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Professional internship opportunities at Center of Southwest Studies, Durango (Colo.)



The Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, is offering internship opportunities to work in three program categories during the summer of 2001.  The Center is located in a new $7.6 million 50,000 SF building.  Housing will be available on campus, and though no internship salary is currently possible, funds are being sought to support internships.

Archival interns may work with the Center's Certified Archivist in charge of hundreds of collections of documents, photographs, and original collections including the papers of U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell and rare glass plate photographs of the Southwest.  Last year the Center was only of two sites in the nation to receive a prestigious National Historical Publications and Records Commission fellowship in archival administration.

Museumology students may assist the Center’s curator and learn about prehistoric ceramics like Ancestral Pueblo pots and other materials.  The Center is the home of one of the nation’s finest collections of Southwestern weavings, featuring 800 years of exceptional Navajo, Hispanic, and Pueblo rugs, dresses and blankets.  Sotheby's has rated the Durango Collection™ one of the best in the nation; its value was appraised at $2.4 million.

Public history students may intern with the Center’s director and learn about public programming, grant writing, college and donor relations, and a host of other administrative tasks. 

Researchers are also invited to use the Center’s resources.  Collections include major manuscript, photograph, map, and other documents pertaining to the Four Corners region of the Southwest.  Last year, the heaviest usage came from scholars studying environmental history topics.

Durango is a tourist mecca in the summer because southwestern Colorado is one of the finest tourist destinations in the West.  The San Juan Mountains, located 30 miles north of the campus, are the largest conglomeration of 13,000-foot peaks in the nation.  The La Plata Mountains can be seen from the Center’s offices.  Whitewater rafting, canoeing, kayaking, mountain climbing, backpacking, and visiting Ancestral Puebloan sites including Mesa Verde National Park and Chaco Culture National Historical Park are within an hour’s drive of the Center of Southwest Studies. 

Interested?  Please check out our website at http://swcenter.fortlewis.edu or e-mail the Center's director at Gulliford_A@fortlewis.edu.

Todd Ellison, CA, Archivist and Associate Professor
Center of Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College
1000 Rim Drive, Durango, CO 81301-3999   
Phone 970/247-7126        FAX 970/247-7422
Email: Ellison_T@fortlewis.edu    Website: http://faculty.fortlewis.edu/Ellison_T/