Our January Curator Profile features Marian Ann J. Montgomery, Ph.D., the Curator of Clothing and Textiles at the Museum of Texas Tech University, located in Lubbock, Texas. Before this position, which she has held for the past eight years, Marian Ann worked with several museums, including the State Museum of Tennessee, Museum of Dealey Plaza, and the Women’s Museum.

     Marian Ann’s interest in fashion history began as an undergraduate studying as a home economics teaching major. During this time, she visited the Metropolitan Museum’s exhibition The Glory of Russian Costume, mounted by Diana Vreeland and Jackie Kennedy Onassis. Taking in the excess and decadence of the clothing displayed, Marian Ann realized “how fashion could be art, could be part of a museum exhibition. I was hooked.” With her interest now piqued in fashion exhibitions, she gained her master’s degree in museum studies from Cornell University. Furthering her education, she went on to earn her Ph.D. in fashion and textile history with a concentration in museum administration from New York University through the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

     After gaining her degrees and spending time in other vocations, Marian Ann took the role of curator at the Museum of Texas Tech University. This position gave her the wonderful “opportunity to work in my chosen field with a fabulous collection and still be in my husband’s home state.” The fabulous collection includes over 35,000 objects, the largest university collection in the United States. While the huge size of this collection provides a fabulous number of objects to work with, it also leads to her least favorite aspect of the job—turning away items for the museum. The hardest part of her job is “telling someone I don’t want their treasure.” However, the impressive number of materials makes the acquisition process incredibly exclusive.

     In addition to the largeness of the collection’s size, Marian Ann also has a permanent gallery space to display exhibitions and the Come and See program. This program, which Marian Ann created, is one of her job’s most unique aspects. “I have both the university audience and a public audience,” she explains. To entice both sets of visitors, Marian Ann relies on this program. “Come and See has brought in 400+ people over the years. They have an opportunity to see the collection and get the rest of the story.” This program allows visitors to grasp a deeper meaning to the clothing displayed. This opportunity allows Marian Ann and her students to display objects, telling their stories without a full exhibition. Come and See acts as Marian Ann’s “opportunity to develop public programming on [her] own without being told you can’t do this, you can’t do that.”

     Marian Ann also oversees both graduate and work-study students, giving them the “only opportunity in Texas…to study with a real curator in a real collection to prepare to work in museums.” The opportunity to work with students is one of her favorite aspects of the job, as well as the opportunity to work in her chosen field with support, encouragement, and lack of micromanagement. Regarding working with students, Marian Ann loves having the “opportunity to share our love of this with graduate students, who will go out and spread the word.” When the pandemic hit, the work of both Marian Ann and her students pivoted to remote work. While the students worked on digitizing the museum’s collection of quilts, she wrote the exhibition catalog, Sumptuous Stitches and Tiny Treasures, which focused on the museum’s collection of needlework tools. Additionally, she used this time to write a second book, Miss America Fashion. Following a quarantine period, she explains “I was without students for a while, which gave me the opportunity to write Miss America Fashion. That’s sort of how I used COVID to write two books.”

     When asked for advice for her younger self, Marian Ann recalls the time in her life working outside of the fashion history field. “Keep reading the books in the area you love, even if you don’t have a job in that area yet.” she explains, “Keep reading fashion history and textile history books so when that job comes up, you are prepared.”

     In January 2022, Marian Ann was featured in a Dress & Drinks webinar that can be seen on our YouTube channel. You can check out all of our Curator Profiles by clicking here.


~Profile written by Lauren Clark

Image Courtesy of https://www.ttumuseumcollections.org/

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