Representative Gerald Ward (D)

Rockingham - District 27


member picture

Contact Information

16 Nixon Park
Portsmouth, NH  03801-5728
ward4staterep@gmail.com
603.436.6142
Seat #: 4082

Additional Information

House Committee Information
Committee Name: Election Law
Position:  Member
Committee Function:
It shall be the duty of the Committee on Election Law to consider all matters relating to the election laws of the state, including campaign finance, the Ballot Law Commission, redistricting, and such other matters as may be referred to it.

Personal Biography
Gerald W.R. Ward is the curator of the Portsmouth Historical Society, where he also serves as editor of the Portsmouth Marine Society Press. He is also the Weems Senior Curator of American Decorative Arts and Sculpture Emeritus at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and a visiting lecturer at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, where he teaches early American art.

He is serving his sixth term in the legislature.

Ward is a graduate of Harvard College and has his Ph.D. from Boston University. His early career included positions at the Yale University Art Gallery, the Winterthur Museum, and Strawbery Banke Museum. He joined the MFA in 1992; from 1999 to 2012 he served as the Senior Curator of American Decorative Arts and Sculpture.

For several years, he was focused on developing a new Art of the Americas Wing, which opened in2010. In recent years, his exhibitions have included “Chihuly: Through the Looking Glass” (MFA, 2011),“Magna Carta: Cornerstone of Liberty” (MFA, 2014), and exhibitions on Portsmouth furniture, New Hampshire folk art, women’s art from the New Hampshire seacoast, and Portsmouth quilts (all PHS).

His many publications include Silver in American Life (co-editor with Barbara McLean Ward, 1979), American Case Furniture in the Mabel Brady Garvan and Other Collections at Yale University (1988), American Folk (co-author, 2001), and Family Treasures 175 Years of Collecting Art and Furniture at the New England Historic Genealogical Society (2020).
Local Government Involvement
Moderator, Ward 4, Portsmouth
Towns Represented
Portsmouth Ward: 4