S. Marquette Folley is a social and cultural historian and exhibition developer and project manager. She came to the Smithsonian Institution in 1983 as a fellow to work on the National Museum of American History exhibition Field to Factory: Afro-American Migration, 1915-1940. Later, Folley joined the curatorial staff in the musical history division of the museum and worked to increase and broaden the jazz holdings of the museum. Currently, Folley is content director at the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES).
At SITES, she was co-curator and co-creator of the exhibition and book titled Seeing Jazz, and exhibition developer and project director for the traveling exhibitions The Negro Motorists Green Book, Men of Change: Power. Triumph. Truth., and 100 Faces of War. Her past works include Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey, Women, Art, and Social Change: The Newcomb Pottery Enterprise, American Letterpress: The Art of Hatch Show Print, William H. Johnson: An American Modern, Black Wings: American Dreams of Flight, 381 Days: The Montgomery Bus Boycott, and Louis Armstrong: A Cultural Legacy.