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Henry B. Crawford is the retired Curator of History at the Museum of Texas Tech University, having served that institution for 26 years. Prior to his most recent curatorial position he served as Museum Registrar at both the Texas Tech Museum and at the Milwaukee Public Museum. He holds an M.A. in American History/Museum Studies and Art History from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and museum training certificates from the Smithsonian Institution Visiting Professionals Program and the Texas Historical Commission Winedale Museum Seminar. He studied western frontier and economic history at the doctoral level at Texas Tech University. He recently received the prestigious Jack Nokes Outstanding Service Award from the Texas Association of Museums.
Mr. Crawford is the Model Railroad Curator and Trainmaster at the Science Spectrum Museum in Lubbock, TX. He has been an avid model railroader since 1972. His duties at the Science Spectrum include creating realistic scenery, constructing and repairing trackage, buildings, landscapes, features, and the maintenance and repair of locomotives, rolling stock, and wiring, as well as interpreting the history and role of railroads in the American socio-economic paradigm. He has been a member of the Lubbock Model Railroad Association since 1993 and serves as its president. He is also a member of the National Model Railroad Association.
As a 40+ year veteran of the museum profession, he has served several terms on the councils of the Texas Association of Museums, the Mountain-Plains Museums Association, the Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums, the Registrars Committee Board of the American Alliance of Museums, and numerous state, regional and national special museum projects. He served as Chair of the MPMA Mentoring Program for six years and was a founding board member of The Texas Living History Association. At the Museum of Texas Tech, he is most proud of his several years as the Advisor of the Museum Science and Heritage Students Association, and as a mentor to dozens of students and young museum professionals.
His research fields include American western frontier, economic and military history, transportation, fur trade, American material culture, and American genre paintings. As a scholar of Western history, he has published many articles and book reviews, and has given numerous lectures on a variety of frontier topics for museums and historic sites.
Mr. Crawford has been active in living history interpretation and reenacting for more than four decades and shares his expertise through lectures on living history philosophy, techniques, practices and research at museums, schools, and historic sites nationwide. He has been the coordinator of several living history events. His favorite reenacting areas are the American Revolution, American Fur Trade and Santa Fe Trail, Texas Revolution, Early National America, Civil War, Buffalo Soldiers and the frontier military, frontier civilian life, buffalo hunters, and the European and Pacific theaters of World War II. He is a member of the premier fur trade living history organization The American Mountain Men. Through his various programs and appearances, Mr. Crawford has earned the moniker "The Face of Texas Living History."
Mr. Crawford is the founder his living history interpretation and consulting entity History By Choice. He has been a consultant for several museums and agencies, historical artists, and has also consulted on, and appeared in various television and video productions for the History Channel, Discovery Channel, McGraw-Hill Video, Montana Public Television, the National Park Service and the PBS programs "Texas Ranch House," and "Latino Americans." His most recent appearance is in "Protecting the Plains: The Story of Fort Griffin," shown at the Fort Griffin State Historic Site visitor center, and "Packing the West," both produced by BPI Productions. He is also proficient in historic American firearms and horsemanship.
