earlier experiences.
Where to Find History Internships
Museums and historic sites: The Smithsonian (nineteen museums), National WWII Museum, Colonial Williamsburg, Gettysburg National Military Park, and hundreds of regional and local history museums hire interns for collections, exhibitions, education, and public programming.
Archives and libraries: The National Archives, Library of Congress, state archives, university special collections, and corporate archives (many companies maintain institutional archives) hire interns for processing collections, digitization, reference services, and finding aid creation.
National Park Service: NPS manages over 400 sites, many with significant historical resources. Internships involve interpretation, education, resource management, and cultural landscape documentation. Apply through the NPS website and the Student Conservation Association.
Government agencies: Congressional offices, state legislatures, and agencies like the State Department (historian's office), CIA (historical review), and Department of Defense hire history-trained interns for research, policy analysis, and records management.
If you want a museum career, volunteer or intern in multiple departments during your undergraduate years — education, collections, exhibitions, and public programming. Many history students default to curatorial internships, but museum professionals increasingly need to understand the full institution. A student who's worked in both education and collections has a much stronger museum career foundation than one who only knows curatorial work.
Historic preservation offices: State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPOs), the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and preservation-focused nonprofits hire interns to research properties, prepare National Register nominations, and conduct survey work.
Documentary and media production: Documentary production companies (Ken Burns's Florentine Films, PBS affiliates, History Channel production partners) hire research interns to locate primary sources, fact-check scripts, and conduct background research.
Policy and research organizations: Think tanks, advocacy organizations, and consulting firms that specialize in historical consulting hire interns for research and analysis. Corporate history firms like The History Factory work with companies to document and present their institutional histories.
Where to search: AAM (American Alliance of Museums) job board, AHA (American Historical Association) career resources, NCPH (National Council on Public History) job listings, USAJobs.gov, Handshake, museum websites directly, and your professors' networks.
Paid vs Unpaid: The Reality
History internships have a significant unpaid contingent, particularly at smaller museums and historical societies.
The Smithsonian offers stipended internships. The Library of Congress and National Archives have paid programs. Many state and large regional museums pay interns $12 to $18 per hour. Smaller institutions — local historical societies, house museums, small archives — frequently cannot pay interns.
The history and museum field's reliance on unpaid labor is a documented problem that perpetuates socioeconomic barriers in the profession. If unpaid positions are your only option, maximize the learning value: ensure you'll get real skills training (not just filing), a strong recommendation letter, and professional connections. Also check whether your school offers funding for unpaid internships through grants or stipends.
Government internships through the Pathways Program are paid. Documentary research positions vary. Historic preservation work is often paid at the state level. Corporate history and consulting positions are typically compensated.
What Employers Actually Want From History Interns
Research skills with primary sources. Can you work in an archive? Can you evaluate the reliability of a historical document? Can you synthesize information from multiple sources into a coherent narrative? These skills are the core of what history training provides and what employers seek.
Writing that's clear and accessible. Museum labels, exhibit text, finding aids, and historical reports require clear, engaging writing that communicates to non-specialists. Academic writing style is a starting point, but professional history writing demands accessibility.
Attention to detail and accuracy. Cataloging artifacts, processing archival collections, and fact-checking historical claims all require meticulous attention to detail. A single misattributed date or incorrectly cataloged item creates problems that persist for decades.
Employment for archivists, curators, and museum workers is projected to grow 12% from 2023 to 2033, faster than the average for all occupations1. This growth is driven by increased demand for digital preservation, public history programming, and cultural institution expansion. The profession is growing, even though most history departments don't emphasize these career paths.
Digital skills. Experience with digital humanities tools, database management, digitization workflows, content management systems, and social media extends the value of your historical training. Museums and archives increasingly need people who can bridge traditional historical methods and digital technology.
How to Stand Out in Your Application
Learn archival processing and museum collections management. Even a one-semester course or workshop in archives or museum studies gives you vocabulary and skills that pure history coursework doesn't provide. Many museums offer brief workshops in collections handling.
Build digital history skills. Learn to create digital exhibits (using Omeka or similar platforms), work with digitized primary sources, or use tools like GIS for historical mapping. These skills combine your historical knowledge with technical proficiency that employers value.
Develop a public history portfolio. Write blog posts about historical topics, create social media content about history, or build a small digital exhibit. A portfolio of accessible, engaging historical writing demonstrates that you can communicate history to public audiences.
Get involved in digital preservation. As archives and museums digitize their collections, the demand for people who understand both the historical significance of materials and the technical processes of digitization continues to grow.
When applying to museum and archive internships, demonstrate familiarity with the institution's specific collections and mission. Mention a particular collection you'd be excited to work with or a recent exhibition that caught your attention. Institutions receive many generic applications. The candidates who demonstrate genuine knowledge of the specific institution stand out immediately.
What Nobody Tells You About History Internships
Archival work is physical, detailed, and deeply satisfying. Processing a collection means handling materials that may not have been touched in decades. You'll organize boxes, create finding aids, and make historical materials accessible to researchers. The work is slow and meticulous, but there's something profoundly meaningful about opening a box of letters from the 1860s and creating the system that allows scholars to find them.
Museum education positions are often more plentiful than curatorial ones. If you want to work in museums, education departments hire more frequently and at higher volumes than curatorial departments. Museum educators design programs, lead tours, create curriculum materials, and work directly with the public. It's deeply engaging work that many history students overlook.
Public history is a growing field that pays better than academia. Government agencies, corporations, consulting firms, and cultural institutions all employ public historians. The public history career path often provides better compensation and job security than the academic tenure track, which has been shrinking for decades.
Your thesis topic can open professional doors. If your thesis research connects to a museum's collection, a historic site's period, or an agency's mission, it creates a natural connection point for internship and job conversations. Choose your thesis strategically with an eye toward professional relevance.
History graduates work in industries you'd never expect. Intelligence agencies value historical analysis skills. Law firms hire people who can research and synthesize large document sets. Consulting firms need people who can build narratives from complex information. The skills transfer; you just have to translate them into language that non-historians understand.
FAQ
What can you do with a history internship?
History internships lead to careers in museums, archives, historic preservation, government research, documentary production, library science, public history consulting, and education. The specific career path depends on which type of internship experience you build. Museum internships prepare you for museum careers; archive internships prepare you for archival work; and so on.
Are museum internships paid?
Large institutions (Smithsonian, major art museums, state museums) increasingly pay interns. Small and local museums often cannot. Government programs through the Pathways Program are paid. NACE data shows that paid internships correlate with significantly better employment outcomes2, so prioritize paid positions when possible.
Do I need a master's degree for history jobs?
For most museum curatorial positions and archivists roles, yes — a master's in history, museum studies, library science, or public history is typically required. For education, government, preservation, and corporate positions, a bachelor's may be sufficient. Internships help you determine which career path you're pursuing and whether a graduate degree is necessary.
When should I start interning as a history major?
Begin with volunteer work and campus research assistant positions during freshman and sophomore year. Apply for structured external internships starting junior year. Major institutions (Smithsonian, National Archives, Library of Congress) have deadlines in fall and winter for summer programs.
Can history majors get non-museum internships?
Absolutely. Government agencies, think tanks, documentary production companies, historic preservation offices, corporate archives, and policy research organizations all hire history interns. The research, writing, and analytical skills that history develops are valued well beyond the museum world.
- History Degree Guide — Overview
- Is It Worth It?
- Career Paths
- Salary Data
- Requirements
- How Hard Is It?
- Best Colleges
Footnotes
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U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2024). Occupational Outlook Handbook: Archivists, Curators, and Museum Workers. BLS. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/education-training-and-library/curators-museum-technicians-and-conservators.htm ↩
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National Association of Colleges and Employers. (2024). Internship & Co-op Report. NACE. https://www.naceweb.org/talent-acquisition/internships/ ↩
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U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2024). Occupational Outlook Handbook: Historians. BLS. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/life-physical-and-social-science/historians.htm ↩