News Flash

Robin Reed, director of the Fort Monroe Authority’s Casemate Museum, will provide an overview the fort’s new visitor center at the Hampton History Museum’s free “Lunch in Time” series on Wednesday, July 18, noon-1 p.m.

Slated to open in August 2019 in time for the commemoration of the 400^th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans at Point Comfort, the Fort Monroe Visitor and Education Center (FMVEC) will serve as the orientation and education gateway to the fort and introduce the public to the existing Casemate Museum and Fort Monroe National Monument. Operated jointly by the Fort Monroe Authority and the National Park Service, the FMVEC will also serve as the National Park Service contact station and starting point for both guided and self-guided tours of the entire property. Glavé & Holmes Architecture is providing architectural and engineering services for the project and HealyKohler Design is providing exhibit design services.

For at least 400 years, the point of land known as Old Point Comfort that now includes Fort Monroe has served as the key defensive site at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Beginning with Native American’s use years before the settling of Jamestown to its most recent mission as the US Army’s Headquarters for Training and Doctrine Command until 2011, Old Point Comfort and Fort Monroe has influenced all aspects of our nation’s history.

Attendees are encouraged to bring a bag lunch. The museum will provide free dessert.

Robin Reed

Robin Reed is the Director of the Fort Monroe Authority’s Casemate Museum in Hampton, Virginia. He currently serves as Treasurer of the Southeast Museum Conference; is a Museum Assessment Program reviewer for the American Alliance of Museums; and a member of the Gettysburg National Battlefield Museum Foundation Advisory Committee.

Robin Reed is the former President of the National D-Day Memorial Foundation and the past Director of Public History for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Before joining the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Robin was senior project director for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

He is the past Executive Director of The Museum and White House of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia; past President of the Virginia Association of Museums; Vice President of Virginia Civil War Trails, Inc; a former radio broadcaster; a National Park Service Ranger; a YMCA community youth director; and an elementary school educator. He was a Tennessee Humanities Scholar in 1993; and has served twice on the Commonwealth of Virginia Governor’s Advisory Council on Juvenile Justice.

He has appeared on the NBC Today Show, the Arts & Entertainment and History channels; C-Span’s Yellow School Bus and has been a writer and the voice of “Major History” on the Rocket Radio children’s program produced for PBS WCVE.

An established and accomplished living history interpreter and actor, he also performs in Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s Evening Programs and film editions of their Electronic Field Trip programs, as well as performing nationally and abroad. He also volunteers his time to the National Park Service and the Boy Scouts of America.

Robin was born in Tampa, Florida, and grew up in Richmond, Virginia. He was a member of the last cadet class of Pennsylvania Military College (now Widener University) and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Virginia Commonwealth University with a minor in education.

The Hampton History Museum is located at 120 Old Hampton Lane in Downtown Hampton. There is free parking in the garage across the street from the museum. For more information, call 757/727-1102