Before 1957 cultural history collections at the Smithsonian were in the care of the Division of Ethnology, Department of Anthropology. With the establishment of the Museum of History and Technology in that year, a Department of Civil History was created; and Cultural History became one of its divisions. In 1969 the Division of Cultural History ceased to exist and was replaced by a department of that same name in the newly titled National Museum of History and Technology (NMHT). The new Department of Cultural History supplanted the former Department of Civil History. The old Division's work was reorganized around new divisions, including Ethnic and Western Cultural History, Costume and Furnishings, and Musical Instruments.

C. Malcolm Watkins was appointed first Curator of Cultural History in 1957. Other curators of the cultural history collections included G. Carroll Lindsay, Assistant Curator of Ethnology, 1956-1957, Associate Curator, 1958; Rodris C. Roth, Assistant Curator, 1957-1959, Associate Curator, 1960- 1968; John D. Shortridge, Associate Curator, 1958-1960; John N. Pearce, Assistant Curator, 1960-1963, Associate Curator, 1964; Cynthia A. Hoover, Assistant Curator, 1961-1963, Associate Curator, 1964-1968 ; Anthony N. Hathaway, Junior Curator, 1961, Assistant Curator, 1962-1963; Howard Mayer Brown, Associate Curator, 1965; and Richard E. Ahlborn, Associate Curator, 1966-1968.