Elisabeth C. Murphy is the new curator/archivist for the National Churchill Museum on the Westminster College campus in Fulton.
Murphy has served as interim curator since last January.
Rob Havers, executive director of the museum, said "Murphy's academic credentials are excellent and her enthusiasm and experience will be a major asset to the museum as we work to establish ourselves as a nationally recognized institution."
As curator/archivist, she is responsible for the front of the museum exhibition space and its maintenance and the back of the museum collections as well as creating and overseeing traveling exhibits and booking temporary exhibitions. She also is in charge of the museum's social media pages such as Facebook and twitter.
"I am excited to be working at the National Churchill Museum as its curator," says Murphy. "The moment in history that this museum represents is literally world changing and to be able to work with the artifacts which tell the story is amazing."
Before her interim work at the museum, Murphy worked on an archaeological documentation project at Mastodon State Historic Site and was a research assistant at the center for Regional History at Southeast Missouri State University. She has also served as a docent/collection manager at the Cape Girardeau River Heritage Museum and worked with a team to archive the Glenn House Collection for the special collections and archives of Southeast Missouri State University.
"My goals as curator are to update collections procedures behind the scenes as well as continue a comprehensive inventory of our Museum's holdings," Murphy said. "I also want to get the museum's collections out into the public eye."
Murphy has initiated a project that will allow collections to be placed on the museum Website.
"That way scholars, students and web browsers can see what the Museum has and become inspired to visit," said Murphy.
She holds a bachelor of science degree in historic preservation with an emphasis in museum studies from Southeast Missouri State University and an master's degree in museum studies with an emphasis in museum education from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom.
The National Churchill Museum on the campus of Westminster College in Fulton is the only North American institution fully devoted to the life and work of Churchill.
The most visible element of the museum is the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury. Beneath the church is the heart of the memorial, a state-of-the-art museum that combines interactive technology to tell Churchill's story through sight, sound and touch.