How did you end up looking after this kind of object?I offered to dust the clocks one summer and never left.
How long should a visitor stand in front of one object?A whole minute. It is longer than it sounds.
How much of the collection is on show, and where is the rest?A small part. The rest waits in the store rooms.
What did you study, and did it prepare you for the real work?History of art. Nobody taught me how to pack a crate.
What do you do when two experts disagree about an object?Put both views on the label and let visitors weigh them.
What do you research, and how does a visitor ever see the result?Who owned each object before us. It ends up as two lines on a label.
What does a curator do all day when no new show is opening?Answer letters about objects, check loans and read a great deal.
What does the word curator mean, and does it fit the work?It comes from the Latin for taking care. That is most of it.
What have you learned about an object that changed how it is shown?That our "vase" was a lamp. We turned it the right way up.
What is the best thing a visitor has told you about an object?That her grandmother had made one just like it.
What is the first thing you look at when you walk into another museum?The labels. I cannot help it.
What would surprise someone who only ever sees the galleries?The spreadsheets. Every object has a row.
What would you be doing if you were not a curator?Running a used bookstore, badly.
Which decision about the collection kept you awake this year?What to leave in the store for one more year.
Which gallery would you build if the museum had one more floor?Open storage, so people could see the shelves.
Which object in your care do you worry about most?A silk banner that seems to fade if you look at it too long.
Which object would you show a visitor who had only ten minutes?The little bone comb. Everyone walks straight past it.
Which part of the collection is yours to look after?The textiles: quilts, flags and one very fragile wedding dress.
Which question do you hear at every gallery talk?"Is it real?" Yes. Nearly always.
Who else works on the collection besides you?A conservator, a registrar and two patient volunteers.
How an object is chosen 14
Does the museum ever let an object go, and how is that decided?Rarely, and only after a long review.
Have you ever gone looking for one object the collection was missing?A plain kitchen chair of the period. It took four years.
How do you check that an object is what its owner says it is?Compare it with dated ones, then ask a specialist.
How do you decide between a perfect object and a worn one with a story?The worn one, almost every time.
How do you find out where an object has been before it reached you?Old receipts, letters, and labels stuck underneath.
How does an object get into the museum's collection?Someone offers it, we research it, then a committee votes.
What do you ask a donor about the thing they are handing over?Who used it, where, and what they called it at home.
What do you collect today that nobody thinks is special yet?Handwritten shop signs.
What happens to an object in its first week in the building?It gets a number, a photograph and a shelf of its own.
What is the most ordinary thing you have collected on purpose?A bus ticket. One day it will be the only one left.
What makes you say no to something a person wants to give?We already hold three, or we could not care for it properly.
What paperwork does one new object need?A number, a photograph, a description and a signed form.
Which gift to the museum arrived with the best story attached?A trunk with a diary still inside.
Who has the final say on what the museum keeps?The collections committee. I only make the case.
Behind the scenes 14
Have you ever opened a box and found something nobody expected?A second, smaller box. With a button collection in it.
How do light and damp change what you can put on display?Some things come out for only a few months at a time.
How do you find one object among thousands in storage?Its number points to a room, a shelf and a box.
How is a fragile object packed for a journey?In a crate built for it, with foam cut to its shape.
How is an object cleaned, and who decides how far to go?The conservator decides. Slowly, with a very soft brush.
What do you do on the day the museum is closed to visitors?Open cases, change labels and move the heavy things.
What does a museum store room look like?Rows of gray shelves, and boxes with numbers on the ends.
What happens when another museum asks to borrow something?We check its condition, agree the dates, then build a crate.
What is kept in storage that you wish could be on show?Forty hats that have no room upstairs.
What is the strangest tool you use in your work?A dentist's mirror, for looking underneath things.
What is written on an object's record that visitors never see?Its measurements, its condition and every place it has been.
What sound does the museum make when it is empty?The air system humming, and one case that ticks.
When do you wear gloves to handle an object, and when not?It depends on the object. I ask the conservator first.
Who travels with an object when it goes out on loan?Sometimes I do. I watch it go into the crate and come out.
Labels and how a show is hung 14
How do you choose the wall color for a room?We paint big sample boards and hold objects against them.
How do you choose which object a visitor sees first?The one that makes people stop in the doorway.
How do you decide how high to hang a picture?The middle sits near eye level, then we step back and argue.
How do you get a small object noticed in a big room?Give it a case of its own and a pool of light.
How do you plan a route so visitors do not miss a room?We tape it on the floor and walk it ourselves.
How do you write a label for an object you know little about?Say what we know, then say plainly what we do not.
How long does an exhibition take from first idea to opening day?Ours took about three years. The last month felt longest.
How many words fit on a label, and what do you cut first?About sixty. The dates I love go first.
What did you have to leave out of your last exhibition?A whole case of teacups. No room.
What do you learn from watching visitors on opening day?Where they slow down, and which label nobody reads.
What is the last job before the doors open on a new show?Walk the rooms once more and straighten one label.
Which title did you nearly give an exhibition?"Things in Boxes." Nobody else liked it.
Who reads your labels before they go on the wall?A colleague, an editor, and someone who knows nothing about it.
Why are two objects placed side by side?So each one makes you look harder at the other.
The oldest and oddest things 13
If the museum could keep only one object, which would you choose?The town's first map. Everything else hangs from it.
Is there anything in the collection that nobody can identify?A brass tool with three hooks. We welcome guesses.
What has turned out to be a fake or a copy?A "medieval" key made about a century ago.
What in the collection once belonged to a child?A wooden horse with one ear chewed off.
What is the heaviest thing you have ever had to move?A stone trough. Six people and a pallet jack.
What is the oddest object you look after?A jar labeled "string too short to use."
What is the oldest thing in the collection, and how do you know its age?A stone bead. The layer of earth it lay in gives the date.
What is the smallest thing in the museum, and the largest?A seed pearl, and a fishing boat out in the yard.
Which object gets the most letters from the public?The ship model. People send corrections.
Which object has the strangest story of how it got here?A cannonball that arrived by mail.
Which object makes children stop and stare?The suit of armor made for a boy.
Which object still smells of something?A leather trunk that smells of pipe smoke.
Which thing looks dull but turns out to matter most?A ledger. It names everyone who worked at the mill.
For a museum visit 14
Are you allowed to touch the things in the museum?Only with care, and never without checking first.
Can I give something to the museum?You can offer it. We look at every offer.
Do you ever get to hold the oldest things?Yes, with two hands, over a padded table.
Has anything in the museum ever broken?A plate, long ago. It was mended so well it is hard to spot.
How can you tell how old something is?We look for dates, makers' marks and how it was made.
How do I become a curator when I grow up?Look closely, read a lot and ask how things were made.
How do you get a very big thing through the door?Sometimes in pieces. Once through a window.
Is everything in the museum real?Nearly all of it. The label says when something is a copy.
What happens in the museum at night?The lights go down and the alarms go on.
What is behind the doors that say staff only?Shelves, boxes and a kettle.
What is your favorite thing in the whole museum?A tiny painted bird no bigger than my thumb.
Where do you keep the things that are not on show?In store rooms, on shelves, in numbered boxes.
Who writes the little signs next to things?I do. Then someone makes me shorten them.
Why do the signs say not to touch?Many hands slowly wear a thing away.
How it works
These questions to ask a curator start with the job: what is on show, what waits in storage, which object deserves ten minutes. Five more groups cover choosing objects, the store rooms, labels, the oddest things and a museum visit.
Read the full guide
Start with the job, then go behind the scenes
The sheet opens on twelve of the twenty in About the job. For the part visitors never see, set the box under Print this list to Behind the scenes: the store rooms, a loan to another museum, a crate built for one object.
Questions for a curator on a museum visit
For a museum visit holds fourteen a child can ask at a gallery talk: what is behind the staff door, whether anything has ever broken. The example answers are invented; on paper each prints as a blank line, with the examples on a last page you can leave out.
Questions and answers
What are good questions to ask a museum curator?
Ones only a curator can answer: how much of the collection is on show, which object you would show a visitor with ten minutes, which decision about the collection kept you awake this year.
What does a curator do?
A collections curator looks after a museum's collection: choosing objects, researching them and sharing the findings in exhibitions. An exhibitions curator selects the works for a show and often writes its labels. In the United Kingdom a museum curator may be called a keeper.
What is the difference between a curator and a conservator?
In a large museum the curator is the subject specialist who researches the objects and guides what is collected. Conservators or collections managers may oversee their physical care, and a registrar handles records and loans. In a small museum one curator may do it all.