Museum Intern Spotlight - Hayley Moore

NPS Photo

Provide a brief summary of what you've been doing.

The purpose of the National Catalog is to maintain park catalog records for the parks. My primary job has been to print these records not only for the catalog, but print and mail copies to the parks if they request them. I sewed dust covers for the NPS Clearinghouse and created new object label tags for all of the objects. I additionally worked on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and assisted the Museum Registrar with editing the archive appendix of the Museum Handbook.

What have you learned from your internship with Museum Management Program?

One of the biggest takeaways from my internship is I now have a full understanding of the role the Museum Management Program (MMP) plays within NPS. Having gone from working in a park to the national office, it’s been cool to see why the park’s museum programs complete tasks such as the annual submission and annual inventory and how the national office uses that information to benefit NPS and the program. Learning about all the great resources MMP has to offer is going to be incredibly beneficial to me at my next job. I’ve really enjoyed learning about the vast collections that all of the different parks house, and it’s been amazing to see records that we still have from over thirty years ago. I also have really benefited from learning how to use a sewing machine, as it’s a skill not many people my age want to learn. While I definitely won’t be making any of my own clothes any time soon, I am a pro at making dust covers for collection shelving.

Provide a brief background on you and your schooling. Tell us about your new job and what you hope to accomplish in future!

I’m originally from North Carolina, and I’ve always had a deep love of history. Every family vacation I went on growing up always included going to a museum, National Park, or a historic site. I particularly fell in love with museums, and when I learned people could work there taking care of objects, I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I went to James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA, and graduated in 2016, double majoring in History with a concertation in Public History, and Writing, Rhetoric and Technical Communication with a concentration in Technical and Scientific Communication. I then attended University of St Andrews in St Andrews, Scotland and graduated in 2017 with a Masters in Letters in Museum and Gallery Studies. I have previously worked at Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and University of St Andrews Special Collections Library before I got my first seasonal position with NPS at Everglades National Park as a Digital Archivist last May. Working for NPS was something I never considered, but after spending six months in the Everglades, I fell in love with NPS and wanted to continue to pursue career opportunities within it.

Starting in September, I will be continuing my career with NPS as a permanent Museum Technician at Fort Scott National Historic Site in Fort Scott, KS. I will be responsible for both the museum and archival collections. Some of the duties include completing the annual submission and annual inventory to be submitted to the Museum Management Program, housekeeping, and collection management. My career goal has been to ensure the preservation and documentation of an organization’s collection so it can continue to be accessible to the public for years to come, and I intend to do just this at Fort Scott. I hope to continue to this type of work with the federal government for many years to come.

Fun fact?

I’m an avid magnet collector. Any time I visit a new city, museum, park, or historic site, I always have to find a magnet to buy to commemorate my time there. I probably have enough to cover an entire fridge and have no plans to stop collecting any time soon.