Historic Sites Curator, Place Specialist

Job Title

Day in the Life

Historic sites curators help identify, document, preserve, restore, and interpret significant historic sites. Place specialists focus on research, writing, and communication to support the preservation and restoration of historic landscapes, buildings, and other period-specific features of a place. The work requires both intensive individual effort and highly-collaborative performance.

Place specialists partner with visitor experience specialists. They work together to balance historical and preservation standards with interpretive and experiential best practices. Curators also work closely with product and project managers, conservators, collection care specialists, exhibit designers, architects, engineers, archaeologists, editors, archivists, and library reference specialists.

This job requires an attention to detail and a passion for place-based history. A good specialist can analyze and describe complex scenarios, tell stories tied to historic places, and communicate significance to audiences. A curator’s day is often spent researching, writing, and collaborating with others about historical places, their significance, and the best methods for preserving, restoring, and sharing them with global audiences. Work occasionally requires travel to historic sites. Individuals who enjoy connecting human stories to tangible spaces and objects would be well suited for this profession.

Experience Pathway

Curators have advanced degrees in history, religious studies, museum studies, public history, anthropology, or related fields. Experience creating historic sites, exhibits, website content, public programming, publications, or collections care are highly beneficial qualifications. Curators participate in global, national, and local professional organizations.

Thoughts from Our Historic Sites Curators

“Many history professions involve solitary research and individual publications most often for a narrow academic audience. As a historic sites curator, I appreciate the collaborative nature of the historical work and the global audience we aspire to reach through our diverse products. The place-based approach to historic sites curatorship is uniquely challenging and rewarding.”