Museum Collections Manager
The Natural History Society of Maryland (NHSM), a private nonprofit headquartered in Baltimore seeks a full-time temporary museum collections manager to oversee the documentation, care, and preservation of its museum collections—comprised of minerals, fossils, flora, fauna, and archaeological artifacts from Maryland and the mid-Atlantic region.
This position is funded by a grant from the Miller History Fund, administered by the Maryland Center for History and Culture (MCHC). The position is a full-time, temporary (four month) position starting in September 2024, with the potential for additional time if other funding is acquired.
Major Duties
The museum collections manager is primarily charged with cataloging already existing NHSM collections in the collections management system Arctos. Currently, only approximately 20 percent of the collections have been cataloged in Arctos. The goal of the project funded by MCHC is for NHSM’s 200,000+ specimens to be reviewed, cataloged, tagged, and sorted by destination: the permanent scientific collection, public display, or educational resource bank.
Major duties include:
- Supervising interns and volunteers in the cataloging of museum specimens
- Coordinating with volunteer curators about the cataloging of specimens
- Assisting in the development of standardized collections policies, procedures, and forms
- Managing proper documentation of the collections, including accessioning and deaccessioning, cataloging, loans, etc.
- Maintaining the collections management system (Arctos)
- Ensuring proper care and preservation of the museum collections in their current housing
Qualifications
Required:
- Bachelor’s degree in history, art history, museum studies, or a closely related field
- At least 3 years of professional experience managing art and artifact collections in a museum environment
- Thorough knowledge of collections management standards and best practices
- Demonstrated experience managing the care, preservation, and documentation of museum collections, especially in museum registration, collections management software, object handling and housing, loan procedures, and exhibition installation
- Excellent project management skills
- The ability to perform moderate physical activity, such as climbing ladders, lifting, kneeling, and standing or walking for extended periods of time
- The ability to work occasional evening and weekend hours, including courier trips
- Being organized, detail-oriented, able to work independently and take initiative, an effective writer and public speaker, and eager to contribute to NHSM’s work.
Preferred:
- Master’s degree in history, art history, museum studies, or a closely related field
- Experience leading staff teams in larger projects.
Salary and Benefits
This position is a full-time, temporary (four month) position starting in September 2024, with the potential for additional time if other funding is acquired. The current budget allocation is for $17,050 over four months. There are no benefits associated with this position.
To Apply
Send a resume and cover letter by email to:
Dr. Katherine M. Sterner
- Trustee and Collections Coordinator
- The Natural History Society of Maryland
- 6908 Belair Road
- PO Box 18750
- Baltimore, MD 21206
- ksterner@towson.edu
About the Natural History Society of Maryland
The Natural History Society of Maryland (NHSM) is a private nonprofit dedicated to conserving Maryland’s natural heritage and educating its citizens on the natural sciences since 1929. We are a primarily volunteer-run organization with a small paid staff. We own our facility in Overlea, Maryland, where we present rotating exhibits and offer programs, lectures, workshops, and courses on a wide variety of natural science subjects. The bottom level of our building is a collections facility that houses over 200,000 natural history specimens and artifacts.
NHSM had its start from within the Maryland Academy of Sciences, and many of our older collections were transferred from the Academy to the new organization. Our natural history collections date from the 1800s to the present and include minerals, fossils, flora, fauna, and artifacts from Maryland and the mid-Atlantic region. Spanning the disciplines of geology, mineralogy, entomology, malacology, herpetology, ornithology, mammalogy, paleontology, anthropology and botany, these collections are both historically and scientifically significant, providing a unique and valuable resource for the state of Maryland.
An important part of our mission is to provide a place for unwanted private and public collections which may otherwise not be preserved. Some of these are scientifically significant and are studied by scientists; others lack data or are duplicates but remain important for hands-on educational programs.