2025 Internship – Digital Archiving

The Vasa Order is an international fraternal Swedish-American organization focused on Nordic heritage, traditions and education with lodges located throughout the US, Canada, and Sweden. The Vasa National Archive houses the collections from the Vasa Order of America from 1896-present. The Vasa National Archives is located in a beautiful, historic village settled by religious dissidents from Sweden in 1846. Though the religious movement that founded the village of Bishop Hill has dissipated, many of the colony buildings remain and are in use today. Galesburg, a college town and birthplace of Carl Sandburg, can be reached in 30 minutes. The Quad Cities and Peoria be reached within an hour.

Collections at the Vasa National Archive contain minutes, records and documents of the Vasa Order of America from 1896 to the present, folk costumes, personal belongings and artworks created by Nordic and Swedish immigrants, Swedish and Nordic historical documents and films, pictures and AV recordings of special events held at local Vasa lodges and the Setterdahl Immigrant Interviews which recorded stories of over 1,200 Swedish immigrants and their families across the US and Canada.

Internship details

The Vasa National Archive seeks a intern to assist with digitization of the Grand Lodge Convention Minutes and memorabilia, adding metadata and uploading the minutes and memoriabilia to the Upper Mississippi Digital Image Archive.  Photoshop and Swedish will be helpful, but not necessary. The intern may be asked to greet visitors, assist with outreach programs, or other duties.

The intern will be expected to work 20 hours a week for 12 weeks during the summer of 2025, beginning mid-May and lasting until mid-August. Hours and beginning/ending dates are flexible to accommodate the intern’s schedule. The intern will be provided furnished housing with utilities, on-site laundry, and internet. The intern will receive $2,500 stipend.

Experience/skills

• Candidates should be currently enrolled or recently graduated from an undergraduate or graduate program in history, museum studies, archives, or related field.
• Excellent computer skills and accuracy in spelling and database entry
• Good communications skills, both written and oral
• A willingness to learn some Swedish phrases
• Willingness to learn computer programs
• Ability to perform monotonous, repetitive tasks with little supervision
• Detail orientation