Jackie Killian

Biography

Jackie Killian manages the daily operation and planning of Winterthur’s Research Fellowship Program. She supports Winterthur Program students’ academic life through facilitating the Summer Institute orientation, co-leading various field trips, and organizing professional development opportunities. She is a guest lecturer for University of Delaware courses on topics that pull from her professional experience in museum fundraising and her research on enslaved furnituremakers on the southern landscape.

Killian has worked in the cultural heritage sector for over 20 years and is happiest connecting people to the resources that will help them—in their research, in their career, or in whatever goal they pursue. Her professional experience includes curation and collections management through positions at Lyndhurst, the Armour-Stiner (Octagon House), Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, and Winterthur, as well as fundraising and advancement as a grants manager. Before returning to Winterthur in 2022, she oversaw exhibition fundraising at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the region’s largest cultural organization.

Education

• M.A., University of Delaware (Winterthur Program in American Material Culture)
• M.A., Bard Graduate Center (History of Decorative Arts & Design)
• B.A., Pennsylvania State University (Art History; Architectural History minor)

Select Publications

• “The Half Not Told: Enslaved Furniture-making in Northern Alabama Prior to 1865,” in Black Craftspeople on the Southern Landscape, 1680-1865 (working title), eds. Dr. Torren Gatson and Dr. Tiffany Momon (anticipated 2023 or 2024).
• “Town and Country—Early New Jersey’s Carpenters & Jointers” digital project.
• “Artist Biographies,” in Gail S. Davidson & Floramae McCarron-Cates, House Proud: 19th-Century Watercolor Interiors from the Thaw Collection (NY: Smithsonian Institution, 2008).