Historian
Mindy Farmer joined the National Portrait Gallery as a historian in 2022. As a member of the history department, she conducts research, proposes exhibitions, and writes biographies to accompany the portraits in the museum’s collection. Farmer is also responsible for developing programming for PORTAL, the Portrait Gallery’s scholarly center.
Prior to arriving at the museum, Farmer worked at Kent State University, where she served as an assistant professor of history and the director of the May 4 Visitors Center. Under her direction, the Center opened a new temporary exhibition space, where Farmer organized several exhibitions. She curated Sandy’s Scrapbook (2018), Allison the Activist (2019), Bill: An All-American Boy (2019), and Our Brother Jeff (2019), each of which honored one of the four students killed during the Kent State shootings. A related exhibition, Fallen Students, is currently touring a variety of locations in northeast Ohio. During her time at the Center, Farmer played a leading role in the 50th commemoration as a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee and co-chair of the Programming Committee.
In 2020, Farmer coauthored Cambodia and Kent State: In the Aftermath of Nixon’s Expansion of the Vietnam War with James Tyner. In 2018, she was awarded the Public Education and Awareness Award from Ohio History Connection’s State Historic Preservation Office for her role in coauthoring the successful nomination to make the Kent State Shooting Site a National Historic Landmark.
Prior to Kent State, Farmer worked for the National Archives and Records Administration as the founding education specialist at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. One of her primary—and most challenging—missions was to build public trust and establish nonpartisan educational programming at the once highly partisan, private institution. She played a key role in some of the Library’s most high-profile achievements, including the creation of the Watergate Gallery and the first academic conference.
Farmer earned a doctorate in modern United States history from The Ohio State University. She has taught courses in American history at her alma mater, the University of Dayton, and Kent State University.
