Dr. Julie Holcomb
Professor in Museum Studies Graduate Program Director
(On leave Fall 2024)
Editor, Quaker History
Education
- B.A., Pacific University
- M.L.I.S., University of Texas at Austin
- Ph.D., University of Texas at Arlington
Dr. Julie Holcomb is professor of museum studies. She has taught at Baylor since 2008, before which she was director of the Pearce Civil War and Western Art Museums at Navarro College, Corsicana, Texas. Additionally, she has several years’ experience working in public, school, and academic libraries. Dr. Holcomb also serves as the Graduate Program Director for Museum Studies.
Dr. Holcomb teaches courses in museum, library, and archival collections management and ethics. She has led professional development workshops for TAM and SSA. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Dr. Holcomb chairs the curriculum subcommittee of the Diversity and Belonging Committee in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Dr. Holcomb is a Certified Archivist. As a member of the Academy of Certified Archivists, she has served on the Graduate Curriculum Pre-approval Committee, the committee reviewing petitions for recertification, and has proctored the certification exam. Dr. Holcomb is also a member of the Texas Association of Museums, the Society of Southwest Archivists, and the American Association for State and Local History.
In addition to issues related to museum, archival, and library collections, Dr. Holcomb’s research interests include Quakers, abolition, and the Civil War. Her book Exploring the American Civil War through 50 Historic Treasures (Rowman and Littlefield) was published in 2021. Dr. Holcomb is the author of two other books: Moral Commerce: Quakers and the Transatlantic Boycott of the Slave Labor Economy (Cornell University Press, 2016) and Southern Sons, Northern Soldiers: The Civil War Letters of the Remley Brothers, 22nd Iowa Infantry (Northern Illinois University Press, 2004). Her work has appeared in the journal Slavery and Abolition and in the edited collections The Creation of Modern Quaker Diversity, 1830-1937 (The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2023), Quaker Women, 1800-1920: Studies of a Changing Landscape (The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2023), Currents in Transatlantic History: Encounters, Commodities, Identities (Texas A & M University Press, 2017), and Quakers and Their Allies in the Abolitionist Cause, 1754-1808 (Routledge, 2015).
Dr. Holcomb is working on a biography of Quaker reformer and free produce activist George W. Taylor. She has held faculty research fellowships at Swarthmore College, Haverford College, and the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Emancipation. Dr. Holcomb will be on research leave in Fall 2024.
Dr. Holcomb serves as the editor of Quaker History, a scholarly publication of the Friends Historical Association. She is active in the Pennsylvania Historical Association.
Primary courses taught
- Introduction to Cultural Collections Management (U)
- Ethical Issues in Cultural Collections Management (U)
- Archival Collections and Museums (U)
- The History and Curation of Book Collections (U)
- Ethical Issues in Museums, Libraries, and Archives (G)
- Archival Arrangement and Description (G)