[Nhcoll-l] Collection management: trade or profession?

[John E Simmons]

Paul,

This issue has been discussed in the literature for quite some time, and is
important because using such names as trade and technician is used as a
justification for paying lower salaries than are paid to others presumed to
be professionals.



I published an article on the subject in 1993 (“Natural history collections
management in North America.” *Journal of Biological Curation* 1(3/4):1-17)
pointing out that:

“a *professional *is one who conforms to the standards of a
profession. A *profession
*requires specialized knowledge and usually intensive academic preparation.
By contrast, someone in a *technical *position would be a *technician. *which
can be defined as a specialist in the technical details of a subject or
occupation. The difference is important¾professional means specialized
knowledge and intensive academic preparation; technical means merely a
mastery of certain technical details. Collections managers have also been
incorrectly referred to as ”paraprofessionals." The definition of a
paraprofessional is someone trained to assist a professional person. This
is not what collections managers do.”



Much more discussion of the subject can be found in Williams, S. L., and C.
A. Hawks (editors). 2006. *Museum Studies. Perspectives and Innovations*.
Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections. In particular,
the chapters by Chambers, E. A., “Defining the role of the curator”
(47-65), Cato, P. S., and H. H. Genoways, “Toward common nomenclature and
definitions for natural science professional collections-related positions”
(67-84); and Cunningham, M. R., “Professionalism through academics. A
historically established paradigm and its application to the museum field”
(85-109) are instructive.



I briefly addressed the historical development of the museum profession
(which includes collection managers and curators) in 2016 in *Museums. A
History*, and I took a much more detailed and in-depth look at the issue in
2020 in “A very brief history of the profession” [pp.2-16 in J. E. Simmons
and T. M. Kiser (editors). *Museum Registration Methods*, 6th edition.
Rowman & Littlefield], writing that:

“In his book on the history of museum studies, Jesús Lorente identified
three components that were fundamental to establishing the museum
profession: (i) specialized publications; (ii) professional associations;
and (ii) formal training courses, all of which blossomed in the twentieth
century and enabled the collections care profession to progress from people
with on-the-job-learning and informal apprenticeships to a core of
university-trained professionals who could access a range of technical
literature and who had official channels for communication with colleagues
through museum associations.

The title *collections manager *came into use in the mid-1970s in natural
history museums in the United States. Although some natural history museums
had registrars, the position was not common. Historically, most hands-on
collection work and registration was done by curators or by curatorial
assistants working under their direction. As both collections and
collections-based research increased in size and complexity, it became
obvious that specialists were needed to take over the documentation and
care of the collections because the job descriptions of most natural
history curators were increasingly focused on research and administration.  A
1990 survey of collection care positions in the United States and Canada
demonstrated that the tasks of collections managers included the
registration and care responsibilities traditionally assigned to registrars
in other museums but with a greater emphasis on hands-on collections care
and use of electronic registration systems. Although

there were some attempts to distinguish between a registrar and a
collections manager (e.g., a registrar was primarily involved with record
keeping and a collections manager with hands-on collection work), the
responsibilities of the two positions quickly converged and the job titles
have become synonyms…”



The book by Lorente and the survey referred to are:



Lorente, J. P. 2012. *Manual de Historia de la Museología*. Ediciones Trea



Cato, P. S. 1993. Summary of a study to evaluate collection manager-type
positions. *Collection Forum *7(2):72–94.



Lastly, the descriptions in your email of profession and trade are
interesting, and for many professions and trades are accurate, but they are
so narrow as exclude other professions and trades. For example, these are
the definitions from the *American Heritage College Dictionary*



Profession. “1a. An occupation or career. B. An occupation such as law that
requires considerable training and specialized study.”



Trade. “1. The business of buying and selling commodities; commerce. 2. The
people working in or associated with a business or industry… 6. An
occupation, esp. one requiring skilled labor; craft.”



--John


John E. Simmons
Writer and Museum Consultant
Museologica
*and*
Investigador Asociado, Departamento de Ornitologia
Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima


On Fri, Feb 23, 2024 at 11:35 AM Callomon,Paul <prc44 at drexel.edu> wrote:

> Folks,
>
> As research for a planned paper, I thought I'd canvass you all on the
> following question:
>
>
>    - Is collection management a trade or a profession? What's the
>    difference?
>    - A trade begins with learning, practice and experience (an
>    apprenticeship). Apprentices pass tests and become journeymen; they then
>    produce a masterpiece (the origin of the term, nothing to do with the Mona
>    Lisa) and gain master's certification and sometimes membership of a guild,
>    which allows them to take their own apprentices and renew the cycle in
>    their place of work.
>    - A profession begins with study and examinations. Practice with real
>    clients can only begin once both have been completed (think: lawyers;
>    surgeons; accountants). A period of internship or further training is
>    usual, but a professional qualification (MD, JD, CPA etc) allows one to
>    start doing things that are otherwise illegal (like cutting live people
>    open, representing a defendant in court, etc).
>
>
> A master craftsperson is mobile between workplaces at master rank, but a
> partially-completed apprenticeship might not be accepted outside the
> workplace in which it was created. There is no rank above master, and
> senior institutional management tends to be taken from the ranks of
> professionals.
>
> Any capable young person can become an apprentice, and the lower bar for
> entry means the trades are often more inclusive than the professions
> (though unions can and do bias hiring somewhat). Master tradespeople can
> make more money than at least junior professionals, and are arguably more
> important to the running of infrastructure-based institutions like museums.
>
> *Paul Callomon*
> *Collection Manager, Malacology and General Invertebrates*
> ------------------------------
>
> *Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia*
> *callomon at ansp.org <callomon at ansp.org> Tel 215-405-5096 - Fax 215-299-1170*
>
>
>
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