Howard Frank Gillette, Jr. (1942- ) was Professor of American Civilization at The George Washington University from 1970-1999, before he moved on to Rutgers University. He was instrumental in helping develop and grow the American Studies Program in his time at GW. Previous to coming to GW, Professor Gillette taught at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his B.A. (1964) and Ph.D. (1970) degrees in American Studies from Yale University.

Professor Gillette is author of "Between Justice and Beauty: Race, Planning, and the Failure of Urban Policy in Washington, D.C." (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995) and is co-author with Fredric Miller of "Washington Seen: A Photographic History, 1875-1965," also published by Johns Hopkins in 1995. He is editor of "Southern City, National Ambition: The Growth of Early Washington, " published by George Washington University in association with the American Institute of Architects in 1995 in conjunction with an exhibit of the same name. He is co-editor, with William Cutler, of "The Divided Metropolis" (Greenwood Press, 1980) and, with Zane Miller, of "American Urbanism" (Greenwood Press, 1987). His essays have appeared in a wide range of journals, including The Journal of the American Planning Association, the Journal of Urban History, American Quarterly, The Public Historian, Chicago History, Washington History, and Social Science History.

Professor Gillette is co-director of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities, a Rutgers-Temple University partnership, formed in 1999, and currently working with a NEH challenge grant to establish its endowment. He also serves as a faculty associate of the Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs at Rutgers. Professor Gillette has lectured widely in the United States and abroad. He was a founder and first director of George Washington's Center for Washington Area Studies. He served as editor of Washington History, published by the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. from 1992-1994, and he is immediate past president of the Society for American City and Regional Planning History. He serves on the editorial board of The Journal of Planning History and he has served as exhibits editor for The Public Historian. He has consulted with a number of cultural organizations in the Mid-Atlantic region, including the D.C. Public Library, the Atwater-Kent Museum, The City Museum of Washington, the New-York Historical Society, and the University of Baltimore.

He is a member of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., Society for American City and Regional Planning History, Urban History Association, National Council on Public History, Historical Society of Pennsylvania Immigration, and Ethnic History Society.

The collection was donated to the University Archives in two accessions by Howard F. Gillette, Jr. in 1997 and 1999.

N.B. This history note was written in 2005