Where do I go with history? The past can help your future

Career World, Jan, 2005 by Charles Piddock

How will history help you get a job or find a career? It will be hard to find an employer who will say "You're hired" just because you can rattle off important battles of the Civil War or name the 17th president of the United States--right?

Well, not really. In many jobs, your knowledge of history and your interest in the past can help your future. Career World found one source that listed more than 50 jobs--from archivist to museum curator--in which a history background is a major plus.

According to Julie DeGalan and Stephen Lambert, authors of Great Jobs for History Majors, history "involves asking how we can make sense of complex situations. That kind of openness to research awareness of the complexity of events is exactly what decision making in business, government, law, journalism, and other fields often requires."

Here are just a few career paths that require a solid knowledge of history.

Become a Teacher. If you love history and shaping young minds, consider teaching history. School districts are expected to hire more than 10 million new teachers over the next 10 years, and salaries are growing rapidly.

Take Part in Living History. Museums and libraries are important centers of education that offer a number of jobs. Matt Geeza, 25, works at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, a re-created 19th-century village complete with houses, stores, and sailing, ships. It's a "living museum" where people reenact life as it was in the past. Geeza is part of a demonstration squad that reenact many aspects of 19th-century life. While one member of the squad climbs onto a ship's rigging, for instance, another explains the life of 19th-century sailor to visitors.

"I love my job," says Geeza. "It's interesting, challenging, and I learn something new every day. For a history major, it dream come true."

How did Geeza get his dream job? "I really didn't have much of a background in sailing," he says; "but I had a lot of interest in history. I studied modern European history and the history of southern Africa in college. I'd always loved history but didn't want to teach, at least in a classroom."

Geeza enjoyed visiting living-history museums as a child. In his senior year of college, he looked for one where he could work. He saw an ad for Mystic Seaport, applied, and got the job.

Geeza says it can be challenging to keep his presentations fresh. "The challenge is not to become routine, not to say the same thing over and over again in the same way. In order to keep fresh, I have to continue to research, to learn more about the past. But I don't mind. That's what I love to do."

Start a History-Related Business. An interest in history can lead you to your own business. That's what happened with Maile Allen, 32, of Woodbridge Township, N.J. She turned her interest in history into Maile's Antiques, a business dealing in antique maps and prints.

"I had been interested in history since childhood," Allen says. "My parents were always taking me to museums." She earned a master's degree in history from Villanova University and completed an internship at the National Archives, sorting and researching documents.

Allen says that a knowledge of, and interest in, history is vital to her business. She evaluates maps and documents, judges whether they are genuine, and puts a value on them. "It's fascinating work," says Allen. "The very best thing about it is that there is always something new: What will I find?"

Work in a History Museum. Brigid Guertin, 29, majored in history, went on to graduate school, and returned to her first love: her hometown of Danbury, Conn. She had always been fascinated by local history. Today she is the executive director of the Danbury Museum and Historical Society. There are eight historical buildings in the museum's collection, representing Danbury from 1684 to the present.

Guertin loves to work in a small museum. "I get to wear many hats," she says. "I evaluate artifacts, set up exhibits, visit schools, and manage the business of the museum--all in my own hometown."

Help People Discover Their Roots. Sandi Fraley runs a home business called Ancestors' Soup in Winchester, Ky. She first became interested in local history and genealogy while researching the story of a family member who had left Kentucky to look for work farther west. The interest grew into a business centered on Kentucky traditions.

Fraley says that she uses genealogy with children "to awaken their interest in history." According to Fraley, "Everyone has skeletons in [the] closet, but skeletons have a lot to do with history."

Maureen Taylor of Westwood, Mass., is a freelance writer, educator, and genealogist. "When I was in high school, I loved history. But when I asked my guidance counselor what I could do with my interest, his response was 'Teach,'" Taylor says. "I got much the same response in college. The thing was, I didn't want to teach."

She was fascinated with identifying and classifying old photographs, so she took a job as a reference librarian and graphics curator at the Rhode Island Historical Society. Today, Taylor helps families identify old photos. She's also a national expert on tracing family histories through photos and documents.