They asked, “why are you studying history?” throughout my entire undergraduate education; they questioned, “what are you going to do with that degree? You must want to teach.” My response was always one of opposition. “Not at all,” was the common refrain, “I want to work in a museum.” However, since beginning my formal study […]
The Public Lands History Center at Colorado State University played an integral role in restoring the Johnson Space Center’s Apollo Mission Control Center that was used during the Apollo 11 moon landing 50 years ago. The CSU center created the historic furnishings plan that was used to restore the mission control room in Houston to […]
In A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold wrote, “There is an allegory for historians in the diverse functions of saw, wedge, and axe.” The saw works across years to pull out “little chips of facts”; the wedge splits wood into collective views; the axe lops limbs for the “peripheral rings of the recent past.” Leopold’s comparison of […]
This summer I was a summer staff intern with the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office in Salem, OR. Through this incredible opportunity I was able to gain experience with multiple different aspects of historic preservation including the preserving the built environment, archaeology, technical preservation, community outreach, grant programs and the Main Street program. I traveled […]
During the summer of 2018 I had the privilege to work at the City of Fort Collins’ Historic Preservation Division. My advisor Dr. Sarah Payne introduced me to Maren Bzdek who served as my supervisor during my internship and quickly became a valuable friend and mentor. From June to August, my weekdays brimmed with city […]
I spent my summer interning at Greater Portland Landmarks in Portland, Maine. The local nonprofit hired four graduate-student interns to survey two neighborhoods in the city that will be impacted by rising sea levels. This climate change survey was the first of its kind in the state! For each building (over 900 combined) we noted […]
What is Public History? I am always asked this question when I tell people I am a graduate student studying Public History. The National Council on Public History (NCPH) defines it as “history put to work,” which is what I did this summer at Yellowstone National Park (YNP). As a museum intern for the Yellowstone […]
National Museum of American History, 2017 Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave in the hands of this CSU Ram? Heidi Fuhrman, a history major entering her senior year this fall, is spending her summer interning at the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of American History in Washington D.C. As a Public Programs Intern, Fuhrman works in […]
U.S. National Archives, 2019 At the National Archives I worked in the reference department, meaning I was helping researchers. In particular, I was an intern for the Navy team, working primarily with Naval records. I helped researchers who came into the archives pull deck logs (day to day records logging the location of a ship) […]
Fort Collins Museum of Discovery, 2019 During my spring semester at Colorado State University, I had the privilege of working as an intern for the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery(FCMOD). I was tasked to work for the archive team and assist on projects that would prove crucial for the organization. At first I was a […]
