The Archives’ Oral History Program began in 1958 and includes interviews with American artists, scholars, critics, collectors, dealers, supporters, and others involved in American art. Today, our recordings make up the world’s largest collection of oral histories on the subject of American art, allowing scholars to learn about the art world directly from the words of our nation’s most distinguished artists.
In this Oral History Management internship you will be immersed in what goes into the management of a longstanding and ongoing oral history program. All of our legacy interviews have been fully digitized for preservation and access. A major initiative is ingesting interview assets into our CIS and DAMS. All of our ongoing oral history interviews are recorded as digital audio or video files conducted by outside interviewers. All of our interviews are transcribed or captioned by a transcription company. There is an extensive review process of these documents before they are presented online. In addition to our ongoing initiatives, our backlog and legacy interviews are a high priority for finalization and access on the website.
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Semester of Internship |
Application Deadline |
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Spring |
preceding October 1 |
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Summer |
February 25 |
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Fall |
June 1 |
Applicants must submit the following materials through the Smithsonian’s online internship application system (SOLAA, opens in new window), and choose the name of the specific internship program to which they are applying.
Cover letter
Résumé detailing your educational background and work/volunteer experience
Unofficial academic transcript
One reference: Name and email address of one reference whom we will contact for a letter of recommendation. Reference should be able to speak to the applicant’s academic abilities, but personal recommendations will also be considered.
Interested graduate students may contact Jennifer Snyder, Oral History Program Archivist, at SnyderJ@si.edu for more information.
The Archives of American Art collects primary source materials—original letters, writings, preliminary sketches, scrapbooks, photographs, financial records and the like—that have significant research value for the study of art in America.
Find out how to give your papers, records, recordings, or other primary source material to the Archives of American Art.
Your support of the Archives of American Art helps us achieve our mission to collect, preserve, and provide access to primary sources that document the history of the visual arts in America.
Internship, fellowship, and volunteer opportunities provide students and lifelong learners with the ability to contribute to the study and preservation of visual arts records in America.
