Job Listing: Curator (Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation)

Curator

State Role Title: Hist/Arch & Preserv III
Agency: Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation
Location: American Revolution Museum at Yorktown
Hiring Range: $85,000–$90,000
Recruitment Type: General Public – G

About the Role

Shape how audiences understand the American Revolution and its enduring legacies. As Curator at the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, you’ll lead historical scholarship and interpretation while contributing to exhibitions, collections, educational programming, and public engagement. This role is ideal for an experienced museum professional and historian who brings strong research and writing skills, expertise in 18th-century material culture, and a commitment to interpreting history through diverse perspectives.

What You'll Do

• Lead curatorial research, scholarship, and interpretation of historical content related to the American Revolution and its legacies.
• Provide curatorial oversight of the museum’s permanent galleries and lead research and content development for gallery refreshes.
• Contribute to special exhibitions through historical research, exhibit writing, image and artifact identification, and development of related educational resources.
• Participate in collections development, including recommendations for acquisitions, deaccessions, loans, and the appropriate use of historical and archaeological materials.
• Provide historical expertise and research support for exhibitions, programs, publications, staff initiatives, donors, external partners, and research requests from the public and professional communities.
• Develop and deliver lectures, staff training, educational programs, and other public and professional programming.
• Participate in peer review of public-facing content, interpretation, lesson plans, educational materials, and other resources.
• Support collections access, documentation, and digitization initiatives, including 3D scanning and high-resolution photography.
• Help ensure the responsible stewardship of artifacts in the Commonwealth’s permanent collection and materials on loan to the Foundation.
• Collaborate with curatorial colleagues, internal departments, external partners, and subject-matter experts on exhibitions, interpretation, collections, and research initiatives.
• Maintain professional standards for historical research, collections stewardship, confidentiality, and workplace conduct.

What We're Looking For

Minimum Qualifications

• Knowledge of 18th-century material culture and history as related to the American Revolution.
• Significant expertise in exhibition planning and development.
• Experience using material culture to interpret the American Revolution and its legacies.
• Demonstrated ability to conceptualize, research, and write articles, exhibition content, and interpretive materials.
• Knowledge of museum best practices, including collections management, exhibition development, acquisitions, and object handling.
• Experience working effectively with groups representing multiple points of view.
• Demonstrated commitment to diversity and inclusion as they relate to broadening historical narratives.
• Ability to manage multiple deliverables with exceptional attention to detail.
• Proficiency with Microsoft and Google suites and collections management systems in a museum environment.
• Demonstrated knowledge of American Studies, Archaeology, History, or a related field focused on 18th-century Virginia history and/or the American Revolution and its legacies.
• Previous professional experience in museums, material culture, research, or a related field.

Additional Relevant Experience

• Advanced coursework in American Studies, Archaeology, or History focused on the long 18th century and/or the history of the American Revolution in Virginia is highly beneficial.

Why This Role?

This position brings together scholarship, collections, exhibitions, and public engagement. Your work will help shape how the American Revolution is researched, interpreted, and experienced by visitors and professional audiences.

You’ll contribute to a broader understanding of the past by helping explore the convergence of American Indian, European, and West Central African cultures and the enduring legacies of that history.

How to Apply

If you’re an experienced curator, historian, or museum professional ready to contribute your expertise to the interpretation and stewardship of American Revolution history, we invite you to apply at Curator - Williamsburg, Virginia, United States 

Agency Website: jyfmuseums.org

Contact:
Lee Ann Shelhorse
757-253-4553
careers@jyf.virginia.gov

Alternative Hiring Process

In support of the Commonwealth’s commitment to inclusion, individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply through the Commonwealth Alternative Hiring Process.

Applicants seeking consideration through this process should provide an AHP Letter, formerly known as a Certificate of Disability (COD), issued by the Department for Aging & Rehabilitative Services (DARS) or the Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired (DBVI).

Service-connected veterans are encouraged to answer Veteran status questions and, where applicable, submit disability documentation to DARS/DBVI to obtain an AHP Letter.

Applicants who received a Certificate of Disability from DARS or DBVI dated between April 1, 2022, and February 29, 2024, may still use that COD as applicable documentation for the Alternative Hiring Process.

For information about requesting an AHP Letter, contact DARS at 800-552-5019.