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Daniel D. Holt

Daniel D. HoltKansas Historical Foundation
Board of Directors
Elected to board: 2004

Daniel D. Holt lives in Abilene. He was the first director of the National Frontier Trails Center in Independence, Missouri. He served as director of the Dwight D. Eisenhower

Presidential Library and Museum. He worked for the Kansas Historical Society, was director of the Citadel Museum and Archives, curating the General Mark W. Clark collection; director of field services and chief of acquisitions for the Illinois State Historical Library and Society; director of the Liberty Memorial, Kansas City, an archives and museum that specializes in World War I; and serves as the managing editor of the papers of George C. Marshall.

He is the author of two books and editor, with James Leyerzapf, of Eisenhower: The Prewar Diaries and Selected Papers, 1905-1941, published for the Library by Johns Hopkins University Press, in 1998. He has authored many articles including the award-winning, “An Unlikely Partnership: Mark Clark, Dwight Eisenhower and the Philippines.” In 1994 he directed the publication of D-Day, June 6, 1944, published for the Eisenhower Foundation by the University Press of Kansas. In 1994 he received the Department of Defense “Outstanding Service Award” for his contributions to the 50th anniversary of World War II and the D-Day commemoration.

Holt has lectured widely on military and western history. He was instrumental in the planning and implementation of the Kansas State University Institute for Military History and 20th Century Studies, in which the Eisenhower Library is a partner. He assisted in producing an award winning video, Civil Rights and Personal Liberties in the 1950s, for the new presidential gallery in the Eisenhower museum.

In 2002 he was appointed by President George W. Bush to the Brown v. Board of Education 50th Anniversary Commission. He retired from the Eisenhower Library and Museum in 2008. He was honored by Washburn University with its Distinguished Service Award.

Holt was first elected to the Kansas Historical Foundation Board of Directors in 2004.