Katherine Egner Gruber, a new curator for the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, has been interested in history for as long as she can remember.
She will be putting her passion to use as she works toward developing the 20-minute introductory film for the planned American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, which is scheduled for completion in 2016.
“I feel like this position is truly a culmination of my work and career choices up to this point. It’s really a dream job to me,” Gruber said.
Gruber has named the American Revolution as her favorite time in history to study and learn about, tying very well into her new role in working toward development of a museum devoted to the time.
“There are so many aspects of it to fall in love with. You could spend the rest of your life reading about it and trying to understand it … and we’re learning more about it every single day,” Gruber said.
Coming to her position with JYF from a job with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Gruber brings a basis for her new position. While working for CWF, she was responsible for working in many different areas, but spent most of her time working with education outreach, mainly on electronic field trips. She was responsible for facilitating research and development, as well as production for the field trips; she also helped assemble teacher materials for the teachers using the program in their classrooms.
Knowing she will be responsible for the introduction video ARMY visitors will see as they make their way through the exhibits, Gruber is both excited and nervous about what the film will incite. Most people have certain events they know: Paul Revere’s ride, Bunker Hill, Cornwallis’ surrender, but she’s going to contribute to breaking the mold and expanding education on other facts of the Revolution.
“When you learn archaeology and you learn archaeological methods, there’s a phrase that goes, ‘Work from your known into your unknown.’ I think about history that way, too … you need to find common ground,” Gruber said.
She continued to explain her favorite thing about being in the museum field is moving into the unknown—to take someone from a place where they understand history and move them to a place that’s unknown so they can experience history in a new way. While that’s the exciting part, Gruber said it can also be nerve-racking because it’s hard to know who will be reached.
Gruber’s interest in history runs back to her time growing up near Dayton, Ohio.
“I really can’t remember a time in my life when local history wasn’t present,” she said.
Between her junior and senior years of high school, Gruber was able to participate in an archaeological dig at the site Orville and Wilbur Wright once owned a storefront. That was the first time she was involved in archaeology and it sparked her interest in pursuing a career in history.
The following summer, Gruber attended the pre-collegiate National Institute of American History and Democracy program at the College of William and Mary, which is a partnership between the school and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation that educates students on history, culture and museum studies; she said she always knew she wanted to attend William and Mary.
“You can really do history. You can go out and do internships with Colonial Williamsburg and with other foundations; you can actually apply the history that you’re learning,” Gruber said. “… I would really be remiss if I didn’t say the NIAHD program was really instrumental in getting me down here and keeping me down here.”
Once she learned about the historic preservation program at the University of Mary Washington, Gruber knew that’s where she wanted to go to school for her undergraduate degree. After graduating, she participated in the NIAHD program at William and Mary again, and received a certificate in early American history, culture and museum studies. She then enrolled in William and Mary’s master’s program.
“The really great thing about the program was how interdisciplinary it was,” she said, explaining she learned history and about how museums operate among other things.
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