Well, my two cents would be to go for the Ph.D.  If you really want to be a
professor, don't go into museum work, because it doesn't sound like
something you really want, just something to "dabble in" until you get to
the holy land of the university.  Museum work isn't something to dabble in
en route to a Ph.D., it is a career of its own, and requires the commitment
(even more so) than a university professorship.

To be honest, I have a Master's, and I choose to work in the museum field,
and I plan on making it a long career.  I have encountered Ph.D.s in this
field, but a lot of them are here as a "way station," either because they
can't get that teaching job they covet, so they "settle" for working here,
or just a place to bide their time and keep their resume warm while they
maneuver around to get a tenure-track teaching position.

It's annoying.  There's a lot of work that needs to be done in the museum
world, and it requires commitment.  We don't have the luxury of working 9
hours a week, for 8 months of the year.  We work a lot of long hours, and we
work to make the museum a better place.  It's serious business, and people
who are serious about it should enter the field.

When I left my Ph.D. program for this job, I was summarily dismissed by one
of my professors, who told me that the museum world was full of "amateurs,"
and "little old ladies in sensible shoes."  Yet, in my work, I directly
impact more people than my professor ever will.  A few people a year take
his classes, and no one reads his book.  Yet the exhibits I curate or the
articles I write reach a much broader audience, which has always been my
goal.

I'm a public historian, and proud of it.  If you want to be an academic,
choose that route, and don't dabble in this world.  Go for the Ph.D.
program.  Good luck, because it'll be tough.  But if that's your goal,
you'll find it rewarding as well.  I've certainly found public history much
more rewarding than academic history.



Christopher J. Dawson
Curator of Urban and Industrial History
Crawford Museum of Transportation and Industry Design Task Force
Western Reserve Historical Society
10825 East Boulevard
Cleveland, Ohio 44106
216-721-5722 x247
[log in to unmask]

"Next week there can't be any crisis.  My schedule is already full." --
Henry Kissinger

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