Intern Profile: Laura Conte

Q: Where are you attending college, and what are you studying?

A: I am a senior art history major at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Q: Why did you want to intern at NPG?

A: The National Portrait Gallery has a certain charisma that distinguishes it from other museums. As an art history major, I’d taken a variety of classes in different areas of study, but the one that had resonated with me most focused on nineteenth-century American art.

When I first applied, I did so partly because I have always had an interest in American art and portraiture. I’d never visited the Portrait Gallery prior to being selected to my intern position, but I really appreciated the idea of using art to tell a story. I was excited by an opportunity to intern at the NPG because it combined both art and history in telling stories about great Americans.

Q: What do you do typically during your days at NPG?

A: As an intern with the Cultures in Motion performance series, my responsibilities are primarily centered around research. Cultures in Motion creates staged performances from the biographies of sitters from the NPG collection.

I do a lot of reading and searching in the library stacks and through Internet sources seeking interesting biographical information on important Americans for future shows. I have the unique opportunity to sit in on meetings with playwrights and contribute my research, which will be used in the creation of a script.

Q: Tell us about an interesting project in which you have participated here at NPG.

A: I think the most interesting project I have participated in is my research on the first ladies of the Civil War. I don’t think I ever realized how nuanced those five years in American history were. I read a couple of different biographies on Mary Todd Lincoln (below), as well as a plethora of her correspondence. She had a tragic life, but it was so interesting!

My research also included reading the autobiography of a dressmaker named Elizabeth Keckley, who had worked for both both Varina Davis (first lady of the Confederacy) and Mrs. Lincoln. If it were not for this internship, I would never have learned about Keckley, who played a substantial role in Mrs. Lincoln’s life, especially after President Lincoln’s assassination.