Daniel Boomhower

Daniel Boomhower provides leadership for all aspects of the library’s operations in support of the fellowship program and scholarship in the three fields of study. The Director of the Research Library since 2015, Boomhower oversees the work of the library in maintaining a comprehensive record of scholarship in Byzantine and Pre-Columbian Studies and the history and theory of formal gardens and designed landscapes, as well as a distinguished collection of early printed books and manuscripts relating to all three fields of study. The library also holds distinctive photographic and archaeological documentation of Byzantine art and architecture alongside exhaustive documentation of ceramic iconography of the Moche, Nasca, and Maya civilizations. With Boomhower’s leadership, the library staff strive to maintain an optimal research environment for scholars and to make Dumbarton Oaks’ unique library resources available to the public through a strategic digitization program. Boomhower holds an MS in library and information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a PhD in musicology from Case Western Reserve University. He has published on the history of libraries and the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and Johannes Brahms and has served on the Board of Directors of the Music Library Association and the Coordinating Committee of the Advisory Council of Rèpetoire Internationale des Sources Musicales. Prior to his appointment at Dumbarton Oaks, Daniel held positions at the Library of Congress and in the libraries at Kent State University and Princeton University.