Edward "Ted" L. Widmer | |
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| Born | 1963 (age 60–61) |
| Education | Harvard University (A.B., A.M., Ph.D.) |
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Edward "Ted" Ladd Widmer (born 1963) is an American historian, writer, librarian, and musician who served as a speechwriter in the Clinton White House.
He serves on boards of the Harvard Lampoon, Massachusetts Historical Society and The New England Quarterly. [1]
Edward Ladd Widmer was born in 1963 to Ellen and Eric Widmer. He attended the Gordon School in East Providence until 1976, then the Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island, [2] graduating in 1980. [3] Widmer subsequently attended Harvard University where he obtained an A.B., A.M., and Ph.D. in the history and literature of France and the United States. During his time at Harvard, he was an editor at the school's humor magazine, The Harvard Lampoon .
In 1990, Widmer's research on the origin of baseball was featured in The New York Times. [4]
In 1992 Widmer married Mary Frederica Rhinelander, a printmaker and figurative artist. [5] Widmer was appointed a lecturer on history and literature at Harvard University in 1993 and worked in that capacity until 1997. Between 1995 until 1997, he played guitar and vocals in a Boston hard rock band, the Upper Crust. [6]
From 1997 to 2001, he worked in the White House as a special assistant to President Bill Clinton, foreign policy speech writer and Senior Advisor for Special Projects, which involved advising on history and scholarship related issues. He later conducted extensive interviews with Clinton while the former president was writing his autobiography.
In 2001, Widmer was appointed the inaugural director of the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College. [7] From 2001 to 2006, he served concurrently as an associate professor of history at the college. During his tenure, Widmer established the George Washington Book Prize, an annual award for literature on the founding era of the United States.
On July 1, 2006, Widmer was appointed Director and Librarian of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University. At the library, he led efforts to digitize the library's holdings and raised funding to save Haitian libraries in the wake of the 2010 earthquake. [8] [9] From 2012 to 2013, Widmer was a senior advisor to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. [10] Between 2010 and 2015, he helped to create and often contributed to The New York Times' series "Disunion," which focused on the Civil War.
In October, 2016, Widmer was appointed Director of the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. [1]
In 2018, he joined the faculty of Macaulay Honors College as a lecturer where he has led courses on Walt Whitman and The People of New York. [11]
James Hadley Billington was an American academic and author who taught history at Harvard and Princeton before serving for 42 years as CEO of four federal cultural institutions. He served as the 13th Librarian of Congress after being nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1987, and his appointment was approved unanimously by the U.S. Senate. He retired as Librarian on September 30, 2015.
Vernon Eulion Jordan Jr. was an American business executive and civil rights attorney who worked for various civil rights movement organizations before becoming a close advisor to President Bill Clinton.
The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress invites and welcomes scholars to the Library of Congress to conduct research and interact with policymakers and the public. It also manages the Kluge Scholars' Council and administers the Kluge Prize at the Library of Congress.
The John W. Kluge Prize for the Study of Humanity is awarded since 2003 for lifetime achievement in the humanities and social sciences to celebrate the importance of the Intellectual Arts for the public interest.
The Kluge Scholars Council is a body of distinguished scholars, convened by the Librarian of Congress to advise on matters related to scholarship at the Library, with special attention to the John W. Kluge Center and the Kluge Prize. Through discussion and reflection, the Council assists in implementing an American tradition linking the activities of thinkers and doers, those who are engaged in the world of ideas with those engaged in the world of affairs.
Lincoln Edward Kirstein was an American writer, impresario, art connoisseur, philanthropist, and cultural figure in New York City, noted especially as co-founder of the New York City Ballet. He developed and sustained the company with his organizing ability and fundraising for more than four decades, serving as the company's general director from 1946 to 1989. According to the New York Times, he was "an expert in many fields", organizing art exhibits and lecture tours in the same years.
Paul Grattan Kirk Jr. is an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States Senator from Massachusetts from 2009 to 2010, having been appointed to fill the vacancy created by the death of Ted Kennedy. From 1985 to 1989, he chaired the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
John Hope Franklin was an American historian of the United States and former president of Phi Beta Kappa, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and the Southern Historical Association. Franklin is best known for his work From Slavery to Freedom, first published in 1947, and continually updated. More than three million copies have been sold. In 1995, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
Evert Augustus Duyckinck was an American publisher and biographer. He was associated with the literary side of the Young America movement in New York.
Richard Norton Smith is an American historian and author, specializing in United States presidents and other political figures. In the past, he worked as a freelance writer for The Washington Post, and worked with U.S. senators Edward Brooke and Bob Dole.
Abraham Lincoln Gordon was the 9th President of the Johns Hopkins University (1967–1971) and a United States Ambassador to Brazil (1961–1966). Gordon had a career both in government and in academia, becoming a Professor of International Economic Relations at Harvard University in the 1950s, before turning his attention to foreign affairs. Gordon had a career in business after his resignation as president of Johns Hopkins University, but remained active at institutions such as the Brookings Institution until his death.
Marie Arana is a Peruvian author, editor, journalist, critic, and the inaugural Literary Director of the Library of Congress.
William E. Macaulay Honors College, commonly referred to as Macaulay Honors College or Macaulay, is the honors college of the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. It was founded in 2001 as CUNY Honors College.
The Utah Territory during the American Civil War was far from the main operational theaters of war, but still played a role in the disposition of the United States Army, drawing manpower away from the volunteer forces and providing its share of administrative headaches for the Lincoln Administration. Although no battles were fought in the territory, the withdrawal of Union forces at the beginning of the war allowed the Native American tribes to start raiding the trails passing through Utah. As a result, units from California and Utah were assigned to protect against these raids. Mineral deposits found in Utah by California soldiers encouraged the immigration of non-Mormon settlers into Utah.
Norman Fiering is an American historian, and Director and Librarian, Emeritus, of the John Carter Brown Library.
The Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience is an institute at Washington College, in Chestertown, Maryland, that promotes the research and study of American history and culture. Founded in 2000, the Starr Center at Washington College is one of many educational initiatives funded by the Starr Foundation, a private foundation with assets of over $1.25 billion. The inaugural director of the Starr Center, Edward L. Widmer, served under Bill Clinton as special assistant to the president for national security affairs; among other accomplishments, he wrote foreign policy speeches and advised the president on topics related to history and scholarship as senior advisor to the president for special projects. Since 2006, Adam Goodheart, a historian, journalist and author of 1861: The Civil War Awakening, has served as director of the Center. In addition to its academic components, the C.V. Starr Center works closely with external groups to sponsor events of public interest, such as the Poplar Grove Project, a recovery and recordation project in collaboration with the Maryland State Archives, and hosts readings and lectures often focused on topics of local interest, such as Chesapeake Bay history.
PunditWire is a news commentary site featuring contributors from across the political spectrum who are all current or former political speechwriters. Launched on September 13, 2010, the content on PunditWire varies in scope – from foreign policy to campaigns and elections to civil rights and political rhetoric. The website is sponsored by American University in Washington, D.C., and was conceived by American University Professor Leonard Steinhorn, a former political speechwriter and strategist, and Robert Lehrman, adjunct professor in the School of Communication at American University and former speechwriter for Al Gore.
Winslow Upton was an American astronomer. He published extensively on the subject of meteorology.
John Stauffer is Professor of English, American Studies, and African American Studies at Harvard University. He writes and lectures on the Civil War era, antislavery, social protest movements, and photography.
Dr. Eric Widmer is an American scholar and educator. He was born in Lebanon where his American mother was on the faculty of the American University in Beirut. He was educated at Deerfield, Williams, and Harvard. After finishing his Ph.D, he joined the faculty at Brown teaching Chinese History and would then go on to spend much of his career there as a dean. He then served as Deerfield Academy's 54th Headmaster from 1994 to 2006, and was succeeded in that post by Margarita O'Byrne Curtis. He left the school to assume the position of founding headmaster at King's Academy in Madaba, Jordan, which began its first academic year in fall 2007. He speaks six languages including French and Chinese.
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