Five of the Center's graduate students spent their summer working as interns. In addition to the experience and knowledge they gained from their work, each student received from three to six hours of class credit towards their master's of arts degree in Southern Studies.

Sarah Torian and Ronda Penrice worked for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in Jackson. Their project focused on two historic homes on Farish Street, an avenue that historically has served as Jackson's black commercial district. The homes have been inhabited by members of the Mary Scott Green and Virginia and John Ford families since 1894. Hired by Susan Schreiber, director of interpretation for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Torian and Penrice studied maps of Farish Street, Jackson city directories, and marriage license records to aid the National Trust in establishing the Scott-Ford House as a historic site.

Teresa Parker headed north for a seven-week internship at Manhattan's Museum of American Folk Art. Working with Lee Kogan, director of the Folk Art Institute, Parker helped organize an extensive exhibition catalog surveying the work of 32 20th-century American self-taught artists. Parker's essay on Birmingham artist Lonnie Holley, which she originally wrote for her Southern Studies seminar, will be included in the catalog published by Chronicle Books for the exhibition's March opening at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

During her stay in Manhattan, Parker also attended the five-day Folk Art and Folk Life in Education conference at New York University, spent time with renowned gallery owners and folk art collectors Frank Maresca and Phyllis Kind, and met with Arthur Danto, art critic for The Nation magazine.

Allison Vise Finch interned at Vicksburg's Southern Cultural Heritage Complex last June. Working under the direction of Dinah Lazor, the Complex's executive director, Finch wrote a manual to assist the board of directors in making grant applications, compiled a database of future grant sources, and assisted with programming plans. Highlights of her internship included serving as tour guide for a group of men and women from St. Francis Xavier Academy's class of 1957 (the Complex is housed in the former Academy), attending a community vision meeting with Vicksburg's newly elected mayor and the residents of an underprivileged neighborhood, and going with Lazor to visit self-taught artist Reverend H. D. Dennis. During her stay in Vicksburg, Finch lived with Charlie Gholson, a member of the Complex's board of directors, who Finch notes is a most gracious hostess and a very gifted storyteller.

Melrose, in Natchez, Mississippi, was the site of Southern Studies graduate student Jim Williams's summer internship. Williams worked as a curatorial intern under the supervision of museum specialist Kathleen McLain Jenkins. Williams's duties included preparing the house for daily tours and assisting with the cleaning and storing of its 1850s silk window treatments. During his internship, Melrose received two major acquistions from the family of Ethel Moore Kelly, wife of George Malin Davis Kelly whose grandmother purchased Melrose in 1865. The Kellys are known for the extensive care they took in preserving the house, which was one of the first houses to be placed on the Natchez Spring Pilgimage. Williams spent many hours cataloging the textile and food service items included in the Kelly acquisitions. Although he enjoyed the experience he gained from cataloging, Williams was particularly pleased with the time he was able to spend redesigning the drawing room, parlor, and bedroom of Melrose. At the conclusion of his internship, Williams moved to Williamsburg, Virginia, to spend a semester studying at the College of William and Mary.

Allison Vise Finch