Museum Technicians and Conservators
Restore, maintain, or prepare objects in museum collections for storage, research, or exhibit. May work with specimens such as fossils, skeletal parts, or botanicals; or artifacts, textiles, or art. May identify and record objects or install and arrange them in exhibits. Includes book or document conservators.
- Median pay
- $51,440
- Doing it now
- 14,000
- By 2035
- Up 3.6%
- Usually needs
- Bachelor's degree
a year
across the country
1,600 openings a year
to get in
What the work involves
- Install, arrange, assemble, and prepare artifacts for exhibition, ensuring the artifacts' safety, reporting their status and condition, and identifying and correcting any problems with the set up.
- Determine whether objects need repair and choose the safest and most effective method of repair.
- Clean objects, such as paper, textiles, wood, metal, glass, rock, pottery, and furniture, using cleansers, solvents, soap solutions, and polishes.
- Prepare artifacts for storage and shipping.
- Supervise and work with volunteers.
- Recommend preservation procedures, such as control of temperature and humidity, to curatorial and building staff.
- Perform on-site field work which may involve interviewing people, inspecting and identifying artifacts, note-taking, viewing sites and collections, and repainting exhibition spaces.
What to study
The fields of study the Department of Education links to this occupation, most widely taught first.
- Museology/Museum StudiesSee 21 colleges that teach it
- HistorySee 1,267 colleges that teach it
- Fine and Studio ArtsSee 1,083 colleges that teach it
Who it suits
O*NET scores every occupation on six interest dimensions. This one leans hardest on these three.
Hands-on and practical
Organised and precise
Analytical and curious
Careers like this one
- Audio and Video Technicians$58,100
- Tool and Die Makers$64,050
- Audiovisual Equipment Installers and Repairers$52,600
- Machinists$58,750
- Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic$47,720
- Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic$46,330
Where this comes from: the description and the task list are O*NET, which the Department of Labor maintains. Pay, workforce size, outlook and the education normally needed are the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections programme, 2025 wages and 2025 to 2035 projections. Half of them earn more than $51,440 a year, which means half earn less, and what you would earn depends on where you work and how long you have been doing it. The fields of study come from the National Center for Education Statistics crosswalk.