Museum Catalogue Copyediting and Proofreading

Project Background

Founded in 1866, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is a world-renowned anthropology museum affiliated with Harvard University. With over 1.2 million objects in its collections, the Peabody produces ambitious art museum publications and exhibition catalogues that combine rigorous scholarship with public-facing accessibility.

In early 2025, the Peabody began preparing a photography book on American photographer Roger Marshutz (1929–2007). Stationed in Pusan, South Korea, in the early 1950s, Marshutz documented both postwar reconstruction and everyday life, producing a body of work that remains historically and visually significant.

The book would feature a substantial selection of Marshutz’s photographs alongside seven thematic essays, an introduction, a bibliography, and detailed image captions. Given the scale of written content and the complexity of image-text relationships, the project required experienced photography book editing and careful attention to editorial consistency.

To oversee production, the museum retained Karen Marta Editorial Consulting (KMEC), a consultancy specializing in art museum publications and exhibition catalogues. Having collaborated with Flatpage on previous museum publication editing projects, KMEC engaged our team to provide dedicated copyediting for museums and final proofreading support.

Flatpage’s team is incredibly skilled, efficient, and reliable, which eliminates much of the stress that can come about through the editing process. Their established systems make routing and communication seamless, which is hugely important on complicated projects with multiple authors and many documents.

Todd Bradway, Managing Editor/Production Director, KMEC Books

The Collaboration

Flatpage’s editors worked closely with Todd Bradway, the project lead at KMEC, to deliver comprehensive museum manuscript editing and proofreading services.

Copyediting for Museums and Art Publications

The first stage involved detailed museum copyediting of all book texts. This included:

• Correcting grammar, punctuation, and spelling
• Ensuring consistency across essays and captions
• Aligning terminology and stylistic conventions
• Maintaining clarity while respecting curatorial voice

The editor selected for this project brought extensive experience in copyediting services for museums and subject matter expertise in art history—an essential combination for photography book editing within a scholarly museum context.

Texts were reviewed on a rolling basis using a shared Dropbox system, allowing seamless collaboration between Flatpage, KMEC, and the Peabody team. Todd was also granted access to Flatpage’s Basecamp project management system, supporting transparent communication and efficient document routing—especially important given the multiple authors and staggered delivery of captions.

Flatpage is adept at pairing the right editor for the right project and working within an established system of routing and oversight that maintains a high level of quality. You can collaborate with them in total confidence and get excellent results.

Because captions were developed on a separate production timeline, editorial oversight required flexibility and strong coordination—hallmarks of experienced museum editorial support.

Museum Proofreading of Designed Page Proofs

Once the designer completed the book layout, Flatpage provided final museum proofreading of the page proofs.

At this stage, the focus shifted to:

• Catching residual typographical errors
• Reviewing image numbering and cross-references
• Identifying layout inconsistencies introduced during design
• Ensuring caption accuracy and placement

Proofreading for art museum publications is particularly detail-sensitive, as errors in image numbering or caption alignment can significantly affect reader comprehension. Due to structural adjustments during layout, image numbering required careful correction during the proofreading phase—an issue resolved through close collaboration between Flatpage and KMEC.

This final review ensured the publication met the high editorial standards expected of museum catalogues and institutional photography books.

The Outcome

KMEC and the Peabody Museum were extremely pleased with the editorial process and results.

KMEC deeply appreciates its working relationship with Flatpage, and they were the perfect choice to collaborate on this surprisingly complicated project. Their way of working suits us well, and our client and the author were extremely happy with the level of work and respect that was shown toward the project. 

The Forgotten Home Front: Roger Marshutz’s Photographs of Pusan, 1952–1954 is forthcoming in spring 2026.

Following the success of this museum copyediting and proofreading collaboration, Flatpage is now supporting the Peabody and KMEC on another publication accompanying the exhibition Castaway: The Afterlife of Plastic.