Uncovering, preserving, and telling the story of the past—through research, archives, historic sites, and even living history.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
Chief Historian (Government): Leads the history office of a government agency, Congress, or the military. Typical pay $140k.
Litigation Historian (Expert Witness): Researches history for lawsuits—like tribal land claims, old pollution cases, or voting rights—and testifies in court. Typical pay $120k.
Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship
Historian: Researches the past using documents, letters, photos, and interviews, then explains what it means today. Typical pay $74k.
History Professor: Teaches college history and writes books and articles about the past. Typical pay $82k.
Military Historian: Researches and writes the history of wars, battles, and military units—often for the armed forces themselves. Typical pay $95k.
Archivist: Preserves and organizes historical records—letters, photos, films, government documents—so people can use them. Typical pay $61k.
Digital Archivist: Preserves digital records—emails, websites, videos, old floppy disks—before they disappear. Typical pay $68k.
Corporate Archivist: Keeps a company's history—old ads, product designs, founders' papers—and uses it for marketing and legal needs. Typical pay $75k.
Records Manager: Manages an organization's official records so they're kept, found, and destroyed on schedule. Typical pay $72k.
Public Historian: Brings history to the public through exhibits, walking tours, podcasts, and historic sites. Typical pay $62k.
Oral Historian: Records and preserves people's spoken memories of history. Typical pay $58k.
Architectural Historian: Researches old buildings to decide which are historically important and should be preserved. Typical pay $70k.
Historic Site Manager: Runs a historic house, battlefield, or landmark—its staff, visitors, and preservation. Typical pay $62k.
High School History Teacher: Teaches history, government and civics to high school students at public, private and charter schools, planning lessons and grading essays. Typical pay $65k.
Historical Society Executive Director: Leads a state or local historical society, running its museum, archives, programs, and fundraising. Typical pay $85k.
Historical Documents & Autograph Dealer: Authenticates and sells letters, signed documents and manuscripts written by presidents, scientists and other historical figures. Typical pay $60k.
Probate Heir Researcher: Tracks down the unknown relatives of people who died without a will, so courts can hand inheritances to the right heirs. Typical pay $58k.
Historical Marker Program Coordinator: Reviews applications, fact-checks the history and writes the short text for the roadside markers that tell travelers what happened here. Typical pay $56k.
Starter: fastest way in
Professional Genealogist: Traces families' histories through old records for clients. Typical pay $50k.
Living History Interpreter: Dresses and works as someone from the past at historic villages and sites, bringing history alive. Typical pay $36k.
Archives Technician: Helps archivists by processing, scanning, and retrieving records. Typical pay $42k.
House Historian: Researches the history of old homes, digging through deeds, census records and photos to tell owners who lived there and what happened. Typical pay $45k.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.