Jonathan Spaulding is an author, independent curator, and consultant focused on museum master planning, exhibition development, and a variety of curatorial and writing projects. In recent years he has worked with  the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, the University of Southern California, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the San Diego History Center, the Autry National Center, Herb Alpert, the Briscoe Western Art Museum, and the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art.  Projects have included  full-length monographs, exhibition catalogues, master planning for renovations and permanent exhibitions, and exhibition content design and development.

From 2005 through 2010, he was Vice President for Exhibitions at the Autry National Center and Executive Director of the Museum of the American West. In addition to all regularly scheduled exhibitions, he led content and design development for the Autry’s expansion and renovation of its Griffith Park campus. From 2000 through 2005, Jonathan was associate curator of history and director of the Seaver Center for Western History Research at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, where he developed collaborative projects with USC’s Archival Research Center, served on the Natural History Museum’s master planning team, and curated a number of exhibitions, including the landmark L.A.: Light / Motion / Dreams.

Born in Pasadena, California, Jonathan received a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Los Angeles. Through the 1980s and 1990s, he worked on several documentary films for PBS television.   He is the author of Ansel Adams and the American Landscape: A Biography, published in 1995 by the University of California Press, and co-author of Edward Weston: A Legacy, published by Merrell in 2003.