David W. Jackson is director, archivist of The Orderly Pack Rat, an historical research and consulting service he founded in 1996. His belief and practice is to encourage personal and organizational awareness in historical archives, while emphasizing the significance of documenting our daily activities as history.

Jackson has more than 40 years of experience in personal manuscript collection. His childhood hobby of genealogy initiated at age 11, became the catalyst and inspiration for his future career.

He was graduated magna cum laude with a BS in Historic Preservation--Archives Studies from Southeast Missouri State University in 1993. In addition to securing a position as an archivist for Unity Archives at the Unity School of Christianity, and consulting on a variety of archive-related projects, Jackson has served as Director of Archives and Education for the Jackson County (Mo.) Historical Society since 2000. He is dedicated to the Society’s mission to promote and preserve Jackson County, Missouri, history and cultural heritage. He fields more than 3,500 contacts annually for the Society’s Archives and Research Library, where he is responsible for collecting, conserving, and cataloging donated materials. He manages a sizable volunteer and internship program; manages its on-site and virtual bookshop; updates the organization’s website and Facebook pages; presents on behalf of its Speakers’ Bureau; regularly contributes local history-related articles to the Kansas City Star and Independence Examiner newspapers; and, writes and implements grants to further the Society’s archives goals.

Among numerous other programs, services and collaborative efforts, David has coordinated the compilation of more than 1,500 oral histories of area military veterans as part of the Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress. And, in 2010, he helped to found the Gay and Lesbian Archive of Mid-America (GLAMA), jointly maintained and operated by the Jackson County (Mo.) Historical Society, the Kansas City Museum, and LaBudde Special Collections of Miller Nichols Library at University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Jackson is editor of and contributor to the nonprofit organization’s scholarly periodical, the Jackson County Historical Society JOURNAL. He has also written several, topical guidebooks (i.e., Practical Preservation; These Walls Were Made for Talking: Tools for Constructing the History of Your House in Jackson County, Missouri; Conserving Missouri Cemeteries; and, A River Runs By It: The Story of Independence, Kansas City, and Jackson County, Missouri), and directed the publishing of several books through the Jackson County Historical Society’s imprint, including: Illustrated Historical Atlas of Jackson County, Missouri (a 2007 reprint of the 1877 original with a new, full-name and subject index); Vital Historical Records, Jackson County, Missouri, 1826-1876 (a 2009 reprint of the 1934 original with a new, full-name and subject index); and a six-year research project that culminated in a 2009 souvenir book, LOCK DOWN: Outlaws, Lawmen and Frontier Justice in Jackson County, Missouri (co-authored with Paul Kirkman to commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the 1859 Jackson County Jail and Marshal’s Home, the oldest building on the historic Independence Square in Independence, Missouri).

In 2010, The History Press released a compilation of adaptations of Jackson’s aforementioned newspaper columns in a book titled, Kansas City Chronicles: An Up-to-Date History. To celebrate the bicentennial of the birth of Missouri’s famous painter, George Caleb Bingham, Jackson assisted in the 2011 production of two books that peripherally touch on Bingham’s life (Missouri Star: The Life and Times of Martha A. “Mattie” (Livingston) Lykins Bingham, and Borderland Families: Always on the Edge, both authored by Rose Ann Findlen. These products highlighted the life and recollections of Bingham’s second wife, “Mattie” Bingham, who had previously been married to Kansas City physician, Dr. Johnston Lykins.

Under The Orderly Pack Rat imprint, Jackson is also author and publisher of Direct Your Letters to San Jose: The California Gold Rush Letters of James and David Lee Campbell, 1849-1852 (2000); Lost Souls of the Lost Township: Untold Life Stories of the People Buried in the Davis-Smith Cemetery, Kansas City, Missouri (co-authored with Paul R. Petersen, 2011); Changing Times: Almanac and Digest of Kansas City’s Gay and Lesbian History (2011); and, Recipes of our Past: Morsels from Our Grandmothers’ Recipe Boxes (2005; revised and enlarged 2011).

Jackson is a long-time member of both the Kansas City Area Archivists (since 1989); and, Heritage League of Greater Kansas City (since 2000).

Jackson’s recognitions include the Southeast Missouri State University Historic Preservation Association’s Arthur Mattingly Award in Historic Preservation (May 2003); the City of Independence, Missouri, Heritage Commission’s Hickman Award (May 2010); and, his professional colleagues in the field, the Kansas City Area Archivists Fellow Award (June 2010).