The Smithsonian now has its first religion curator since the 1890s
Peter Manseau (Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post)
By Julie Zauzmer October 28
Peter Manseau was born for this job.
The son of a priest and a nun, Manseau was meant to be a scholar making sense of religion. Now his job, as the Smithsonians first curator of religion in more than a century, is to remind Americans of our nations religious history, in all its diversity, messiness, import and splendor.
You cant tell the story of America, he said, without the role of religion in it.
The Smithsonian, the nations museum, hired Manseau to curate new exhibits on American religious history and to collect important religious objects to add to the museums expansive holdings. In this new position, underwritten by a $5 million grant from the nonprofit Lilly Endowment, hell lead a five-year series of events and exhibitions. The position was last held by someone in the 1890s, Manseau said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/10/28/the-smithsonian-now-has-its-first-religion-curator-since-the-1890s/