Monday at the Museum

Occupations in Museums

Museums are organizations with a wide-range of philosophies and missions.  They are workplaces which require specific codes of conduct, bylaws, and policies like most other professions. 

The number and variety of jobs in an individual museum depends on a museum's discipline, size, and budget.  If an individual has appropriate training and experience, museums may employ a person in a number of possible positions.  Museum occupations fall into four broad categories; administrative, collections-related, public programming, and coordinate specific functions.  Examples of an administrative position include director and financial officer.  Curator, registrar, and conservator are collections related jobs. Those classified as public programming include educator and exhibition manager/designer. The coordinate-function positions include archivist, librarian, and editor.  Other critical positions would be in the areas of information technology, marketing, and human resources. Museums often hire temporary outside experts for specific one-time projects such as fundraising, visitor studies, and strategic planning. 

Museum work requires a certain level of competency in a particular area, for example, a collection manager needs to be familiar with laws that relate to deaccessioning objects and procedures of documentation of new acquisitions.  Another example is that an exhibits manager must be knowledgeable about the newest interactive technologies and the American Disabilities Act when installing exhibits. A museum educator must understand the curriculum standards of the public and private schools and recognize how people learn. Working alongside the staff is a host of devoted volunteers who work without pay to help museums reach their goals.

Museums, and those who choose to work in them, face a variety of challenges.  Cultural diversity, growth of older adult populations, population shifts, the state of education, technologies, endangered environments, equality, accessibility, and financial restraints are just a few of the challenges facing museums and other cultural institutions today and into the future.

I would like to share one thing...I am privileged and honored to work in a profession that I enjoy.  It is a gift to get up every morning and look forward to going to work every day! 

Nancy J. Glaser, Executive Director

Education Expose'

This year we introduced a History Trunk exhibit.  The trunk and I met with several History classes at Butler High School.  There are currently two trunk programs which teach about the colonial and the civil war periods through the use of artifacts and primary sources.  This program is one that we will continue to expand. 

Parent groups, elementary and high school teachers are other groups with whom we share our vision.   Our goal is to be available to students and teachers as a vital resource which supports their curriculum.  If you know a student or a teacher in the CSRA, or if a church or civic group is looking for an informative program, tell them about the valuable resources available here at the Augusta Museum of History.

Julie Gazda, Education Manager

At the beginning of the 19th century, cotton began to replace tobacco as the principal trade good and cash crop in the CSRA.  Entrepreneurs built several competing textile mills that utilized the Augusta canal as a power source, giving Augusta the nickname the "Lowell of the South," after the successful industrial town of Lowell, Massachusetts. By 1886 the city of 25,000 people boasted eight cotton mills that employed nearly 2,800 workers, making Augusta the textile capital of the region.  In 1949, when the mills were enjoying a period of growth due to WWII supply production contracts, The Augusta Chronicle ran a piece on the mills with photography by Mr. Wilkinson, including this photo of mill workers at their looms.

On May 12, 1948, The Augusta Chronicle honored Miss Emmagene Dunbar (left), daughter of Mr. and Mrs. M.W. Dunbar, and Miss Carolyn Hall (right), daughter of Mrs. Gertrude Hall, as the winners of the Aiken County Cancer Essay Contest.  Miss Dunbar took second place while Miss Hall was awarded first place. Both young ladies received a check in reward for her efforts.

As I keep working through the collection, I find more and more extraordinary stories captured by Wilkinson.  His career can teach us so much about the history of the CSRA.  I can't wait to see what I find next!

Sarah Carlson, Museum Intern

(This internship originally made possible by the Community Foundation of the CSRA)