Job: Curator for the National Museum of American History
Salary Range: $60,000 to $150,000; varies according to the federal pay scale
Worker: Ryan Lintelman
Age: 30
Education: Bachelor’s degree in American studies; master’s degree in history
Company: Smithsonian Institution
Ryan Lintelman enters a vault, slips on black gloves and gingerly opens cabinets to reveal American treasures. Original sketches of Mickey Mouse. Miss Piggy, Cookie Monster and Kermit the Frog, each Muppet in repose. The hay-stuffed Scarecrow, resting after his adventure through Oz.
As a curator at the National Museum of American History’s division of culture and the arts, Lintelman is in the “forever business.” The objects in his care have significance beyond their entertainment value, he explains. Superman’s costume hints at Americans’ evolving attitudes toward immigrants. Rocky’s robe alludes to the anxieties moviegoers had in the wake of the Watergate scandal and their desire for an American hero. And shackles from “Roots” acknowledge the country’s history of slavery.
To get his dream job, Lintelman spent summers interning at the Smithsonian museum in between semesters studying at the College of William & Mary. After graduation, he worked in the museum’s photographic history collection, then earned a master’s degree in history at George Mason University, working his way up to the curator role.
From his office overlooking the National Mall, Lintelman described his favorite artifacts in the collection, discussed the skills he needs to work with donors and visitors and offered advice for following his career path.
Tell me about the role of a museum curator.
As curator, you are the primary person responsible for caring for a collection, improving it, finding ways to educate people about it, researching it and creating public and scholarly products.
In terms of my personal work with the entertainment collection, for theater, movies and television, I am the primary responsible person at the Smithsonian for bringing that stuff in as it relates to American history broadly. I work with my colleagues in sports and music to find ways to get that information out.
We’re working on a landmark exhibition that’s going to open in 2020, currently called “Entertaining America.” It will be 7,000 square feet dedicated to showing off these collections, talking about entertainment’s real relevance to American history.
On a daily basis, I also field inquiries either from scholars or people interested in donating or learning more about our collections. I participate in symposia. I write articles for Smithsonian Magazine and I’m working on one for a scholarly journal right now. I participate in filming for shows and documentaries. I do public programs after hours.
What steps did you take to get your job?
I knew that I was really interested in history, but when I first went to college, I assumed that unless you were really lucky or knew somebody, all you could do was teach history.
I had a really great adviser at William & Mary who was the entertainment curator [at the National Museum of American History] before he was a professor of American studies and history. He told me about this interesting track of doing public history. You can be a park ranger, you can be a historic preservationist. He told me about working at the museum. He left to teach, but he really enjoyed the work he did here, because rather than going to graduate school and focusing in on something very specific and niche, you could think critically about how to speak about history to the largest number of people and really make it relevant to their lives.
I thought that was fascinating. I felt called to public service, and that seemed a way I could combine my love for history with something that would actually help people’s lives.
I did two summers of internships and then came up here after I graduated. I have been hanging out ever since, in a variety of different jobs.
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What skills do you need for your work?
Definitely writing and the ability to research and look at a wide variety of sources. The thing that’s unique about museum work for historians is you have to know material culture, which is investigating objects to learn history from them, rather than just looking at books and records in traditional archives.
Public speaking is definitely important. Certainly at this museum, because we’re doing a lot of fundraising right now.
I read entertainment news constantly, try to keep up with what’s happening in theater. There is only so much time in the day to watch things, but it’s really more about me knowing what’s important about a given thing than me having seen every episode of any particular show.
The skills that [benefited me in getting] the job were people skills and relationship management.
What are the perks of your job?
If you ask anyone in my family, it’s that when they visit D.C., they get to see the Muppets.
As a curator, you have a lot of control over the work that you do in a way that a lot of other fields don’t. You can pursue your own interests. If I want to take a trip to go out somewhere and see if I can collect from someone, I can find a way to do that. I can propose an exhibit that interests me. I can start writing a paper for a journal on a topic of interest, which is really nice.
I love having this job and having an office that looks out at the National Mall.
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What are the challenges of your job?
A challenge for all museums is budgets. We receive 60 percent of our budget from federal appropriation; we’re really lucky in that sense. What that pays for is keeping the lights on in this building, keeping the water running, paying people’s salaries. It doesn’t provide a lot of funding for new exhibitions or programs.
We’ve got to make sure we can do fundraising to do the bigger projects we want to do. That’s one of the things traditionally curators didn’t do, seeking funding, but now we have to be a part of that process. Explaining to external partners what we’re doing, why we’re doing it and asking them to support our mission.
What are the coolest artifacts in your collection?
Kermit. I also really like the Indiana Jones jacket.
It’s neat to be able to pick up an Academy Award and practice your speech.
Where do you see yourself in a few years?
Right here. This is a great job. So many people our age move from job to job; working at the Smithsonian is the exception to the rule.
How can other people break into museum work?
It’s the kind of place that nobody wants to leave once they start working here. For young people trying to break into the field, it’s actually pretty difficult. We’re working more on getting opportunities for people to move up through the ranks.
It’s really vital to do internships and get experience on the ground here. I try to offer as many internships as possible.
A master’s degree is probably the least you need to be a curator. In the curatorial ranks, a lot of people come out of Ph.D. programs. You definitely need to come from a scholarly background in history or cultural studies.
The cool thing about museums is there are so many entry points. My colleagues, many of them interned here, but many of them came from [academia] and were involved with work that we did here. I have some colleagues also who volunteered for after-hours programs; they were pouring wine and working with us on introducing speakers, they proved they were interested in the mission and had some expertise and knowledge about what we’re working on and now they’re working here.
It’s not an ivory tower kind of place. It invites people to engage and participate and that can turn into something more than just visiting the museum.
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What’s your advice for people interested in becoming museum curators?
If you’re really interested in something, try to find an opportunity to volunteer or intern. It’s not something that’s onerous when you work in a museum, it’s something that’s actually really fun: to see people engage with history.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
The salary range is based on information from Glassdoor.com and Ryan Lintelman.
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