In 1995, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum appointed Raymond Doswell as its first curator. He has played an increasingly integral role in the growth and development of the museum since his appointment. He is responsible for exhibitions and collections care/development at the museum. The museum’s collections include a few hundred photographs and artifacts. Doswell also directs all education initiatives and partnerships with universities and school districts. He briefly served as interim President in 2010, where he oversaw all museum operations, programming, development, marketing, and curatorial responsibilities. Doswell was born in St. Louis, MO and spent his adolescent years in East Saint Louis, IL. He earned a Bachelors of Arts degree in History from Monmouth College in Illinois, where he was also trained to become a teacher. He received his Masters of Arts Degree from the University of California at Riverside in Historic Resources Management in 1995. The program featured graduate course work in 19th & 20th Century American History with specialized training in museum curatorship, archival management, and historic preservation. Before completing graduate studies in California, he served as an intern for the Anacostia Museum, a division of the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C. Doswell earned a doctorate from the College of Education at Kansas State University, where he researched the links between museums and education. Doswell received a gubernatorial appointment to the Missouri Historical Records Advisory Board in 2003 and has served as a grant review panelist for the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2006, Doswell served on the special selection committee for the National Baseball Hall of Fame, where 17 new Negro Leagues veterans were selected for induction. Doswell also serves as a board member for the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education. In addition, he serves on the editorial board for Black Ball: A Journal of the Negro Leagues and Rotary International. Dr. Doswell travels extensively as a public speaker/lecturer and has appeared on several national media outlets on behalf of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, including ESPN, NPR, Showtime, and the BBC. His publications also include contributions to the Kansas City Star newspaper and Memories & Dreams Magazine for the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
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A New Door to Black Baseball Research