Marian Carpenter is the John & Neville Bryan Senior Director of Museum Collections for the Historic Sites Division at the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
She has 30 years of experience in heritage preservation with emphasis in collections management, exhibition development, curation, community outreach, historic research, and interpretative programming. Carpenter has worked in various museums including the Ringing Museum of Art, the Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs, the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibitions Service. She recently held the position as Director of Interpretation at Conner Prairie Living History Museum.
As a public historian, she enjoys building relationships with community historians, local museums, and churches to connect the importance of object preservation with the documentation of oral histories. Carpenter has worked with African American communities in Maryland, Tennessee, Delaware, Florida, and the Mississippi Delta. To make history relevant to contemporary social justice issues, Carpenter is working with the Lenape Tribal Cultural Center in Oklahoma and the Wakasa Japanese American Memorial Committee to discuss the emotional and mental impact of preserving and interpreting sensitive collections and traumatic historic sites.
Carpenter actively serves on committees and presents at national conferences for the following organizations: National Council on Public History, Association of African American Museums and American Association for State and Local History.
Ms. Carpenter holds a B.A. in American history from Indiana University and a M.A in American history with a concentration in African American history from the University of Cincinnati.