Patricia West McKay
PhD, Binghamton University
MA, University at Albany
BA, Skidmore College
Patricia West McKay, PhD, is the recently retired Curator/Historian of Martin Van Buren National Historic Site in Kinderhook, New York, and the author of Domesticating History: The Political Origins of America's House Museums (Smithsonian Institution Press), a book that became an “instant classic” upon its publication for its exploration of the role of gender and race in the establishment of American house museums. Well known for her groundbreaking work to foreground the lives and labors of domestic servants in historic house museums, she received the 2019 Appleman-Judd-Lewis Award from the National Park Service for her work facilitating anti-racism training in historic site interpretation.