Jul

Meet the Docents: Donna DeCorleto has answered phones at SI for 50 years

Chock-full of incredible stories. Quick with a smile. Knowledgeable about all the museums in D.C. That’s Alexandria resident, Donna DeCorleto.

DeCorleto smiles at camera while seated at desk with multiple computer monitors

With half a century of service under her belt, Donna DeCorleto is still answering tourists’ questions at the Smithsonian’s longest-running volunteer. (Photo by Elliot C. Williams / WAMU)

At 77, she answers phones as a volunteer for the Smithsonian Call Center — just like she did back in 1973. With half a century of service under her belt, she’s the Smithsonian’s longest-running volunteer. She recalls some of her first shifts, back when the institution needed plenty of volunteers to handle the high volume of inquiries.“The phones rang constantly… all day,” DeCorleto said on a recent Saturday morning. “We used to get a lot of calls asking where we were displaying the private parts of John Dillinger, or Jesse James, and a couple of times, I also got Billy the Kid. We got a lot of those. In fact, they ended up putting it in the early training.”

DeCorleto says she was uninterested in becoming a nurse or teacher, careers that were more acceptable for young women in her hometown when she was growing up.

So, she left Hartford, Connecticut, and started a career at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington. There she held various roles over three decades, traveling the world and implementing financial policies. On weekends, though, she always went back to the Smithsonian Institution Building, aka “the Castle,” to answer the phones. (The Castle has been closed since February 2023, so DeCorleto now takes calls from the belly of the Ripley Center, just off the National Mall.)

“When I would go back into the Fed on Mondays, I would frequently be peppered with questions, ‘Ok, what’s going on this week at the Smithsonian,’” she recalls. “So you always had that kind of information, and it was always accurate.”

These days, DeCorleto says she gets fewer questions about Billy the Kid and more about museum hours and where to park. Since some museums introduced free timed passes during the pandemic, tourists often call about ticketing, she says.

DeCorleto’s first experience with the Smithsonian was in the 1960s, when she got on a tour bus that took her to the American History Museum, where she asked a security guard to point her toward something interesting.

“He sent me to ‘First Ladies’ Attire.’ Maybe it was a sexist thing, but I went over and I saw it and I was fascinated,” says DeCorleto.

Deloreto, wearing pink jacket, answers the phone while sitting at desk

From the lower levels of the Smithsonian’s Ripley Center, just off the National Mall, Donna DeCorleto helps visitors seeking info about the many museums in the nation’s capital. (Photo by Elliot C. Williams / WAMU)

Decades later, as a volunteer, she’s the one telling people where to go. As a volunteer, she sometimes gets to tour the museums before regular operating hours, and even though people call less frequently than they did in the 70s, she still feels valued.

“I feel like I’m contributing to the community — and actually to the larger community than Washington — because the calls come in from so many different places,” she says. “Being thanked after every shift, as if you were a newbie, is very special.”

Read the transcript.

Listen to the full interview.

This article by Elliot C. Williams was originally published by WAMU American University Radio as part of their Meet the Docents series. Listen to the original broadcast and check out the entire series at this link.