Join us as Howard Kittell, President & CEO of the Andrew Jackson Foundation, looks back on Jackson’s legacy and influence on today’s political climate with a special introduction by Martha Rivers Ingram.
To RSVP, please call 843-723-9912 or email dreutter@charlestonlibrarysociety.org
Jackson at 250 – March 15, 2016 marked Andrew Jackson’s 250th birthday. Born in South Carolina, the son of Scots-Irish immigrants, Jackson was a Revolutionary War veteran and orphan while still a teenager. He went on to be a Tennessee pioneer, frontier lawyer, military hero, and statesman. As the 7th President of the United States, he embodied a new era in American history that became the “Age of Jackson.” He redefined office of president, established new national policies, inspired future presidents, and was responsible for ensuring our nation survived. Jackson was a tremendously controversial figure in his time and today. In the 21st century Jackson is often remembered for the Indian Removal Act and its consequences, for slave ownership, and the president who’s portrait new graces the Oval Office. Despite all of this, Jackson remains a pivotal figure in our nation’s history and its survival to the world power it is today. Why is Jackson relevant to us today?
Howard Kittell’s career has centered on organizational management, historic preservation, and land conservation. Kittell is the President & CEO of the Andrew Jackson Foundation that owns and operates Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage, Home of the People’s President, in Nashville, TN. He has held this position since November, 2008. The Hermitage opened as a museum in 1889, making it the second-oldest presidential home museum in the nation.
For 10 years prior to The Hermitage, Kittell was the Executive Director of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation in Virginia. The foundation is the manager of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District, a congressionally-designated National Heritage Area.
Kittell’s career in historic preservation and history began in the late 1980s when he became the assistant director of the Providence (RI) Preservation Society. Subsequently he was the executive director of the Preservation Coalition of Greater Philadelphia and then executive director of the Chestnut Hill Conservancy, also in Philadelphia.
A Michigan native, Kittell holds a degree in urban planning from Michigan State University; his graduate studies were in architectural history and historic preservation at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.