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Media contacts: Kim Schuette: 614.297.2314 or kschuette@ohiohistory.org
For Immediate Release
Ohio Historical Society Hires Former Smithsonian Curator To Oversee Collections
(COLUMBUS, Ohio)—A former curator of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian and The Cleveland Museum of Natural History has become the new director of Collections Services at the Ohio Historical Society (OHS).
Sharon E. Dean will manage a collections staff of more than 40 and oversee the care and exhibit of almost two million collection items, including government records, manuscripts, audiovisuals, library books and materials as well as archaeological, history and natural history artifacts.
Dean will draw on an extensive knowledge of anthropology and ethnography, American, pre-Columbian and photographic history and Native American and regional folk art; all of which relate to various OHS collections. Dean will be based at the Ohio Historical Center in Columbus and will collaborate with the Society’s 58 sites around the state.
“Sharon Dean’s tailor-made knowledge base and her extensive experience at some of the nation’s most highly regarded museums made her the obvious choice for this key OHS position,” said OHS Executive Director and CEO William K. Laidlaw Jr. “We’re also pleased that Sharon’s high regard for OHS and its unique collections made this opportunity attractive to her.”
As an adjunct assistant professor at Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University and a former lecturer at Queen’s College in New York, Dean holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from the New School for Social Research in New York and a certificate in museum studies from New York University. She earned master’s and bachelor’s degrees in anthropology from Temple University in Philadelphia. Dean currently lives in German Village (43206), but commutes to Cleveland on the weekends to be with her husband David and son Matt in Shaker Heights, Ohio.
The Ohio Historical Society is a nonprofit organization that serves as the state’s partner in preserving and interpreting Ohio’s history, natural history and archaeology. For more information about statewide programs and events, visit www.ohiohistory.org or call 614.297.2300/ 800.686.6124.
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