Keith Hardison

Keith Anderson Hardison is a native of Nashville, Tennessee with family ties in North Carolina that date back almost 300 years.  For the last 28 years, he has served museums, historic sites, and government historical agencies throughout the South.

He served as executive director of Beauvoir, The Jefferson Davis Home, from 1986-1999, where he funded and constructed the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library and Museum.  In 1999-2000, he was director of education, interpretation, and visitor services for Pamplin Historical Park in Virginia, where he assisted with the opening of the National Museum of the Civil War Soldier.  From 2000-2006, he was an administrator with the Louisiana State Museum, supervising development and operation of its award-winning, $23 million Baton Rouge Branch.  In 2006, he accepted the directorship of the North Carolina Division of State Historic Sites and Properties, a subdivision of the Department of Cultural Resources that supervises the preservation, development, and operation of a statewide system of 24 historic sites.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from David Lipscomb University (1977) as well as a Master of Arts degree in museum science from Texas Tech University (1983).

Mr. Hardison is a former member of the Mississippi Civil War Battlefields Commission and is active in a number of professional and historical organizations including the American Association for State and Local History, the North Carolina Museums Council, and the North Carolina Historical Society.  He currently co-chairs the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources Civil War 150 Committee.  He is a popular lecturer on Civil War, general history, museum, and heritage tourism-related topics.