About us

Derek has an extensive background in museum collections curation and conservation. His museum career began at The Henry Ford’s Henry Ford Museum as a historic presenter, but he quickly found himself working in the conservation department as a Conservation Specialist for Transportation Collections. During his time at The Henry Ford, Derek not only performed conservation treatments on the transportation collections, including operating numerous vehicles from the collection, but also worked on numerous other mechanical artifacts within the collections of The Henry Ford.

After 8 years at The Henry Ford, Derek moved to Cleveland, Ohio where he became the Frederick C. and Kathleen S. Crawford Curator of Transportation History at the Western Reserve Historical Society. In his role as curator, Derek oversaw the exhibits of the Crawford Auto Aviation Museum, as well as the conservation of the transportation collection and related artifacts. During his 5 years as curator, he led the treatments to bring numerous vehicles back into historically accurate operational condition.

As Director of Collections & Curator for the National Corvette Museum he oversaw the development of the collection, curation of exhibits, and preservation of the collection. This included developing a collecting initiative for the Museum of both 3-dimensional artifacts and 2-dimensional archives, guiding the preservation team on restorations and preservation treatments of artifacts, and overseeing the overall management of the collections on exhibit and in storage.

During his 20-year career in the museum field Derek has also performed conservation work privately for numerous museums including the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Automotive Hall of Fame, and the Shaker Historical Society. He has also worked as a consultant with other conservation and restoration firms dealing with historic vehicles and machinery.