Internship - Archives and Special Collections Practicum 2025: New Orleans Restaurant Menus Cataloguing Project

HNOC Department: Williams Research Center   

Project Season: Summer 2025  

Duration: Jun 23 – Jul 31, 2025 (6 Weeks)  

Application Deadline: Mar 31, 2025 

The Archives and Special Collections Practicum – Program Overview 

Implementing structured and measurable standards of engagement, the Archives and Special Collections Practicum provides experiential learning and pre-professional development to undergraduate scholars in varying disciplines of study. Under the direction and tutorship of the Williams Research Center staff, students will foster transferable skills to the application of formal procedures in the fields of public history, archival management, research, and collections care.  

A practicum is a supervised, practical experience that allows students to integrate study into engagement and practice. In this model, the Historic New Orleans Collection assumes the role of a classroom extension and positions students into a live, professional setting in the capacities of both learners and active participants. Students accepted in the Archives and Special Collections practicum can expect to spend a significant amount of time in instructional sessions and interactive workshops led by staff members of the Williams Research Center. These instructional sessions are designed to introduce students to the fundamentals of public history and collections work. Beyond this instruction, students then apply learned skills to assigned projects.   

For more information about the Archives and Special Collections Practicum please visit our program webpage HERE or contact Internship Coordinator, Sydney Wessinger at sydney.wessinger@hnoc.org.  

Project Description: New Orleans Restaurant Menus Cataloguing Project   

There are few American cities with culinary traditions as distinct as New Orleans. The mix of Cajun and Creole cultures in and around the unique Southern city is predicated by its span of influences from European, African, and Indigenous heritage.  

Engaging with the New Orleans restaurant menus housed in our permanent collection, interns will work alongside staff Curatorial and Library Catalogers to create new and enhance existing catalog and authority records in the collection database. Interns will perform physical processing of the collection and standard data entry. The work completed will allow items to be selected for digitization, allow curators to exhibit the menu collection, and make it more accessible to researchers at the Williams Research Center. Interns will implement the proper cataloging methods relevant to the management of the collection's artifacts and develop the use of historical research methods and techniques.  

Intern Engagement and Learning Objectives: 

The intern(s) will:  

• Engage in training sessions and workshops related to archival practices, preservation techniques, and information management. 
• Catalog roughly 400 restaurant menus using CCO (Cataloging Cultural Objects) standards including writing brief descriptions, providing dates, address information, item counts, maker information, HNOC Collection Themes, and LCSH (Library of Congress Subject Headings). 
• Rehouse menus as needed according to archival preservation standards and best practices.  
• Label physical items and folders based on HNOC procedures for easy access. 
• Participate in the development of finding aids and cataloging records to enhance accessibility for researchers and the public. 

Candidate Requirements 

• Eligible applicants are students who are currently classified academically as undergraduate sophomores, juniors, or seniors pursuing a bachelor's degree in history, Humanities, or related Liberal Arts/ Social Science. Students expected to complete their degree in Spring or Summer of 2025 are also eligible to apply.  
• Applicants must be enrolled in or have recently graduated from a four-year college/ university located in the state of Louisiana. 
• Experience in scholarly research, archives management, special collections, or museums is welcomed but not required.