Brenda Lawson, Senior Vice President for Collections & Content Development

Brenda Lawson joined the MHS in 1988 as a manuscript cataloger in a one-year, grant-funded position. She oversees the acquisition, processing, and cataloging of manuscript and photograph collections, digital initiatives, preservation, conservation, and web development, and has supervisory responsibility for the library’s reader services department and the Society’s two documentary editorial departments, the Adams Papers and the Publications Department. She received her BA in psychology from Williams College and is a graduate of the Dual Degree Program in Archives Management at Simmons College with an MSLIS in library and information science and an MA in history. She is active in the archival profession and has served on the Board of New England Archivists and the Northeast Document Conservation Center and as a member of the Council and Executive Committee of the Society of American Archivists. She is a Fellow of the MHS and the Colonial Society of Massachusetts.