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I have been a museum curator for over 35 years, focusing on social and cultural history, with additional experience as a collections manager and registrar. I have a strong interest in the voices of those who can no longer be heard, or who were never heard. My particular interests include World War I history, culinary history, home life and clothing and textiles. My professional focus includes the strategic frameworks that guide international museum practice, and the importance of international cooperation relating to issues including repatriation, restitution and climate change.

I have worked at Museums Victoria, the Western Australian Museum, the University of Alberta and the Ohio Historical Society, and have worked in the History & Technology Department at Museums Victoria since 2002.

I have curated major exhibitions including World War I: Love & Sorrow (2014), The Melbourne Story (with Liza Dale-Hallett, 2008), Spirit of the Games (2006) and Foundations of Fremantle (1997). I was lead curator of From the Heart: Remembering the 2009 Victorian Bushfires (2019) and curatorial co-lead for incoming exhibitions Sutr Santati: Then. Now. Next. Stories of India woven in thread (2023, with Fiona Kinsey) and Open Horizons: Ancient Greek Journeys and Connections (2022, with Moya McFadzean).

I am a member of the Executive Board of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and ICOM Strategic Allocation Review Standing Committee (SAREC). I sit on the boards of the History Council of Victoria (HCV) and the Australian Centre for Architectural History, Urban and Cultural Heritage (ACAHUCH), University of Melbourne.

I have also had a long involvement with the Australian Museums and Galleries Association (AMaGA), including presidency of Museum Historians National Network for four years.

Qualifications

Master of Arts (High Distinction), 1993
Public History, Monash University

Bachelor of Arts (Honors), 1990
La Trobe University

Key publications

Damousi, Joy, Tout-Smith, Deborah & Ziino, Bart (ed, 2021). Museums, History and the Intimate Experience of the Great War: Love and Sorrow. Routledge.

Tout-Smith, Deborah (ed.) 2019. Museums, Borders & European Responsibility – One Hundred Years After World War I, Beiträge zur Museologie series, vol. 8, proceedings of the ICOM Germany-ICOM Europe conference “Museums, Borders and European Responsibility”, November 2018. ICOM Deutschland, arthistoricum, Heidelberg University.

Tout-Smith, Deborah (2018). ‘Love & Sorrow: the Role of Emotion in Exhibition Development and Visitor Experience’, in Loughran, T. and Mannay, D., Emotion and the Researcher: Sites, Subjectivities and Relationships. Studies in Qualitative Methodology series.

Jones, Michael, Darian-Smith, Kate, McCarthy, Gavan and Tout-Smith, Deborah (2017). ‘The Dorothy Howard Collection: revealing the structures of folklore archives in museums’. Archives & Manuscripts, vol. 45, issue 2, July 2017.

Tout-Smith, Deborah (ed, 2008), Melbourne: a City of Stories, Museum Victoria.

Links

• 'Anzac centenary & memorialization'. PHA Historically Speaking series, 5 April 2016, published on Honest History web site
• World War I: Love & Sorrow
• The Melbourne Story

Recent exhibitions

From the Heart: Remembering the 2009 Victorian Bushfires (with Catherine Forge), 4 February-12 May 2019, Melbourne Museum

World War I: Love & Sorrow exhibition, 2014-18, Melbourne Museum

The Melbourne Story exhibition (joint lead curator with Liza Dale-Hallett), 2008+, Melbourne Museum

Conferences & presentation highlights

Museums Victoria’s 19th century clothing collection, with Michael Reason and Hannah Perkins. 16 March and 17 November 2021. Melbourne Fashion Festival and Museums Victoria. Clothing & Textiles Collection Store, Museums Victoria

Trench art. Part of “Why Models Work – The History Edition”, with Matilda Vaughan, Sarah Babister and Michael Reason. 5 August 2020, Melbourne Museum/online.

Digital engagement initiatives at Museums Victoria. After-life: the digital future of visual history archives symposium, 9 March 2020. ACAHUCH: Melbourne School of Design, University of Melbourne.

Museum Victoria’s Glen Eira collections, 24 July 2019, Glen Eira Town Hall.

Colour and emotion in the museum, with lead Candice Boyd, 10 July 2019. Institute of Australian Geographers, Hobart.

‘Compelled to act’: museums in a post-centenary world, 24 November 2018. ICOM Germany-ICOM Europe conference Museums, Borders and European Responsibility, Koblenz, Germany.

In Conversation: Madame Serini, panel with Marcello Serini and Laura Jocic, 19 March 2017, Immigration Museum

Keynote – The making of the Love & Sorrow exhibition, 9 August 2016Victorian Collections Day

Exhibiting the Great War – academics and curators working together, with Kate Hunter, Kirstie Ross and Bart Ziino. 6 July 2016, Australian Historical Association annual conference

Memories and media, memorials and museums: are we already done with the Great War centenary? with Kerry Neale and Kirstie Ross. 18 May 2016, Museums Australasia conference

Reflecting on the Anzac Centenary & Memorialisation, with Marilyn Lake and Carolyn Holbrook. 5 April 2016, Professional Historians Association

Publications in development

Editing book Museums, Collections & Communities: Reflections on the Life of Martin Hallett with Eleanor Whitworth and Margaret Anderson, Museums Victoria, 2022.

I'm available for student supervision.

Catherine Gay (University of Melbourne, PhD – formal supervisor)

Rachael Caines (Australian Catholic University, PhD – industry supervisor)

Rebecca Louise Clarke (Monash University, PhD)

Rachael Cottle (Deakin, PhD)

Laura Jocic (University of Melbourne, PhD)

Books, Chapters, Published Reports & Catalogues

Tout-Smith, Deborah, 2017. ‘Love & Sorrow: the Role of Emotion in Exhibition Development and Visitor Experience’. In Loughran, T. and Mannay, D., Emotion and the Researcher: Sites, Subjectivities and Relationships. Studies in Qualitative Methodology series, Emerald Books, Bingley, UK (forthcoming)

Tout-Smith, Deborah (ed.), 2008. Melbourne: a City of Stories, Museum Victoria.

Tout-Smith, Deborah, 1998. Foundations of Fremantle. Western Australian Museum.

Tout-Smith, Deborah, 1993. Contemporary Craft and Cultural Identity. Museum Victoria.

Refereed articles

Jones, Michael, Darian-Smith, Kate, McCarthy, Gavan and Tout-Smith, Deborah, 2017. ‘The Dorothy Howard Collection: revealing the structures of folklore archives in museums’. Archives & Manuscripts, vol. 45, issue 2, July 2017

Smith, Charlotte H.F and Tout-Smith, Deborah, 2010. ‘Recreating Place: Little Lon’. Museum Management and Curatorship. Vol 25 (1)

Tout-Smith, Deborah, 2002. ‘Art and Personal Meaning: Partnerships with the Public’. Journal of Education in Museums (UK), 23

Non-refereed articles & proceedings

Tout-Smith, Deborah. 2016. Documenting the Dorothy Howard Collection: a Digital Approach. Play and Folklore, no. 66, December, pp. 15-18.

Tout-Smith, Deborah, 2016. 'Anzac centenary & memorialization'. PHA Historically Speaking series, 5 April 2016, published on Honest History web site, April 2016

Tout-Smith, Deborah, 2016. ‘In conversation with… Deborah Tout-Smith, Senior Curator at Museum Victoria, Melbourne, Australia’. Imperial War Museum, Centenary Partnership Program

Tout-Smith, Deborah, 2014. ‘Love & Sorrow: Exhibiting World War I’. Timelines, no.16, Oct-Nov 2014, pp. 4-7

Tout-Smith, Deborah, 2014. ‘Exhibiting War: the challenges of sensitivity'. Insite Magazine, November 2014 – January 2015, pp.6-7

Tout-Smith, Deborah, 2014. Documenting Museum Victoria's Australian Medal Collection, Australian Numismatist, no. 94, August, pp.14-15

Tout-Smith, Deborah. 2013. ‘Data, Access and Imagination: an interview with Susan Cairns’. Insite Magazine, July-August 2013, p.9.

Tout-Smith, Deborah, 2012. ‘School Life in Exhibitions at Museum Victoria’, Classroom to Campus: the Heritage of Modern Education, International Symposium, 26-28 November, Papers, pp. 40-41