An Amazing Opportunity and an Amazing Intern

National Law Enforcement Museum Intern Shelbi Stovall

This month, the National Law Enforcement Museum says farewell to fall intern Shelbi Stovall. A graduate student at George Washington University, Shelbi has been instrumental in helping standardize and catalog a large amount of objects and information for the Museum.

"I appreciate the diversity. You get the chance to get a lot of things under your belt, not just data entry, and of course Lauren is wonderful," says Shelbi.

Museum Collections Manager Lauren Sydney has been supervising Shelbi throughout her internship and has been pleased to have someone so dedicated to the Museum to assist her efforts to manage an extensive collection of more than 18,000 artifacts.

Splitting her time between the Museum office and the Museum’s storage facility, Shelbi has concentrated her work on preparing exhibit installations. Among her many responsibilities, she has gathered information on objects slated for display, such as the locations, dimensions and conditions of each item. She has also cataloged new acquisitions, uploaded photos to the Museum’s collection database and helped with the de-installation of a small exhibit in the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund Washington, DC administrative office.

Shelbi recently put a great deal of effort into standardizing a huge catalog of information and evidence related to the DC Sniper collection. On long-term loan to the Museum from the Prince William County (VA) Police Department, the collection includes more than 1,000 records. Additionally, Shelbi cataloged and photographed a collection of nearly 300 law enforcement badges that were donated to the Museum last month.

"In 50 years, because of the things I’m doing right now, we’ll have these objects – it’s really powerful," says Shelbi.

The Museum operates regular internship programs that provide students with work opportunities in various aspects of non-profit organization and operations, as well as museum programs. For more information, contact Colleen Ludgate, at cludgate@nleomf.org.