Alumni Spotlight: Tamara Biggs
July 07, 2025
Over the past 110 years, more than 200,000 individuals have graduated from Webster University around the world.
Join Us As We Highlight Their Webster Stories
Meet Tamara Biggs, who earned a bachelor’s degree in History from Webster in 1981 and currently owns two businesses: Tamara Biggs Museum Services and .
What enticed you to choose ¾«¶«Ó°Òµ for your degree?
Webster was so open and supportive of my situation. I attended Taylor University my first two years. I arranged to take a semester off to work the summer in Tanzania and then travel Europe in the fall. When I returned home to St. Louis in mid-December and contacted Taylor, they informed me they had no room for me. Gads! I called around local schools, and Webster was the one that said, "Sure, we'd love to have you." I commuted to Webster for spring of 1979. Then I went off the beaten track again — I attended a special little program in southern Oregon for a year. Webster didn't even blink. It took all my credits and admitted me again in fall 1980. Such generosity and flexibility! I am forever grateful.
What stood out about your studies at Webster?
When I met with an advisor in fall 1980, I had been through three majors. I asked her how I could possibly graduate in the spring. Her response: "You seem to have a lot of history." So, I jumped into history with both feet and was also allowed to apply art history classes to my history major. Again, flexibility and generosity.
How did your Webster degree help advance you in your career?
My last semester, I asked myself what kind of job I could possibly get after graduation, what with my circuitous route to a degree. It dawned on me that museums could offer satisfaction for my roving curiosity and an outlet for my artistic side. Webster helped me arrange an internship at what was then the St. Louis Museum of Science and Natural History in Oak Knoll Park. This small museum area turned into the St. Louis Science Center. I was entrusted with repairing exhibitions and handling collections. By August after graduation, I had a job making exhibitions at Chicago's Field Museum. Many years later, when I applied for the position of Director of Exhibitions at Chicago History Museum, I'm quite sure that my history degree was the edge I needed to get the job.
What is your favorite part about your job?
I love working with communities, listening and giving them a platform to tell their own stories. And I love making a meaningful experience for every visitor who comes to a museum. And doing good work and making things beautiful. In my consulting business, my clients are mostly very small organizations. I mentor them and help them professionalize staff, collections care and exhibition standards. My motto is "I help small museums do big things." I could go on ... I am so lucky to have found this career.
What is something valuable you have learned during your career?
I'm really proud of the small but mighty department I had at the Chicago History Museum. There were just four of us, but we worked so well together. Trust was important. And if someone made a mistake or was struggling, the rest of us had their backs. None of us would let the other fail. We held many award-winning exhibitions together.
What advice would you give to others who are considering ¾«¶«Ó°Òµ for their degree?
I don't know today's Webster very well. In fact, when I attended, it was Webster College, not University. But I can say that my experience was filled with the richness of a diverse student body and creativity at every turn. Classes were small, and teachers were attentive to each and every student.
What is your favorite spot on your Webster campus?
I really loved my big dorm room in the old building. I had a corner room with big windows on two walls. I also really liked sitting on the front steps of the dorm.
What has your life journey looked like?
I grew up in the northern suburbs of St. Louis, just south of the airport. I moved to Chicago after graduation, because I had heard about all the world-class museums there. It didn't take long to get my first job at the Field Museum. I stayed there for 12 years and had some incredibly interesting experiences. I met the man I married there, and I went into labor with my firstborn at a dedication for my biggest project: "Traveling the Pacific." There were dancers and drummers visiting from Hawaii and New Guinea. I always suspected that the drums brought on my labor. Now that baby is 35, and she works in museums, too!
What was your first job, and what do you remember most about it?
One of the greatest opportunities I had at the Field Museum was to lead a six-week field trip to the Marshall Islands. We were planning to install a diorama of an atoll islet, and that required going to Majuro to make molds of tree trunks, leaves, flowers and the reef flat. This was back in the 1980s, and I used telephone books to find resources. Back then, the library had phone books from other cities in the reference section. I ordered rubber and foam to make the molds, had it shipped to L.A. and then put on a boat to Majuro. We hired local Marshallese people to augment our small crew. And one of those people was a fisherman. We ate fish in the morning, noon and night! That diorama is still on display 36 years later.
How do you spend your free time?
Hoo boy! I am always busy, even at leisure. I do crosswords daily; I still like to read (I'm in the middle of "Emma" by Jane Austin). I love my garden. There's always a project waiting on my 1920 Chicago bungalow. I'm in a Nordic folk dance troupe, and we just finished five performances during the June Midsommar season. I exercise at the senior center a day or two a week. I like to walk, whether in the city or out in the woods. Chicago is full of great music, food and theatre, and I like to take part as much as I can. I am a pretty regular platelet donor at the Red Cross.