RE: Courier positions

I assume you are asking about couriers accompanying museum objects.
Couriers are used to ensure the safe transportation of museum objects
for variety of reasons - fragility of the piece, difficulty of travel
route, high value of the piece, excessively large or small packages
which will need special measures for safety.  Couriers must be
familiar with the piece(s) they accompany, the specific needs of
those pieces, safe packing methods and materials, obstacles which
might be encountered along the route, legal requirements of travel,
and a host of other details.  There is a good introductory chapter
about couriering museum objects in The New Museum Registration
Methods (Buck and Gilmore, 1998, AAM bookstore carries it).

Most museums use their own staff members as couriers.  Depending on
the reason a piece requires a courier, many people within the
institution may be qualified.  Conservators and curators are often
pressed into duty when the concern is about the condition of the
piece; preparators and registrars/collections managers are sometimes
sent when packing or transit routes seem problematic; on occasion a
security person is the most appropriate courier when the piece is
stable but of very high value.  Most museums would not hire someone
outside their museum or the borrowing museum to act as their courier.
There are usually enough people who want to make the trip that hiring
an outsider is not necessary.

So, the best way to get a job couriering museum objects is to get a
job at a museum which lends a lot.  You probably won't find a full
time job as a courier, so you'll have to get one of those jobs which
lists it as part of the other duties assigned.

Beverly Balger
Registrar, Palmer Museum of Art
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA  16802
(814) 865-7672
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