About Historians
Being a Professional Historian… means wearing many hats!
Being a professional in any field usually means studying and acquiring expertise in that field. A professionally qualified historian has undertaken an undergraduate degree followed by an Honours, Masters or Doctorate in the discipline of History. To be recognised as a professional historian, you must be accredited to the Professional Historians Association.
Historians work in a wide – and sometimes surprising – range of history related fields. Some historians have established their own business, consulting as independent, freelance historians. In this capacity they provide services such as writing commissioned histories, recording oral history and creating exhibitions. Some historians are engaged by heritage consultants to write heritage studies and conduct significance assessments of both properties and library or museum collections. Others work in private or government organisations that have history related interests such as museums, heritage bodies, archives, universities, local government and other public institutions. Historians also make great speech-writers for Prime Ministers and parliamentarians! The careers of many professional historians have often included more than one of these strands.
Professional historians have to be multi-skilled, they wear many hats! In order to undertake commissions, they negotiate with potential clients, estimate the amount of time and budget a project requires, they tender for work, and negotiate rates and timeframes with clients. While some clients may take responsibility for the production and launch of their commissioned history, others may prefer the historian to ‘value add’ by engaging them to see the commission through to completion and launch. Being a professional historian often means being ‘hands on’ along every step of the way.
At Hindsight Consulting Historians we have experience working with every step along the way.
