Houghton Library seeks an Assistant Curator to support managing, building and sharing the Library's Printing and Graphic Arts (P&GA) collection. Reporting to the Curator of Printing and Graphic Arts, the Assistant Curator performs a range of administrative, outreach, collection-development, and book-arts functions. Part of a highly visible and active department, the Assistant Curator collaborates with all areas of the Library including Public Services, Technical Services, Public and Scholarly Programs, and other curatorial departments.
The successful candidate will possess strong subject knowledge in at least one area of strength in the P&GA collection, and will, ideally, also bring expertise in an area of printing and graphic arts outside of the collection's current strengths. The successful candidate will also possess the capacity to master over time the broad range of formats, subjects, and time periods represented in the P&GA collection, and the flexibility required to develop facility in the numerous skillsets used in curatorial work.
The Department of Printing and Graphic Arts was founded in 1938 by legendary curator, collector, and connoisseur Philip Hofer. The department holds original artifacts from all periods illustrating the book arts and the materiality and historical development of the book, whether manuscript or printed. Its strengths reside mainly in European and American traditions of manuscript and printed book illustration, printing technologies, typography, calligraphy, book design, and early photography. In addition to facilitating teaching and research based in the collection, the department administers a vibrant set of programs including the Frances and Philip Hofer lecture series, the Philip Hofer Prize for Collecting Books or Art, workshops on letterpress printing, and other activities core to the department's mission and spirit.