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Archive Intern, ODU University Archive

Position Description: 

  • Internships in the Special Collections and University Archives department will provide students with a well-rounded archival experience and offer them an opportunity to learn more about the archival profession. The intern will provide support to the Special Collections and University Archives department by working directly with the Outreach and Public Services Archivist who will assign projects that will benefit the ODU community and external patrons. The experience can be tailored somewhat to the successful applicant's education, skills, and interests.

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Internship Duties:

  • Inventorying and describing materials.

  • Creating database records.

  • Creating collection guides and other basic finding aids.

  • Creating digital exhibitions.

  • Communicating with other special collection student workers and special collection staff.

  • Planning and/or preparing for a related library exhibit. ​

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Onboarding Process:

  • Sign the internship participation contract and discuss project details. 

  • Take a tour of OUD's archives with Ms. Canaday.

  • Complete a document scavenger hunt.

  • Learn how to scan documents with Mr. Frizzell.

  • Learn how to use ODU's finding aid with Mr. Bookman.

Research Intern, The Eastern People Of Color History Initiative

Position Description: 

  • The Gabriel Jacobs EPOCH (Eastern [Shore] People of Color) Initiative will be an annual program where two select ODU history majors will work as researchers and data compilers for a primary source database shared by Colonial Williamsburg, Mount Vernon, and other public history organizations. This database and website will reconnect the generations of families enslaved by the Custis family, which includes George Washington and Robert E. Lee, from the Eastern Shore of Virginia to Georgetown, D.C. The interns will handle documents for free people, such as census reports, birth records, deeds, tax lists, farm inventories, wills, and bills of sales to find people enslaved as property. Moreover, this internship is designed to:

    Facilitate the study of free black history and life in Virginia’s Tidewater before

    Provide ODU history students with internship opportunities that will further their education and later careers.

    Place history majors into contact with premier public history institutions and figures.

    Enable ODU to better live up to its recently awarded Research 1 university status by bolstering student research opportunities.

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Internship Duties:

  • Reads 17th and 18th-century deeds, marriage licenses, wills, and tax records of the Custis-Lee family using FamilySearch. 

  • Genealogically analyses primary sources to find connections between enslaved peoples in the Eastern District of Virginia between 1660 and 1865. 

  • Manages and organizes the initiative's Notion website where primary source analysis is held. 

  • Transfers information from the initiative's Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to the initiative's Notion website. 

  • Provides presentations of initiative research findings to colleges, archeological organizations, and history foundations. 

  • Provides presentations of initiative research findings weekly to supervising research professor via video 
    conferencing. ​

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Onboarding Process:

  • Learn how to use FamilySearch, Ancestry, WikiTree, and MilesFiles.

  • Learn how to use Notion and enter data into its database. 

  • Understand the history of the Custis-Lee family. 

  • Understand the history of the slaves of the Custis-Lee family.

  • Learn how to read 16th,17th, and 18th-century text.

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