Public History Internship – Rebecca Lowe

Sometimes the “hands on” internship experience means physically handling anatomically abnormal specimens and medically mysterious models — at least it does when you intern at the Mütter Museum, a renowned medical history museum in Philadelphia. And that’s exactly what Public History graduate student Rebecca Lowe did last summer.

During her two months with the Mütter, Rebecca gained extensive experience in collections management, handling everything from compiling electronic inventory databases of museum objects to creating SOPs for the museum’s incoming loans for researchers. She even revised and authored a new museum policy and collections management procedures for the Mütter’s 30,000 collections.

“This type of training is not available in the classroom,” Rebecca commented of her work with the Mütter.

In addition to receiving intensive operations training, Rebecca also had the unique opportunity to humor her interest in forensic anthropology. She particularly enjoyed cleaning and preparing objects for exhibit, including cleaning a human skull and fitting it with teeth. She is pictured with the intern director holding a human brain.

Rebecca also enjoyed 15 seconds of fame when Mike Rowe’s show “Somebody’s Got to Do It” filmed an episode at the museum.

Rebecca’s advice for future students interning at a museum? “Don’t be afraid to move to take a great opportunity. This internship opened many opportunities for advancement of my resume and experience.”

Rebecca graduated with her Public History M.A. in May 2015.