Research schools and universities that have highly-regarded history departments. You’ll need a B.A., at minimum, to go after a career as a professional historian. Not all history departments offer public history, but the number of programs has grown substantially over the past twenty-five years. Because of the rigorous training involved (usually three to four years of graduate work in addition to a period of apprenticeship) and the small number of universities that offer degree programs, conservation is a highly competitive field. The historian must first gather data from a variety of sources, make hypotheses about the data gathered, and begin to form conclusions about all of these aspects of life at that particular time and place. Reading historical sources detailing your local area for, say a local community project can easily be as important and interesting as any historical research project. You have to determine if each potential graduate program can offer the combination of skills and information that will mean that, at the end of your program, you’ll have the skills you need in order to enter and thrive in this field. Are You Thinking of a Career in Secondary Schools? Many high schools and some colleges require volunteer hours in order to get a degree. The work of a historian depends entirely upon their specialization within the field. Another trend is for archivists to have additional library science training as a means of moving up the job ladder. Conservators normally concentrate in a specific type of artifact. Still others are responsible for setting up, creating, and maintaining museum displays of historical artifacts. For those that can, the conservation staff is normally responsible for repairs and stabilization of collection objects, as well as keeping detailed records of any and all conservation work done, both on the museum collections and on loan material from other institutions. Museums, and the responsibilities of positions within them, are so varied that a successful job search may depend on carefully and closely demonstrating how your particular skills and abilities fit the specific needs of the museum. Typically archival historians have a master's in public history or management of archives, but another viable master's degree is one in library science. This may seem trivial, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) states that historians are in a highly competitive job market. To become a museum educator, you typically need a degree in something similar to education, museum studies, or public history, and LOTS of previous work experience in the education field. A quarter of all historians are employed by the federal government, compiling, creating, recording, and interpreting historical information for the government and the general public. To become a museum curator, you'll need a bachelor's degree. Museum Conservator Conservators ensure that the artifacts on display at a museum are recorded, preserved, and restored as needed. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), very few jobs for historians are available for those candidates with bachelor's degrees in history. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/life-physical-and-social-science/historians.htm Another viable possibility that the Organization of American Historians suggests is that students don't necessarily need a bachelor's in history to get employment in the field. The bridge between the public and the museum’s exhibits and collections is the education staff. They present their findings and conclusions to further our understanding of what happened in the past. Just ask if you can do the quiz to become a Disney Historian, and you’ll be given a pen and a little slip of paper that has three questions on it. Training for this position requires experience with information technology, cataloguing schemes, and terminology standardization. A: To become a research historian, you need a master's degree or doctorate in history, museum studies, archival management, or a related field. Since history is a highly competitive field, prospective historians in their bachelor's degree programs need to work in volunteer, intern, or paid positions that allow them to break into the field. From a university’s history professors to the archivists at the Library of Congress, all of these people studied history in some academic capacity and now dedicate themselves to better understanding the past, its preservation, and our relationship to it. Subjects include: museum or heritage studies; archaeology or ancient history; classics; natural sciences; anthropology; education; Paid or unpaid work experience in a museum, gallery or heritage property is usually essential to apply for courses and jobs. Potential internships might be in museums, county historical societies, historical research organizations and even living history sites, such as the State of California Gold Discovery State Park in Coloma. As a representative of the museum, you may be asked to visit the community. Paintings, paper, textiles, and three-dimensional objects are a few of the specializations in greatest demand at museums. You can also choose to volunteer in order to get some experience before applying for a job in an art museum. They typically have at least a bachelor's degree in art history or a related area. Other programs that specialize focus on particular historical places or eras. Also, the American Historical Association suggests that bachelor's graduates in history ask themselves some questions to determine the focus of their graduate program. Those with an artistic or creative mind who can pay close attention to detail may make strong curators. Determining your ideal museum situation can help to guide your path from training to museum employment. Publishing of historical findings may include reports, books, websites, exhibits in museums, or journals. Katie Posner. Good Fit For: Museum curators often have a background in history, using their post-secondary education to specialize in a field while focusing the rest of their education on curation. From a university’s history professors to the archivists at the Library of Congress, all of these people studied history in some academic capacity and now dedicate themselves to better understanding the past, its preservation, and our relationship to it. As a fashion historian, my job is to learn from other people’s clothes—a task that is challenging, messy, and often spooky. Most programs include an internship to provide hands-on experience in handling artifacts, creating exhibits, conducting proper research, documenting your findings, logging data, and using preservation techniques. A historian needs to first graduate from high school and go on to major in history at a 4-year institution. An insight into the needs of the historical researcher will better prepare a registrar to document and arrange the collection in an accessible and logical way. That training can take a variety of forms, including graduate-level training (M.A. in the 0170 (historian) job series. You can find out more about becoming a museum curator from the Museums Association. However, only a small minority of visitors will read every panel or see every video. Family historians use services such as ancestry.co.uk to access their family tree and delve into their family history with great interest. Step 1: Earn a Bachelor's Degree Although many historians have at least a master's degree or even a PhD, one must hold a bachelor's degree in order to enter a … The curator’s major duties normally revolve around the museum collection, whether acquiring new objects, writing exhibit scripts, or preparing grant applications. While a newspaper account or other written testimony can give a vivid description of the Lincoln assassination, the beaver hat the president wore that evening at Ford’s Theatre can speak to a visitor more powerfully than any document. There are new programs at universities that are blended programs offering both public history and library science classes for archivist historian candidates. Upon receiving one’s bachelor’s degree, the prospective historian needs to attend a graduate program in their chosen area of specialization. In addition to the skills of a historian, many museum professionals must also fulfill such diverse roles as marketer, designer, fundraiser, photographer, or data processor. Most historians have a master's or doctorate in history as a minimum requirement for work in the field. You can buy it on Amazon.com. One notable exception is becoming a museum technician. American Association for State and Local History, A thorough, working knowledge of history and archeology, Reading comprehension in order to analyze historical records, documents, and artifacts, Writing skills in order to report one's research findings and conclusions, Speaking and other communication skills as another means of reporting one's findings and conclusions, Analytical skills in order to make hypotheses and come to conclusions about historical information and how it relates to how a society functioned in the past, Research skills, such as being able to find information, make hypotheses, and draw well-founded conclusions, Problem-solving skills in order to determine how events unfolded in a particular place and time, Software skills such as the ability to create presentations and websites and utilize archival databases and reference software, Archival skills such as the ability to keep records and artifacts from decay and information cataloging and retrieval skills. The same is true of the archival field. I’m sure there will be a museum somewhere close to you, so book a day in your diary to go and visit. The BLS states that most curator positions require a bachelor’s and master’s degree in a related field, such as art history, history, archaeology, or museum studies. Get your college degree in history or a related subject. Many graduate programs will require the student to do an internship as a part of their program. 3. The education you require to become a historian will depend on the type of historian you want to be. An education office will also usually be responsible for training and scheduling those most valuable of resources, docents and volunteers. Historian These researchers gather information from the past in order to form hypotheses and ultimately conclusions about some aspect of life in a certain place and time. College professors at 4-year institutions will want to get on the tenure track in order to have the benefits full-time and dependable employment. Non-Profit. There is more of a demand in the museum industry, since advances in technology have created more opportunity for large changes in how museums will display their collections to the public. A traditional museum isn’t the only place to find historians trained in museum work. Conservators differ from restorers and renovators in that most current conservation theory looks to maintain the integrity of the object as much as possible through the use of reversible repairs and support. There is a great variety in the career paths of historians. Being an historian challenges you as a writer. Becoming a historian allows individuals to choose among several career paths, which is one of the benefits of earning an online bachelor’s degree in history. Some jobs as historians require the candidate to have received a Ph.D. in their specialization within history. You can become a historian with a minimum education level of a bachelor's degree, however, because the profession of a historian resides in the intellectual field, it is recommended that you obtain further education with a master's degree or Ph.D. in a specialized area. This philosophy contends that an object is more than the observable information it provides; that the material itself can show us vividly what no written transcription can. If your state has a grant program, you will need to apply to that as well. Recently, the most common phrase for museum job announcements has been “M.A. Stan T. April 28, 2020 Career, Requirements Leave a Comment. https://online.norwich.edu/academic-programs/resources/what-is-a-historian Becoming a practicing historian, be it in academia or elsewhere, requires a rigorous academic foundation. This resource is intended to make you aware of some of the core issues around starting a museum. To become this sort of researcher, all you need is an internet connection, a bit of cash and dedication to the cause! They may also be involved in gathering music paraphenalia, help to preserve music artifacts, gather archives of sheet music for a museum, verify the … Candidates with a bachelor’s degree may qualify for some entry-level positions, but most will not be traditional historian jobs. Great reading is achieved by reading widely. If you are truly looking to start a museum, my book was written for you. How To Become a Historian Although most historian positions require a master’s degree, some research positions require a doctoral degree. Other historians are responsible for validating, maintaining, and retrieving information from historical archives. This stereotypical figure is becoming increasingly rare, however, thanks to the changing nature of historical museums. How to Become a Historian. Museum designers should be creative, detail-oriented and organized. How to Become an Archivist, Curator, and Museum Worker [About this section] Get the education you need: Find schools for Archivists, Curators, and Museum Workers near you! Historians also need to read a wide variety of historical texts on a wide variety of topics in order to formulate ideas about how people lived in the past. To become a museum curator you usually have to complete an arts or science degree at university with a major in a relevant area, such as anthropology, archaeology, fine arts, history, cultural studies, astronomy, biology or environmental science (preferably at honours level), followed by a postgraduate qualification in museum studies, curatorship or cultural heritage management. University Headquarters (UniversityHQ) is your #1 resource for finding top rated colleges, scholarships, potential salaries and helping you find the right career. The curator will need to be able to gather the pieces, create a theme, and oversee or create a visual presentation of the artifacts, information, photographs, videos, and documents. Salary Rank . Some institutions with a particular focus, such as science, natural history, … The education officer is responsible for designing programs that target the museum’s resources toward a number of different categories of visitor. You'll usually need a degree and a postgraduate or professional qualification relevant to your area of interest to become a curator. All Rights Reserved. A historian in the museum field was once thought of as another object in the collection—dust covered, hidden away from the world, and usually difficult to comprehend. A degree isn't needed but you'll stand a better chance of gaining employment if you have experience in a customer-facing role. If you plan to work in an art setting, a Bachelor of Fine Arts offers a good educational foundation in practical art skills and art history. Otherwise, people with bachelor's degrees in history pursue careers in journalism, law, or business, if they do not go into public-school teaching. Step 7: Find relevant historian jobs, and apply for it. If you’re serious about becoming a historian, an advanced degree is a better educational path. In most cases, the size and budget of the museum is proportional to the diversity of job responsibilities, so the size of a museum can determine the level of necessary education. This could allow you to teach history in a high school. Additional duties include maintaining stable environmental conditions for objects on exhibit and in storage. If you love history and want to be directly involved with the collections at the museum, this is the position for you. An academic background in history, in addition to the technical skills needed for the position, will equip the registrar with the research abilities needed to properly identify and classify collection objects. In many ways, a museum exhibit designer is a jack-of-all-trades. 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Most historians then undertake a masters or doctoral degree, where they conduct research and, in most instances, write a thesis in their chosen subject area. Music Historians research and write about music in an historical context. Most museums have moved away from merely displaying artifacts, and now strive to present these objects in a larger social, cultural and political context. Other responsibilities include greeting visitors and providing information about the venue. If you are ready to become a historian, you may want to know where to find a relevant job. However, if you are wanting a more in-depth treatment of how to start a museum, I just released a new book, Museums 101, which I designed to be an A-to-Z resource for those looking to start a museum. Holograms and strobe lights may entertain for the short term, but only thoroughly researched and well-written exhibits are able to hold the attention of the visitor and express an understandable and compelling interpretation of a historic subject. The experience you gain while volunteering can be used on resumes and in interviews. To become a Historian, an aspirant has to fulfil the following eligibility criteria - Should have cleared his/her 10+2 examination from a recognised Board Should have at least secured 50% aggregate at the qualifying exam Should have studied History at the qualifying level Because of the constant influx of new forms of entertainment and diversion in the culture at large, and continual advances in technology, museum professionals are under constant pressure to move history into the present. There are several things a music historian can be involved in. In such a competitive field, a historian candidate must do work in the field as they proceed through their college education to gain work experience. In many ways the duties and responsibilities of a registrar and an archivist overlap. The study of history includes finding out about the culture, religions, belief systems, governmental, and political structures, art, ways of living, architecture, and events that occurred in a specific place and time. research, analyze, record, and interpret the past as recorded in sources, such as government and institutional records, newspapers and other periodicals, photographs, interviews, films, electronic media, and unpublished manuscripts, such as personal diaries and letters. If you’d like to become a museum curator, start by choosing what type of museum you want to work in, such as an art museum or a science museum. Museum technicians typically have a bachelor's degree. Archivists are responsible for collections of items and records (art, documents, or artifacts) kept in the museum. The problem is that the number of jobs for historians is not as high as the number of new workers that join the labor market with the qualifications for such careers. The other career path in history that requires a doctorate is historical research. Because of the high cost of many conservation treatments, most museums are not able to keep a conservator on staff. To become a serious historian who works in the academia one must have a PhD. Search for other sources of scholarships and grants to cover your shortfall in financial resources to cover all of the expenses for your first four years of college. Salary rank. Museum conservators are more likely to be hired with a graduate degree, such as a master’s in conservation, library science, or history. For example, he must be knowledgeable in art, history, design, lighting, and possibly carpentry. In general, unless they are conducting field work at a historical site, historians work indoors. Specialization master's degree programs for historian candidates include programs in museum studies, preservation of historical artifacts, management of archives, and public history. Ph.D. candidates in history will specialize in an era, a field of history, or a place in the world.