Margaret K. Hofer, Vice President, New-York Historical Society and Museum Director. Photo: Glenn Castellano

Curator Margaret K. Hofer has been named vice president of the New-York Historical Society (NYHS) and director of its museum division. Hofer has contributed to or overseen the society’s decorative arts collections and exhibitions for more than two decades and spearheaded the groundbreaking 2007 exhibition and publication A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls, which revealed previously unrecognized achievements of Tiffany Studios’ women designers.

Since joining the N-YHS in 1993, Hofer has organized more than 15 exhibitions. “Making It Modern: The Folk Art Collection of Elie and Viola Nadelman,” an upcoming traveling exhibition co-curated with Roberta J.M. Olson, will open in September at the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History in New Mexico before its marquee presentation at the NYHS (May 20, 2016 – August 21, 2016).

Hofer is the author of five exhibition catalogs, including for the abovementioned show: Stories in Sterling: Four Centuries of Silver in New York (2011); A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls (2007, with Martin Eidelberg and Nina Gray); The Games We Played: The Golden Age of Board and Table Games (2003); and Seat of Empire (2002, also with Dr Olson). She has contributed to numerous journals and magazines and regularly lectures at conferences and museums across the United States.

She received her BA from Yale University and MA from the University of Delaware’s Winterthur Program in early American culture. She has previously worked at the International Center of Photography, taught courses at New York University and consulted for other cultural institutions in the region.