Our
Collections Experts
Curators
Curators delve into our rich collections to help understand how the past informs the present. Within their areas of expertise, they collect and interpret meaningful artifacts to enrich our knowledge of the American experience of innovation, ingenuity and resourcefulness.
Matt Anderson
Curator of Transportation
Matt joined The Henry Ford as Curator of Transportation in 2012. From childhood, he’s always been fascinated by anything with wheels or wings. His favorite artifacts include the Wright Cycle Shop, the 1948 Tucker 48 sedan, and – like everyone else who’s ever visited the museum – the 1941 Allegheny locomotive.
Heather Bruegl
Curator of Political and Civic Engagement
Heather is an Oneida Nation of Wisconsin citizen and first-line descendent Stockbridge Munsee. She has been at the Henry Ford since 2023. Her research comprises numerous topics related to American history, legacies of colonization, Indigeneity, Boarding Schools' history, and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.
Heather is a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, where she studies First Nations Education, focusing on creating inclusive historical narratives for teaching. Heather is a public historian who focuses on the stories that aren’t told.
Kristen Gallerneaux
Curator of Communications & Information Technology
Kristen has been at The Henry Ford since 2013. Her background as an artist, musician, and media historian drives her thinking, collecting, and stewardship as a curator. Among her favorite recent acquisitions: an early, operational Apple 1 computer and video game cartridges exhumed from the "1983 Atari Tomb" in Alamogordo, New Mexico.
Marc Greuther
Vice President, Historical Resources and Chief Curator
Marc has worked at The Henry Ford for over 27 years. As Vice President, Historical Resources, he has broadened and deepened the institution's technology, innovation, and design holdings; as Chief Curator he leads the curatorial team and the development of curatorial strategy.
Jim Johnson
Director, Greenfield Village & Curator of Historic Structures & Landscapes
Jim has been with The Henry Ford for over 40 years. During this time, he has been devoted to research and development of a wide variety of historic public programs. Jim welcomes the challenge of overseeing more than 80 historic structures across the campus, and would be hard pressed to pick a favorite, though Menlo Park and the Logan County Courthouse rise to the top.
Jeanine Head Miller
Curator of Domestic Life
Jeanie has over 40 years of experience at The Henry Ford. She loves historic houses and their furnishings — and the stories they have to tell! Though the "home front" is her specialty, her projects have covered a wide range of other topics — from musical instruments to furniture, log cabins to hot rods.
Amber N. Mitchell
Curator of Black History
Amber is the Curator of Black History at The Henry Ford since 2023. As a public historian, Amber strives to center the stories of African-descended peoples within the American experience and transform cultural and historical institutions into accessible reflections of our multi-dimensional communities.
Debra A. Reid
Curator of Agriculture and the Environment
The machines that Debra curates document revolutionary changes, from stoop labor to draft power to internal combustion engines to the production revolution, and back again to organic, slow food and grow-local alternatives. Iconic artifacts range from mechanical innovations to family photographs and well-documented stories of a vital process – human hands producing food, fiber, and fuel.
Charles Sable
Curator of Decorative Arts
Charles has been at The Henry Ford since 2008. His areas of curatorial responsibility include furniture, ceramics, silver, glass, and fine art, and he also helps ensure the historical accuracy of interiors within Greenfield Village's buildings. As he says: “The wide-ranging nature and the richness of the collections keep life at The Henry Ford stimulating and interesting.”
Andy Stupperich
Associate Curator
Andy began working at The Henry Ford in 2011, but his passion for sharing history and working in museums spans a 30-year career. He was attracted to his current position by the vast and significant collections at The Henry Ford. As an Associate Curator, Andy creates a variety of digital content for visitors to enjoy on the institution's website.
Kayla Wendt
IMLS Project Associate Curator
Kayla Wendt joined The Henry Ford in 2022, as part of the team working on an Institute of Museum and Library Services grant project. The grant work is centered on processing and making more accessible items in the museum’s agriculture and the environment collection. Her passion for illuminating complex historical narratives drives her thinking, research, and curation of content.
Katherine White
Curator of Design
Katherine White joined The Henry Ford’s curatorial team in 2016 and is responsible for stewarding, interpreting, and growing the institution’s vast design collections. She is motivated by surfacing and amplifying human stories and the problem-solving genesis of good design. Her favorite objects include the Michael Graves product design archive and the Alexander Girard textile collection.
Rachel Yerke-Osgood
Associate Curator
Rachel has been with The Henry Ford since 2012. Her favorite objects in the collection are the ones that tell stories about the personal details of our lives – both past and present – and she is passionate about sharing these stories with the public. She has a special interest in objects related to death, mourning, and memorialization.
Archivists and Librarians
The Henry Ford’s archives hold millions of documents and photographs, along with audio and motion picture material, while the library maintains a collection of tens of thousands of books and periodicals. Our archivists and librarians collect, organize, describe, preserve, and provide access, digitally and physically, to these historical records and reference holdings.
Conservators
An important part of our work is caring for historic artifacts. The materials in the collection are wide-ranging, as are the skills needed to preserve them. Our conservators use their scientific and technical knowledge to preserve textiles, paper, metal, plastics, and many other materials.
Digitization Specialists
Our Digitization Specialists and the Digital and Emerging Media team are responsible for capturing and organizing digital assets, including high-res files, derivatives, and metadata, on servers within our collections management database.
Registrars and Collections Managers
The Henry Ford manages and cares for an extensive collection of artifacts. Registrars track the artifacts, assigning each a unique catalog number and documenting important information in our collections database. Collections managers ensure artifacts move safely and securely around our campus and always return to an appropriate storage area.