Burt's CV

BURTON KENT KUMMEROW

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

            President and CEO, Maryland Historical Society, 2010-Present
            President, Historyworks, Inc., 1997-Present

Executive Director, National Museum of Civil War Medicine, Frederick, MD, 1994-1996

Chief, Interpretation and Exhibits, Maryland Historical Trust, Annapolis, MD, 1993-1994

Executive Director, Historic St. Mary’s City, MD, 1986-1993

Coordinator of Research and Interpretation, Historic St. Mary’s City, MD 1977-1986

Writer-Producer, Maryland Public Television, Owings Mills, MD, 1970-1977

EDUCATION

            Master of Arts, Classical History, University of Maryland at College Park

            Bachelor of Arts (with High Honors), History, University of Maryland

Seminar for Historical Administrators, American Association for State and Local History, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Colonial Williamsburg

Maryland Government Executive Institute, University of Maryland and the Aspen Institute

WORK RELATED ACTIVITIES (1985-Present)

            Chairman, Potomac River Basin Consortium

Member, Maryland Advisory Board, National Historical Publications  

            And Records Commission, United States Archives

Featured Speaker, Maryland Humanities Council

Member, Board of Trustees, Accokeek Foundation, MD

Member, Board of Trustees, Maryland Association of History Museums

Member, Maryland Civil War Heritage Commission

Member, Board of Directors, Tourism Council of Frederick County, MD

Founder and Director, Southern Maryland Museum Association

Member, Maryland Governor’s Mansion Trust

BURTON KENT KUMMEROW

Producer, Writer, Researcher

President, Historyworks, Inc.

Burton K. Kummerow is a multi-faceted public historian who uses a wide range of skills and experience to bring history to the general public.

• He is a recognized authority on early American military and cultural history and material objects from the 17^th century to the Civil War. Beginning his career as a ranger-historian at Gettysburg National Military Park, he has consulted at dozens of historic battlefield and fort sites throughout the east. He has produced a research and restoration plan for Fort Frederick State Park, MD, pioneering 1820s U. S. Army uniform research and a furnishing plan for Fort Snelling, MN, a furnishing plan for Fort Stanwix National Historic Site, NY and a Revolutionary War Bicentennial Park plan at Fort Washington National Historic Site, MD, for the Smithsonian National Military Advisory Board, helping to define the present generation of American military interpretation.  Recently, research and interpretation at Fort Ligonier (1758), Braddock Battlefield (1755) and Fort Necessity (1754) has helped renew national interest in the French and Indian War during the 250^th Anniversary in the Pittsburgh area.

• He was Executive Director at two innovative museums; Historic St. Mary’s City, a 900-acre outdoor history museum on the site of Maryland’s 17^th century capital (1634-1695) and the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, MD. Before becoming the executive director, he was the first Director of Interpretation at St. Mary’s and created a nationally-recognized living history interpretive program. At the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, he setup the museum administration and operations and produced an interpretive program and exhibits that received national attention.

• He was a Writer-Producer at Maryland Public Television, writing and producing a variety of historical dramas and documentaries. He wrote and produced “Maryland Weekend,” a weekly Maryland travel show. He wrote, produced and appeared in “Chesapeake Planter,” Private Yankee Doodle” and “Once to Everyman,” all acclaimed film and video recreations of life in the American Revolution. “Private Yankee Doodle,” a tour of a Continental army camp in 1781, was released to National Park Service historic sites during the Bicentennial of the American Revolution.

• He is a popular speaker, author and historical consultant in Maryland where he was a featured Maryland Humanities Council lecturer for four consecutive years. He was a featured scholar on the Learning Channel’s “American Revolution” documentary narrated by Charles Kuralt. He has recently appeared on five Maryland History specials on Maryland Public Television and was a writer and consultant on two documentaries for Discovery Channel, “The Search for Captain Kidd” and “Disaster Response Team.” His colleagues have called him the “best historical interpreter of his generation in Maryland.”

• He was an early pioneer in living history interpretation. He was a founder of the First Maryland Regiment and the Corps of the Continental Line, two internationally-recognized recreated Revolutionary War units that appeared in London and Paris. He created the St. Maries Citty Militia, the best 17^th century military interpreters in America.

• He began his career as a Classical Historian at the University of Maryland, studying Pompeii and Rome. He spent several years studying American Material Culture at the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American History. He is a Fellow of the Company of Military Historians and has taught history at the University of Maryland and Ohio University. Besides scores of articles and reports, he has written “Heartland,” a prizewinning history of Clark County, Ohio and “War for Empire,” a popular history of the French and Indian War in western Pennsylvania. In 2004, he was an editor and contributor to “George Washington Remembers, Reflections on the French and Indian War.”

•  He was a writer and editor of “Pennsylvania’s Forbes Trail” in 2008.  Work on those volumes and exhibits about George Washington’s early military career have led to a series of speaking engagements and other projects related to the 250^th anniversary of the French and Indian War. 

Courtesy of GYO, a band of the 1970s.    

                                                        See Me Thru                                              Nice, Nice                                                     Nana