The Nancy Drew of Historical Mysteries

In the Green Room with Curator Carol Squiers

Carol Squiers is a curator at the International Center for Photography in New York. Before participating in a panel on our fascination with celebrity photographs, she sat down in the green room to talk about why she no longer works as a secretary on Wall Street, why she identifies with Nancy Drew, and why it’s better to have a birthday on Christmas.

Q. What’s the strangest job you’ve ever had?

A. Working on Wall Street. I was a secretary, supremely incapable of doing the job. [Laughs.]

Q. How many hours of sleep do you get a night?

A. Not enough. Six, if I’m lucky.

Q. What word do you use most often?

A. Phooey.

Q. What literary character do you identify with most?

A. Nancy Drew. She just had a lot of guts, and she’d run around solving mysteries.

Q. What mysteries do you solve?

A. I solve historical mysteries.

Q. What would you want for your final meal?

A. I guess I’m going to say a nice grilled steak. With salad, maybe some broccoli. And then something chocolate.

Q. What artist or photographer should we be collecting now?

A. Marco Breuer.

Q. What’s your favorite holiday?

A. Christmas. I was born on Christmas. I felt like my birthday had a lot of decorations, and other people’s birthdays had very little decoration.

Q. What’s the last thing that surprised you?

A. The fact that I could successfully drive on the freeway in L.A. without dying.

Q. Ask yourself a question and then answer it.

A. When will I start writing a novel? Soon.

*Photo by Aaron Salcido.