David C. Ward

Ward has published two full books of poetry, Call Waiting (2014) and Internal Difference (2011). Both of these have been published with Carcanet Press. Ward "has published more than 100 poems in Anglo-American literary magazines". Ward in 2004 wrote, for the Smithsonian, an analytical biography of Charles Wilson Peale, Charles Willson Peale: Art and Selfhood in the Early Republic (University of California Press, 2004).

Ward curated numerous shows at the National Portrait Gallery, including "Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture", "Face Value:Abstraction in Portraiture", and The Face of Battle. Hide Seek, which opened in 2010, was the first exhibit hosted by a museum of national stature to address the topic and as such invited immediate political attack from conservatives who falsely argued that Hide/Seek was gay propaganda. It was also the largest and most expensive exhibit in the NPG's history, and more private donors contributed to it than to any prior NPG exhibit. In 2010, Ward interviewed Patti Smith for her book Just Kids. This was related to Hide Seek. In addition to this, Ward did shows on Whitman, Grant & Lee, Lincoln, and Alexander Gardner.

Ward began working at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution in 1979. Ward's early work was focused on American art, culture and portraiture. He worked on the documentary history project publishing five volumes on the selected papers of artist Charles Willson Peale and his family. In 2012, Ward was appointed associate director and senior historian.

Ward studied under Christopher Lasch and Eugene Genovese at University of Rochester graduating in 1974 and subsequently attended graduate school at Warwick University (MA in labour history, 1975) and Yale University, MA (1975), MPhil, 1977).