ST. LOUIS • Leaders of the Missouri History Museum said on Tuesday that they had hired a community-builder, savvy political operator and adroit fundraiser when they chose Frances Levine as their next president.

Levine is a New Mexico archaeologist, ethno-historian and longtime museum director, and the first female president of one of the St. Louis region’s five tax-supported cultural institutions.

Levine, 63, was picked with widespread support from the museum’s private nonprofit trustees and publicly appointed commissioners.

She has a doctorate in anthropology from Southern Methodist University, spent years on archaeological digs in the West, and turned Santa Fe’s old Palace of the Governors into the more than 96,000-square-foot, award-winning New Mexico History Museum, which she has run for 12 years....