Architectural historians work for local, state, or federal governments or as researchers, administrators, and building caretakers for historical societies, museums, and historic sites. They may also serve as educators and fundraisers for museums and historic preservation groups or can work with carpenters or architects to restore the original look of a building.
Volunteer opportunities such as planning historic preservation projects with nonprofit agencies or lobbying government agencies to save a historic building are also available to architectural historians and help them gain experience and publicity.
Most architectural historians have a bachelor’s degree in architectural history, history, or art history along with experience in city planning and architecture. Many positions require a master’s degree in architectural history, and architectural historians need excellent research, communication, and computer skills.
The Society of Architectural Historians, a nonprofit ''membership organization and learned society that promotes the study and preservation of the built environment worldwide,'' has a membership of about 2,500 professors of architectural and art history, museum curators, preservationists, architects and other design professionals, and students, according to its website. The site offers such features as a career center, opportunities for fellowships and grants, a guide to graduate degree programs in architectural history in the US and Canada, and architectural study tours to such places as Chicago and Philadelphia.
When asked how she spends a typical workday, Dr. M. Ruth Little, survey specialist for the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office in Raleigh, says, ''I begin projects by conducting fieldwork. On the days I’m in the field, I put on blue jeans and work boots. I take a camera, clipboard, and bag lunch and go to the area I’m researching. I go up each street in the neighborhood or historic district and take notes on and photographs of every building. After I’m done with the fieldwork, I spend a day studying and organizing my notes and photographs. My next step is to research the neighborhood or district at the state archives. My research involves looking at maps, deeds, newspapers, and other records. Then I begin writing my report,'' as reported by the North Carolina Museum of History website.
Little advises students interested in becoming architectural historians to take art and history classes to get a feel for the subject, to talk with architects about their jobs, and to visit the oldest buildings in their towns and examine them closely. She compares the preservation of historic buildings to biologists’ helping threatened animal populations by putting them on the endangered species list to receive special protection.
''I feel like I’m making the world a better place by helping to preserve history. Rather than dealing with dead things, I’m preserving living environments,'' Little says.
