Quote:
Originally Posted by DanaC
Quick side step: what's your area of research and scholarship Glinda?
I toyed with being an academic historian - bachelors, masters and doctorate - but in the end it required way too much of a commitment to pursue as a serious career option (not many jobs come up in universities annually and those that do are rarely within a commutable distance so would mean relocation) and wasn't great for my mental health - I need way more externally imposed structure in my working day or I'll do fuck all and end up desperately chasing deadlines.
The research though was really good fun.
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I've always been something of a research nut.
Years ago, I worked at a Beverly Hills auction company, researching the items that were consigned and writing scholarly descriptions of the pieces (following
The Manuscript Society's guidelines) for auction catalogs. I worked primarily on presidential autographs and letters, but we also did air and space auctions, sports, Hollywood memorabilia, Western Americana, rock and roll, and so on. One high point of that job was working on
one of the world's most expensive/rarest autographs.
After about four years of that, I hooked up with Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas. For the next four years, they flew me out to Dallas to work on their catalogs two weeks a month. While there, I worked primarily on collectible books, air and space, presidential, Texiana, and Western Americana.
Since that time, I've worked on catalogs for private dealers and have put together a few archives for small museums. I also edit/proofread things - for eight or nine years, I proofread foreign language election materials for six Southern CA counties. Right now I'm editing a huge med school book for people who want to become maternity nurses. I really miss the historical research, but editing and proofreading has its own rewards (if you're a geek like me!).