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

[John E Simmons]

Paul,

I am not sure what it is you are really asking. Using the definitions of
trade and profession in your original email, the answer is that collection
management is neither a trade or a profession. Collection management is not
a trade because there is no apprenticeship, journeyman period, or other
qualification that one has achieved mastery. Similarly, collection
management is not a profession because it lacks a professional
qualification (as in your examples of MD, JD, CPA, etc.), but of course by
this definition researcher, administration, and so forth are not
professions either. What you have presented is really a false dichotomy, if
we use your definitions.



Collection management is a profession, by the criteria that I listed in my
response on 23 February. As for curation, I agree with others that the
definition here is highly variable from one museum to another. Dirk is
correct that the word means “caring for something,” and originally those
called museum curators were called that because their job was to care for
the collection (in the UK, that title was usually keeper). What we find now
in museums is that “curation” means many things, from collection care to
research. The title alone does not tell you what the person does. We see a
similar thing with other titles for people caring for collections. When I
advise students, I tell them to ignore job titles and read the job
description. Often the same duties are described for the person with the
title collection manager, curator, registrar, curatorial associate, and so
on.



But back to the issue of the question you asked, “Is collection management
a trade or a profession? What’s the difference?” The way the terms trade
and profession are used on by the majority of people and institutions do
not conform to the very limited definitions you proposed. Most people would
probably say that collection management (and research and administration)
are professions, based on the way we routinely use the words. For example,
these are the definitions from the Oxford English Dictionary:

*Profession: *“A vocation, a calling, esp. one requiring advanced knowledge
or training in some branch of learning or science, spec. law, theology, or
medicine: gen. any occupation as a means of earning a living.”

*Trade: *“The habitual practice of an occupation, business, or profession,
esp. as a means of livelihood or gain. Now usu. a mercantile occupation or
skilled handicraft (esp. one requiring an apprenticeship), as distinct from
a profession, or skilled handicraft, as distinct from any other occupation.”



There are more detailed definitions of profession and trade, but these are
not reflective of common use of the terms nor do they conform to the way
they are used in museums. By the more detailed definitions, collection
management, curation, and research are neither trades or professions. Here
are the definitions from Wikipedia, that Knower of All Things (and note
that the following definitions are not supported by English language
dictionaries):



*Profession: *“A *profession* is a field of work that has been successfully
*professionalized*. It can be defined as a disciplined group of
individuals, *professionals*, who adhere to ethical standards and who hold
themselves out as, and are accepted by the public as possessing special
knowledge and skills in a widely recognised body of learning derived from
research, education and training at a high level, and who are prepared to
apply this knowledge and exercise these skills in the interest of others…
Professional occupations are founded upon specialized educational training,
the purpose of which is to supply disinterested objective counsel and
service to others, for a direct and definite compensation, wholly apart
from expectation of other business gain. Medieval and early modern
tradition recognized only three professions: divinity, medicine, and law,
which are called the *learned professions*. A profession is not a trade or
an industry.”



What makes collection management, curation, and research fail to qualify as
professions is what the Wikipedia site goes on to say is “the process of
professionalization”:



“Major milestones which may mark an occupation being identified as a
profession include:

   1. an occupation becomes a full-time occupation
   2. the establishment of a training school
   3. the establishment of a university school
   4. the establishment of a local association
   5. the establishment of a national association of professional ethics
   6. the establishment of state licensing laws”



It is the last one (state licensing laws” that excludes nearly educated
profession except medical doctors, lawyers, and CPAs, unless you want to
throw in engineers and a few other “professions.”



The Wikipedia definition of trade, significantly, is under the heading of
Craft:

“A *craft* or *trade* is a pastime or an occupation that requires
particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense,
particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to
people occupied in small scale production of goods, or their maintenance,
for example by tinkers. The traditional term *craftsman* is nowadays often
replaced by *artisan* and by *craftsperson*… When an apprentice finished
their apprenticeship, they became a journeyman searching for a place to set
up their own shop and make a living. After setting up their own shop, they
could then call themselves a master of their 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 Sat, Feb 24, 2024 at 9:40 PM Callomon,Paul <prc44 at drexel.edu> wrote:

> The reason I brought up the trade/profession distinction is because the
> meaning of those two words, which was once so clear (as I defined them
> before, and based on different career pathways) has become so confused with
> a similar term as to defy simple definition. When ambiguous terms are
> involved in discussions of power, however, it's often because their
> ambiguity makes them useful to the powerful.
>
> "Profession" and "professional" are two different and largely unrelated
> terms, as demonstrated by their antonyms: "profession" vs. "trade" and
> "professional" vs. "amateur." CMs in many institutions in the USA see
> themselves as "professionals" because they are in a "profession," but that
> is to mix the two terms. Collection management in natural history museums
> is something of a chimaera, in that its practitioners often have and apply
> a body of knowledge you would expect from someone in a profession (a
> doctor, lawyer etc.) but are treated by management as tradesmen. A
> "technician" in the European sense is maybe a more apposite term for this.
>
> In the struggle to be recognized and compensated as high-knowledge
> workers, we maybe do ourselves no favors by using ambiguous terminology.
> What many people mean by "professional" is "educated and salaried." There
> is also the social use of the term "professional" with the antonym
> "unprofessional," which are subjective judgments of behavior unworthy of
> gentlefolk (and that sporting pair - "gentlemen" vs. "players" - is a
> synonym of "amateurs" and "professionals.")
>
> Incidentally, the use of "professional" for museum curators and staff
> dates to the late nineteenth century and only means "employed full time" -
> that is, not amateurs. "Museum curator" has never been considered a
> profession like law or medicine, as it has no legal privilege. For all
> their erudition, curators and CMs alike cannot legally perform surgery or
> prosecute people in court.
>
> *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*
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of Laura
> Rincón <collectionslitclub at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* Saturday, February 24, 2024 7:55 PM
> *To:* John E Simmons <simmons.johne at gmail.com>
> *Cc:* nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
> *Subject:* Re: [Nhcoll-l] [External] Re: [KU SUSPECT SPAM] Re: [EXTERN]
> Re: Collection management: trade or profession?
>
>
> External.
>  I am uncertain about the potential issues that may arise if CM is
> considered both a trade and a profession. Could this correlation perpetuate
> low salaries and hinder an understanding of the tasks performed in
> collections?
>
> Having this combination between on-the-job learning and university-trained
> professionals is a great recipe for me. I like what Liath says about
> Collections Management (CM) being a specialization within the profession
> category. For example, my undergrad is in Information and Library Sciences,
> and I pursued a Master of Arts in Museum Studies. However, during my
> graduate studies, I discovered my interest in biological collections.
> Despite the fact that my master's degree did not specifically focus on
> natural history museums, I decided to gain experience by working at the
> natural history museum of my university.
>
> It would be interesting to explore how an Union or HR decides to assign a
> title to the CM position. What resources do museums rely on to implement
> significant changes in titles? There are many titles assigned to specific
> job positions, and this can vary among natural history museums. Ultimately,
> it appears that some museums are still grappling with a clear understanding
> of what CM entails.
>
> Very interesting questions and discussions around this topic!
>
> Thank you,
>
>
> Laura A. Rincón R. |  Museum Studies professional
>
> Malacology Museum Specialist
>
> Division of Invertebrate Zoology
>
> American Museum of Natural History
>
>
>
> Email: lrincon-rodriguez at amnh.org
> Twitter: @LauRincon222
>
>
>
> https://collectionslitclub.wordpress.com/
>
>
>
> “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget
> what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel” Maya
> Angelou
>
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