experience

Recent testimonial:

“Tim Grove’s contributions went far beyond scriptwriter when we brought him on board to work on our forthcoming exhibition “George Washington: A Revolutionary Life.” We hired him to work closely with our academic historians and curators to ensure our script was suitable for our target middle-grades audience.  This included not just the language, but guiding in the structure of our labels, the hierarchy of the gallery overall, and the integration of active learning opportunities throughout the gallery.  His deep knowledge of history, historical thinking, and the power of primary sources brought a spirit of inquiry, perspective taking, and visitor engagement to the project while staying within the overarching mission and priorities of our institution.”

K. Allison Wickens, Vice President of Education, George Washington’s Mount Vernon

Making History Relevant

• Tim co-founded the History Relevance Campaign, a national effort to raise the profile of history, charge the history field with articulating a unified message, and champion the value of historical thinking skills to connect past with present in order to inform decision-making. Tim recently spoke about the History Relevance initiative at Canada’s History Forum.
• Tim served on the faculty for the History Leadership Institute (formerly the Seminar for Historical Administration or SHA) for ten years. He initially covered the topic of “the digital museum” and most recently led the conversation about “making history relevant.”

250th planning

• Tim served on the core team that developed Lewis and Clark: The National Bicentennial Exhibition that traveled the country. It examined the cultural landscape and worked with tribal advisers on numerous topics. Responsible for many associated products including an extensive K-12 multi-disciplinary curriculum developed by teams of teachers in St. Louis and Philadelphia and reviewed by tribal advisers. Guided the development of the exhibition’s award-winning website.

Museum Education

• Tim spent twenty years at the Smithsonian Institution as a museum educator at three different museums: National Air and Space Museum (most recently Chief of Museum Learning), National Museum of American History, National Portrait Gallery.
• Tim served for six years as program manager for the Hands On History Room, a popular learning venue for all ages at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and an international model of museum education.
• Tim co-authored The Museum Educator’s Manual: Educators Share Successful Techniques (Rowman and Littlefield, 2009, 2^nd edition 2017), a practical guide to informal learning covering such topics as active learning, education and technology, exhibition and program development, and evaluation, reaching all age levels as well as volunteer and docent training.
• Tim co-taught workshops on museum education for the American Association for State and Local History for ten years.

Large and small exhibitions

• Tim has served on the core team of nine exhibitions at Smithsonian museums and the core team of a national bicentennial traveling exhibition with artifacts from more than fifty lending institutions. He has written exhibition scripts and labels and led the development (and testing) of many simple and complex interactives, both computer and mechanical.
• Tim is currently working on conceptual planning and preliminary script work for a large upcoming exhibition for a nationally prominent institution. He is also working with a small historical society on conceptual planning for a new exhibition in a new space.
• Tim brings extensive experience with audience evaluation, having coordinated all kinds of evaluation efforts for various projects he has worked on. One example is front-end testing for the National Air and Space Museum’s new Destination Moon exhibition.
• Tim wrote the Exhibitions Planning Guide for the Smithsonian’s Museums on Main Street program, part of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. https://museumonmainstreet.org/sites/default/files/exhibition_planning_guide_sk_final.pdf

Writing

• Tim wrote A Grizzly in the Mail and Other Adventures in American History (University of Nebraska Press, 2014), a career memoir about which the Washington Post reviewer wrote: “The title is a good shorthand for Tim Grove’s argument that quirky, accessible, emotionally evocative historical artifacts can fire the imagination and kindle the flames of knowledge in a way that books, however lively, often fail to…Grove’s book is both an inspiration and a template for those who want to kick history out of the attic and put it back where it belongs: in the national living room, slightly to the left of the television.”
• Tim originated and wrote the “History Bytes” column in History News for thirteen years. It encouraged the history field to think critically about what they were putting online and tracked trends and successes in online technology.
• Tim has authored four children’s books for ages 10-14. First Flight Around the World (Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2015) was a finalist for the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction award from the American Library Association.

Selected Articles

Five Ways to Make History Fun –  History News Network article

History Relevance in Canada – National Council for Public History blog

Historical Thinking is an Unnatural Act –  History News article

Truth or Consequences article  – the intersection of trust, truth and public history, article about the theme of the upcoming American Association for State and Local History annual meeting

New Media and the Challenges for Public History –  American Historical Association Perspectives on History article

Quotes from book reviews https://timgrove.net/reviews/

Past Clients and Workshops

Past Clients and Workshops

• George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Virginia – providing conceptual planning services for a new permanent exhibition
• Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES): Museum on Main Street program, Washington, D.C.  Grove History Consulting wrote this Exhibition Planning Guide
• Strawbery Banke, Portsmouth, NH – conducted research for a national survey of history institutions that run a scholars-in-residence/public-historians-in-residence program
• Old Westbury Gardens, Old Westbury, NY – trained docents for a new interpretive tour
• Workshop about History Relevance for the Indianapolis, IN history community sponsored by the National Council for Public History and Conner Prairie
• Castine Historical Society, Castine, Maine—Castine Historical Society newsletter http://www.castinehistoricalsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Visitor-Summer-2016.pdf
• Lancaster Historical Society, Lancaster, PA
• Michigan History Center, Lansing, MI
• Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, MO

Past Speaking Engagements

Past Speaking Engagements

• Michigan Historical Center
• Kentucky Historical Society
• The Henry Ford
• Conner Prairie
• Canadian Museum of History
• Abbe Museum
• National Museum of American History
• National Air and Space Museum
• Gunston Hall
• Strawbery Banke
• Missouri Historical Society
• St. Louis Science Center
• Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill (KY)
• National Archives