News Release

Frazier Museum Appoints Madeleine Burnside as Executive Director

The Frazier International History Museum announced today the hiring of Madeleine Burnside Ph.D. as the new Executive Director. Most recently, Dr. Burnside has been the Executive Director of the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society, an accredited not-for-profit museum in Key West Florida, a position she has held since 1991. Her tenure at the museum will begin August 15^th, 2007.

Dr. Burnside completed her B.A. at the University of Warwick, in England.  She came to the United States on a prestigious Harkness Fellowship and holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Cruz. While at Santa Cruz, she specialized in history of art and science of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Additionally she holds a Post-Doctoral fellowship in Museum Studies from the Whitney Museum of American Art, where she worked on the landmark “Brooklyn Bridge” exhibition. Her numerous articles on art and history have been published in a variety of historical and critical non-fiction publications.

While at the Fisher Museum, Dr. Burnside was able to express her fascination with American social and colonial history.  She assembled teams of scholars and curators, and worked with them to develop exhibitions on the transatlantic slave trade, pirates, the Spanish-American War, and the Spanish Maritime Empire.  Her recent book Spirits of the Passage - The Transatlantic Slave Trade in the Seventeenth Century written in collaboration with Rosemarie Robotham, reflects her profound interest in the early history of the slave trade.

Before arriving at the Fisher Museum, Dr. Burnside worked in contemporary art.  She served as a consultant curator at the Bronx Museum of Fine Arts, and held editorial positions for Art News Magazine, ARTS Magazine, TV Magazine, and the Soho Weekly News. In the 1980s she was appointed to the position of Director at the Islip Art Museum, New York, where she was also senior curator. 

Born in London, England, Dr. Burnside’s native sensibility for European history is particularly relevant to the evolution of the Frazier’s Royal Armouries’ collection.  “I grew up among the artifacts of the Tower and the Wallace Collection. My grandfather was a history buff and would drag me off to his favorite museums all the time.  At first I thought it was pretty dull stuff (too much grown-up jewelry) but then I discovered the gory bits and saw the potential—I too could be a Knight of the Round Table, a wicked assassin, or a famous duellist!  I begged for a suit of armor for Christmas—okay, it was plastic, but it was a start,” Burnside laughs.   "Working at the Frazier is going to be the culmination of many personal and professional ambitions.”

Dr. Burnside will replace the Museum's Founding Executive Director, J. Edwin Webb, who most recently headed up the Museum's Foundation and Development efforts and will be leaving the Museum June 30^th to pursue other interests.

 “We are thrilled with this announcement. Her unique combination of career accomplishments and museum experience coupled with her scholarly work and lively sense of innovation makes her the ideal choice for the museum. She is the right person to take the museum from its formative phase and quickly move it into a position of leadership nationally,” Mr. Webb commented.

Owsley Brown Frazier, founder of the museum and the Chairman of the Board said
“I’m looking forward to working with Madeleine. Her passion for history and unique specialty of knowledge on the slave trade and of Spanish American history will dovetail perfectly with the museum’s central themes of exploration, conflict, craftsmanship and technological innovation.”

About Frazier International History Museum
In collaboration with the Royal Armouries (Britain's oldest national museum), The Frazier Museum covers 1,000 years of history. The priceless collection is housed in a 100,000 square foot, state-of-the-art museum in downtown Louisville’s historic Doerhoefer building. The Frazier brings history to life every day through live interpretations by costumed interpreters, multimedia presentations, educational programming and hands-on learning. The Frazier Museum is the only museum to have a partnership with the Royal Armouries, making it the only museum of its kind in the United States and the world. For more information about the Museum, please call (502) 412-2280 or log on to www.fraziermuseum.org.

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