Qualey taught history at
Columbia University from 1936 to 1944,
Swarthmore College from 1944 to 1945, Columbia Graduate School from 1945 to 1946, and
Carleton College from 1946 to 1970. Qualey was a member of the
Mississippi Valley Historical Association from 1940 to 1965 and the
Organization of American Historians from 1965 to 1973. He served on the editorial board of the
Norwegian-American Historical Association from 1931 to 1987. Qualey was the superintendent of the
Minnesota Historical Society from 1947 to 1948, as well as a research fellow and initiator of the Ethnic History Project from 1973 to 1981. He was one of the founders and treasurer of the Immigration and Ethnic History Society and for many years editor of the
Immigration and Ethnic History Newsletter. == Personal life ==