P. Bradford Westwood — I grew up in the shadow of Y Mountain in Provo, Utah; and spent many a summer vacation in Oregon. I am the Special Projects and Outreach Curator at the L. Tom Perry Special Collections Library at Brigham Young University in Provo, Ut. From 2002 to 2008 I was chair and from 1997-2002 assistant chair of the same department.
Sometime in February 2009 I will be joining the LDS Church Historical Department, taking on new position as Manager of Acquisitions, for the church’s archives, historical library and museum.
Since 1995 I have had the joyful responsibility of working with all of BYU’s library curators, rare book catalogers, conservators, reference staff and exhibition personnel.
My subect specialties include modern manuscripts, the administration of cultural repositories (archives, rare book libraries, museums and historical societies), architectural history (Mormon and 19th/20th c. American and European) and Historic Preservation. My degrees are from BYU (Provo, UT) in American Studies (BA, 1985) and from the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) in Historic Preservation (MS, 1994).
We are excited to follow your adventures in your new position with the church. What a great addition you will be. Historic Preservation sounds like such a fascinating area to get a Master’s degree in. What did you do professionally between your bachelor’s and master’s degrees?
Frankly, I am both excited and terrified about this new opportunity.
Between attending BYU and going to graduate school at Penn., I worked for the LDS Church Historical Department (1984-1989) as a photo archivist and as architectural materials archivist. This new job will make the third time I have worked for this department.
My master degree focused on the documentation, history and preservation of the built environment and cultural landscapes. While in Philadelphia I continued to work as an archivist, first for the Architectural Archive at the University of Pennsylvania (www.design.upenn.edu/archives/archives/) and at the Athenaeum of Philadelphia (www.philaathenaeum.org/). Penn also afforded me the chance to study architectural and landscape history, folklore, historic site management and museum studies.
I realize my interest are broad, however they all relate to the technical and applied aspects of history. In this new position all of these interest come together.