C. Malcolm Watkins was born in 1911 in Malden, Massachusetts. His mother was Lura Woodside Watkins, decorative arts collector and researcher. His father was Charles H. Watkins, a pottery enthusiast who also participated in archaeological excavations in the region. Watkins mother would go on to donate her pottery collection to the Smithsonian Institution.[2]
Watkins became the curator, and then supervisor and curator, of the Museum of History and Technology, starting in 1958. He focused on building the museums collection of material culture from the United States, with a focus on decorative arts like glass and ceramics. He became the first chairman of the department of Cultural History, which he helped gain departmental status. He was curator of Pre-Industrial History and Ethnic & Western History and in 1973 he became senior curator of the Department of Cultural History. He retired, holding that position, in 1980 and continued to serve emeritus until 1984.[2]
Watkins worked on numerous exhibitions during his tenure as curator at the Smithsonian. In 1955 he curated "Folk Pottery of New England," which featured ceramics from his mother's collection. He developed the first exhibition hall, which opened in 1957, about early American everyday lives. He contributed to new exhibitions in the Museum of History and Technology, including "Growth of the United States," which included objects from early American life. He would continue to contribute to major permanent and temporary exhibitions through 1976. Watkins also collected for the Smithsonian. He acquired the Arthur and Edna Greenwood Collection, which features over 2,000 objects from colonial America.[2]
He was interested in early California history.[2] Watkins’ published his research on the James Johnston House in the 1972 monograph, “The White House of Half Moon Bay", which eventually led to the restoration of the historical home.[3][4]