MISSOURI STATE ARCHIVES ANNOUNCES THE 2012 SUPREME COURT OF MISSOURI HISTORICAL SOCIETY INTERNSHIPS

The Missouri State Archives announces two internship opportunities for qualified advanced undergraduate or graduate students interested in working with the Supreme Court of Missouri case files held by the Missouri State Archives.

The Archives' judicial records holdings comprise millions of pages of legal records from the eighteenth century through the present and their unique nature yields documentation and primary materials found in no other repository, e.g., briefs, motions, circuit and appellate decisions, related correspondence, transcripts, notes, photographs, exhibits, and oral arguments. These records provide a history of broad topics in Missouri's experience, such as slavery, women's issues, the Civil War, the environment, the Ozarks, fur trapping, and steamboats.

The 2012 Supreme Court of Missouri Society Interns will continue building the Missouri Judicial Records Index Database by adding Reconstruction era Supreme Court of Missouri case file data to the index. The interns will also flatten, surface clean, and re-house the case files they index, as needed. The Missouri Judicial Records Index Database allows researchers to conduct searches of case files in the Archives’ holdings by name of party, year filed or term of court, the court record group or key word. This is a dynamic indexing project and new indexes are added as they become available.

Three thousand dollars will be awarded to two successful candidates for 10 weeks of work, at 40 hours per week during the summer of 2012, at the Missouri State Archives. Interested students must submit a letter of application, curriculum vitae, college transcript, a description of any research conducted in a related field, and letter of recommendation from a faculty member who can describe the applicant’s qualifications for this award.

These monetary awards, funded by the Supreme Court of Missouri Historical Society, are intended to defray travel and living expenses, as well as other work-related costs.

Review of completed applications will begin on April 2. These materials may be sent to Dr. Shelly J. Croteau, Assistant State Archivist, Missouri State Archives, P.O. Box 1747, 600 West Main St., Jefferson City, MO 65102 (Voice: 573/751-4303 or E-mail:shelly.croteau@sos.mo.gov). Notification of awards will be made by April 15.