Over the summer, I had an opportunity to split an internship between the Lew Wallace Study and the Montgomery County Historical Society at Lane Place.
Throughout my internship I got to experience many sides of working in a museum. Mainly I got to spend a lot of time in the collections of both museums. By working with the collections I learned how to preserve and archive a variety of items. Some of the items that I got to archived over the summer included; artifacts from the Civil War, Ben-Hur memorabilia from the 1950s and more editions of Ben-Hur than I ever knew existed. Outside of the two museums’ collections, I also got the opportunity to visit the Indianapolis historical society and view some historical items in their collection. There I got to handle papers signed by President Lincoln.
Outside of collections I got to work with other aspects of museums work by giving tours and helping run a summer camp. At Lane Place I got to teach people of the history of the house and about Senator Henry Lane through tours. I also helped run Archicamp, a 2 day summer camp put on by the Lew Wallace Study museum. During those two days kids were taught about different aspects of architecture and given tours of Crawfordsville architecture including an interior tour of the masonic lodge.
Between the two museums, I’ve learned a lot about the rich history of Montgomery County, and I’ve gotten to work with it hands-on. Apart from working with history, I got to sit in on board and committee meetings between both museums. Through these meetings, I have learned how museums are run and how they work with the local community. The experience that I gained from this internship has inspired me to continue pursuing a career in the history field. I want to thank the Lew Wallace Study and the Montgomery County Historical Society at Lane Place for the opportunity to spend a summer working at both museums.
