Brian Keough is the 6th Archivist of New York State, appointed by the New York State Board of Regents in August 2024. His passion is for history, primary source research, and telling the story of all of the people who live in New York State. As the Assistant Commissioner leading the New York State Archives, Mr. Keough serves the people of New York State and continues the tradition of strong leadership within the local, state, and national archival and history community. He leads the State Archives staff in their work to preserve and provide access to more than 270 million colonial and state government records and conduct related programs and services to state agencies, local governments, non-government historical records repositories, community organizations, and individuals. He also serves as the Executive Officer of the New York State Archives Partnership Trust (APT), a not-for-profit established to support the teaching and research about New York State History. APT’s Consider the Source Online: Teaching With Historical Records connects educators to valuable primary sources materials with a series of highly engaging learning activities. The APT publishes New York Archives magazine that tells the stories of the events and people that populate the historical narrative of New York State.
Prior to becoming New York State Archivist, he served in numerous cultural heritage and records management leadership roles. For more than 25 years, he served as the M.E. Grenander Head of Special Collections & Archives at the University at Albany, where his collecting priorities included creating the New York State Modern Political Archive and participating as a co-founder of the National Death Penalty Archive. He also taught courses at the University at Albany and offered numerous academic presentations and seminars about using primary source material. He authored dozens of funded grant applications, including from national organizations such National Historical Publications and Records Commission and the Council on Library and Information Resources. In addition, for over two decades, he has consulted and advised numerous local governments and municipalities on developing plans for improving the management of their records. Prior to the University at Albany, he served as Archivist for the Harold Washington Archives and Collections at the Chicago Public Library’s Special Collections and Preservation Division and as Archivist at the Schenectady Museum’s General Electric Collection.
A native of the Philadelphia region, Mr. Keough holds a B.A. in History from West Chester University (PA) and a Master of Science in Information Science and Master of Arts in History from the University at Albany, SUNY. He is nearing the completion of his PhD dissertation in American History on the history of affordable housing politics in New York State.