Curating the American Past cover image

Curating the American Past: A Memoir of a Quarter Century at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History by Pete Daniel, is now available!

In Curating the American Past, Pete Daniel reveals how curators collect objects, plan exhibits, and bring alive the country’s complex and exciting history. In vivid detail, Daniel recounts the exhilaration of innovative research, the joys of collaboration, and the rewards of mentoring new generations of historians. In a career distinguished by prize-winning publications and pathbreaking exhibitions, Daniel also confronted the challenges of serving as a public historian tasked with protecting a definitive American museum from the erosion of scholarly standards. Curating the American Past offers a wealth of museum wisdom, illuminating the crucial role that dedicated historians and curators serve within our most important repositories of cultural memory.

“Pete Daniel is one of a kind,” writes Barbara J. Fields in support of the book, “writing simultaneously as a veteran curator and a distinguished American historian. His lively memoir offers a sobering warning to the museum world and to all who study, teach, or care about American history.”

Curating the American Past is 25% off at uapress.com.