Lori Murphy

State, Local and Tribal Plans and Grants Department of the National Park Service

For my internship, I worked in the State, Local and Tribal Plans and Grants Department of The National Park Service in Washington, DC. I was hired as an Archival Intern to assist with a project involving the scanning of materials from the Save America’s Treasures grant program. Various architectural plans and specs were shipped to the Technical Information Center in Denver where they were scanned into an online database known ase-TIC. After the completion of scanning, the materials were sent back to my office for eventual shipment to The National Archives. During the course of my internship I was able to get involved in other work of the department, which helped broaden my understanding of the scope of the work they do. I assisted with the Certified Local Government Program, went on site visits to grant-funded properties, and attended the Main Streets Conference in Baltimore, Maryland, and the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions Conference in Norfolk, Virginia.

My internship underscored the key role that funding plays in historic preservation, and how integral the National Park Service has been in assisting local communities with protecting their cultural resources. I was extremely fortunate to be able to work with a great group of professional preservationists, and learn a lot about the necessity of partnerships at the Federal, State, and Local levels.