History Resume
A history resume has to prove two things at once: that you can find and interpret primary sources, and that the work reached an audience outside the reading room. Museums, archives, historic sites, preservation offices and research programs screen for collections handled, exhibitions delivered, publications placed and grants won. This guide covers the sections that carry that evidence, a full example, the skills that match history postings, and how to keep screening software from flattening a document that often runs to several pages.
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What a history resume must include
- A research line near the top: period, region and method, stated in one sentence so an institution knows where you fit.
- Collections and archives work with scale attached — linear feet processed, items cataloged, records digitized.
- Public-facing output: exhibitions, interpretive programs, tours, digital projects and the audiences they reached.
- Selected publications with full citations, kept to the strongest three to five unless the posting is academic.
- Grants, fellowships and awards with the funder, the amount when it is public, and what the money supported.
- Education with the thesis or dissertation title, because the topic is often the clearest evidence of a specialization.
There is a real fork in the road here. Academic history jobs expect a curriculum vitae that lists everything; museum, archive, historic-site and public-humanities roles expect a resume of one to two pages. The example below is a resume for the non-academic side, with selected publications and grants rather than complete lists. If you are applying on both tracks, maintain two documents and never send the wrong one.
History Resume Example
Example resume
A public history resume focused on collections processing, exhibition work and grant-funded projects. The numbers attach to linear feet, visitors and dollars rather than duties.
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Publications, grants and the CV-versus-resume question
- For academic posts, list a full CV: every article, review, conference paper and fellowship, in reverse chronological order.
- For museum and archive posts, keep selected publications to three to five entries and note that the full list is available on request.
- Cite publications exactly as you would in a bibliography; a hiring historian reads the citation itself as evidence.
- Describe grants by funder, amount and purpose — a state humanities grant that funded 24 interviews says more than the word “funded”.
- For a dissertation in progress, give the working title and the expected completion year rather than leaving the period unexplained.
- A digitization lab, a records policy or a volunteer training program can sit under projects when it does not fit a job title.
How to describe archival and research work
History work is concrete, and the strongest bullets stay at the level of the collection. Name the papers, the span of years, the languages, the condition problems, and the finding aid or exhibit that came out of it. A reader who has processed collections will recognize the difference between managing a room and arranging a series.
- Give the collection a scale: linear feet, boxes, folders, photographs or hours of audio processed.
- Name the material: correspondence, ledgers, photographs, oral histories, maps, administrative records.
- Say what you produced: a finding aid, a catalog record set, a digitization specification, a conservation referral.
- Describe access work as an outcome: an exhibition, a research guide, a public database, a teacher workshop.
- Mention the languages and scripts you worked in, because they are often the qualification that decides the hire.
- Respect restrictions: describe restricted collections by type rather than quoting or paraphrasing the material.
History skills keywords
History postings are unusually precise about collections, metadata and public programs. Mirror the terms the institution actually uses, and leave off any system you have not worked with.
- Research: archival research, primary-source analysis, paleography, oral history, historiography, provenance research
- Archives: collection processing, finding aids, EAD, Dublin Core, digitization, records management, preservation
- Public history: exhibition development, interpretive planning, museum education, historic site interpretation, digital exhibits
- Writing: peer-reviewed articles, exhibition text, grant proposals, catalog essays, conference papers, public talks
- Tools: ArchivesSpace, PastPerfect, Omeka, Tropy, Zotero, QGIS
- Languages: reading proficiency, transcription, translation, Chicago-style citation
ATS tips for history resumes
- Keep one column; a multi-column exhibition layout looks like a program and parses like shuffled text.
- Export a text-based PDF or DOCX. A scan of a catalog card, however handsome, is an image with no text behind it.
- Use standard headings — Experience, Education, Skills, Publications — rather than “Selected Curatorial Work”.
- Spell out abbreviations at first mention: “Encoded Archival Description (EAD)”, “Dublin Core (DCMI)”.
- List publications and grants as plain lines, one entry per line, rather than inside a table.
- If you keep an academic CV as well, adapt the resume for each application instead of sending a trimmed CV to everyone.
Publications, finding aids and grant lines are long lists, and corporate templates flatten them into unreadable fragments. ShitResume keeps every template as a single linear document, so citations keep their order, the parser sees the same structure you do and the export opens with the credits intact. Free to use, no account required.
Common historian resume mistakes
- Leading with a dissertation abstract instead of evidence of work delivered.
- Hiding public history experience under teaching, internships or volunteer work.
- Listing software you have opened once; collection systems are easy to probe in an interview.
- Calling a collection important without saying its size, dates or languages.
- Sending a fifteen-page CV to a museum that asked for a resume.
- Switching between century ranges and exact dates within the same document.
ShitResume is free — every template, every PDF or DOCX export — and the document stays in your browser, so unpublished research and accession details do not leave your desk. It asks for neither an account nor an upload. Draft it between reading-room visits; citations and credits come through the export intact.
Skills and keywords for this role
Use the terms that genuinely describe your work — an interviewer will ask about anything you list.
- Research: archival research, primary-source analysis, paleography, oral history interviews, historiography, provenance research
- Archives: collection processing, finding aids, EAD and Dublin Core metadata, digitization, records management, preservation
- Public history: exhibition development, interpretive planning, museum education, historic site interpretation, digital exhibits
- Writing: peer-reviewed articles, exhibition text, grant proposals, catalog essays, conference papers, public talks
- Tools: ArchivesSpace, PastPerfect, Omeka, Tropy, Zotero, QGIS, collection management systems
- Languages: reading proficiency for source work, transcription, translation, Chicago-style citation
Frequently asked questions
Should a history resume include publications?
Yes, but how many depends on the audience. A museum or archive resume should show three to five strong entries and note that the full list is available on request. An academic search committee expects everything in the CV, cited consistently and in reverse chronological order.
What is the difference between a history resume and a CV?
A CV is a complete record of academic work: every article, talk, fellowship and teaching appointment. A resume is a targeted document of one to two pages written for a specific non-academic role. Public history employers usually ask for a resume, and sending a long CV to one signals that you did not read the posting.
How do I list archival experience without a library science degree?
Describe the work the same way an archivist would: the collections you processed, the finding aids you wrote and the standards you followed, such as EAD or Dublin Core. Hands-on processing and cataloging matter more than the degree name to many small institutions. If you completed a processing project in a graduate program, an internship or a volunteer role, treat it as experience.
Do languages belong on a history resume?
Yes, whenever you use them for source work, and with the skill level stated honestly: reading proficiency is different from fluency, and both are different from paleography. A collection with German correspondence may be screened on that line alone. Name the languages, the level and the kind of material you handled.
How long should a history resume be?
One to two pages for museum, archive and nonprofit history work. Two pages are reasonable when you carry publications, grants and several collections. Academic CVs run longer, which is another reason to keep the two documents separate. Cut early roles before you cut collections or exhibitions.
Can I list a thesis or dissertation that is still in progress?
Yes, and you should rather than leaving an unexplained period. Give the working title and the expected completion date, and describe the sources or method if they connect to the job. For non-academic roles, one line is enough; the committee is more interested in the collections and programs you have run.