Arnold Kramer
From the Museum's opening in April 1993 to the present, he has played a leading role in the institution's use of technology to support on-site exhibitions, operations, and its national outreach program. In 1993 he became Director of Technical Services, managing the computer and audiovisual systems within the Museum's public services as well as applications to support the institution's infrastructure. During this period he initiated and led the Museum's effort to create its website, ushmm.org, which was established in 1995 and now attracts more than twenty-five thousand visitors each day. In 1996 he became Director of Outreach Technology, a new group created to focus on the use of technology to extend the Museum's reach to its constituencies, to provide access to its intellectual assets, and to deliver educational opportunities to students and teachers. Among its major initiatives have been the creation of a learning site for students, integrated data access tools for scholars and the general public, online exhibitions designed to bring the Museum's interpretive presentations to the online public. Current projects include outreach to the university community via Internet2, a program designed to sustain long term relationships with Museum visitors based upon email/Web outreach, digitization and metadata projects for the Museum's collections, IT security systems, and planning for future uses of technology in service of the Museum's mission.
Prior to coming to the Museum, Mr. Kramer worked as a photographer specializing in architectural photography for clients that included architects, interior designers, and design magazines. From 1970 to 1981 he was a full time faculty member teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in still photography at the School of Architecture, University of Maryland, College Park. His work has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts, which awarded him individual fellowships in still photography in 1975 and 1979. Mr. Kramer has exhibited photographs widely in museums and galleries in Washington, D. C. , New York City, and Europe, and is represented by galleries in New York and Washington.
He began his career at the United States Public Health Service and was posted to the National Institutes of Health, where he built electronic instrumentation for medical research projects.
Mr. Kramer holds a BS and MS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with degrees in electrical engineering and an emphasis on communications theory and computer science.