Spencer Crew (born 1949) is an American professor, museum director, curator and writer.

Education

Crew received a PhD degree from

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

in 1979. In 2003, he was named to the Rutgers Hall of Distinguished Alumni.

Career

Crew's career in museums began in 1981 when he was hired to work as a historian at the

National Museum of American History The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific, and military history. Among the items on display is t ...

(NMAH). In 1986, he curated his first exhibition at the museum, ''Field to Factory: African-American Migration, 1915–1940''. He became the first African-American director of the NMAH in 1994. In 2001, he became the director of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. In 2019, Crew was appointed the interim director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Crew is the Clarence J. Robinson Professor of U.S. history at

George Mason University George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crew, Spencer Living people 1949 births Rutgers University alumni African-American people Directors of museums in the United States