In April of 2021, PCPP’s Leonian Intern, Ayesha Kazim, conducted a virtual interview with curator Spencer Crew to discuss his life’s work and career as a historian. The interview explores the evolution of Crew’s professional path as a professor, museum director, curator, and writer, as well as his thoughts about the future of the curatorial world.

Born in 1949 in Woodmere Village, Ohio, Spencer Crew has worked in public history institutions for over 25 years. He completed a B.A. in History at Brown University and received his Masters and Ph.D. in History from Rutgers University. Following his studies, Crew went on to serve as the president of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center for six years and worked at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History (NMAH) for twenty years. In 1994, Crew became the first African-American director, and the youngest, to be appointed to NMAH. His most notable exhibitions include “Field to Factory: Afro-American Migration 1915 – 1940” and “The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden,” which he co-curated alongside historians, Lonnie G. Bunch and Harry Rubenstein.

Around five years after Crew joined NMAH, he had the opportunity to curate his own exhibition, “Field to Factory: Afro-American Migration 1915 – 1940,” which he developed while working as a historian in the Archives Center of the museum. This exhibition sparked a national discussion on race and migration, and highlighted the importance of historical exhibitions. It illustrated how individual choices motivated the evolution and restructuring of the United States’ landscape, as the Great Migration led many African-Americans to travel from the rural Southern states in search of a better life in the industrial Northern states. Following the exhibition, Crew became curator of the National Museum of American History’s Division of Community Life.

Image Credit: © South Carolina State Library Digital

Crew has published important texts within the realm of Public History and African-American history including “Black Life in Secondary Cities: A Comparative Analysis of the Black Communities of Camden and Elizabeth, N.J. 1860 - 1920 (1993)” and “Memories of the Enslaved: Voices from the Slave Narratives (2015),” which he co-authored alongside Lonnie G. Bunch and historian, Clement Price. Crew has also won numerous awards including the Osceola Award in 1988 and the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History Service Award in 1994. He currently serves as the Clarence J. Robinson professor of African-American, American, and Public History at George Mason University.