Gillian Maguire was the museum registrar at the Science History Institute from 2016 to 2018.
Originally from California, Gillian has degrees in history and American studies from Johns Hopkins University and George Washington University, respectively, with emphases on early American material culture, women’s and gender history, and the history of medicine. She was an objects researcher and assistant registrar at James Madison’s Montpelier, conducting provenance and design research, managing the collections, and working on exhibits. She later attended the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts’ Summer Institute, where she focused on the sociocultural history of a ca. 1750 armchair made by Scots-Irish immigrants, and participated in fieldwork throughout the southern backcountry. Before joining the Institute, Gillian was a research associate in the history of medicine, working with Vanessa Northington Gamble on the history of African American women physicians in Philadelphia.