I think Deb may be right. I started 25 years ago as an
anthropology graduate student who took a job running a
state historic site. Moved through a soft money
archeological position to a hard money state
archeologist job, and then to the museum - I went from
digging it up to taking care of it, all with the same
employer. There were no "museum studies" courses
readily ("obviously"???) availble to me when I started,
although I was always fascinated with museums, and
worked in one at the U of Kansas while in school. On
the other hand, the folks who apply for jobs here now
often come out of public history or museum studies
backgrounds. I suppose that some "old timers" must
have gone directly and deliberately into museum work,
but I don't recall the opportunity ever being real in
my youth.