Larry Edward Tise

(‘/tice/; born December 6, 1942) is an American historian, history executive, scholar, and author who has explored multiple parallel careers in the world of history and has served in a variety of roles as a professional historian.  In addition to stints as the executive head of state and national historical organizations, he has led in the establishment of standards of practice for the history community.  His books and articles often reexamine inherited storylines from other eras and offer fresh interpretations on such conundrums as race and slavery in American history. Other books reexamine the careers of such figures as Sir Walter Raleigh, Benjamin Franklin, and the Wright brothers. He has also pioneered research in the world of prestigious international prizes and awards in science, technology, arts, and humanitarian concerns, creating an organization to gather data on and to formulate professional standards for internationally distinguished awards.

Early Life and Education

Tise was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, son of Russell Edward and Irene Norman Tise.  Growing up the Mt. Tabor Church community of that city, he decided as a teenager to become a Methodist minister and secured a license to preach.  Majoring in history and religion during a time of civil rights upheaval, he received A.B. and M.Div. degrees from Duke University in 1965 and 1968.  Upon graduation from Duke Divinity School he joined the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church.  But he proceeded directly to graduate school in history at the University of North Carolina to study the complicated history of slavery and race in the United States.  With the vast libraries, manuscript, and pamphlet collections at Duke and Chapel Hill, he produced a provocative dissertation on the authors of proslavery literature. He was awarded a Ph.D. in history from UNC in 1975.

Career

History Executive: Tise launched his career and continues to the present as a history executive. 

• North Carolina American Revolution Bicentennial, Raleigh, N. C., 1973-1974, community organizer and director of historical publications. His principal contributions included production of an original movie on dissent titled A Majority of One (released 1976) and launching a monograph series on the Revolution in the state.

• North Carolina Division of Archives and History, Raleigh, NC, 1974-1981, assistant director 1974-1975; director 1975-1981.

• Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, PA, 1981-1987, executive director.

• American Association for State and Local History, Nashville, TN, 1987-1989, executive director.

• Benjamin Franklin National Memorial, Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PA, 1989-1997, executive director.

• International Congress of Distinguished Awards, Philadelphia, PA, 1994-present, founder and first president (ICDA.org).

Academic Appointments and Research:  Following appointments as adjunct or visiting professor at Vanderbilt University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Temple University, Tise became the Wilbur and Orville Wright Visiting Distinguished Professor at East Carolina University in 2000. In that capacity he served three summer appointments as Faculty Fellow at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA. In 2004 he was named Wilbur and Orville Wright Distinguished Professor, a capacity he held until 2015. Thereafter he has continued at ECU as adjunct Research Professor.     

In addition to teaching classes in history and topics relating to technology and flight, Tise pursued in depth research on the Wright brothers’ experimental flights from 1900 to 1911 on the North Carolina coast. He has shared his findings publicly in exhibits, books, and a growing research website WorldAloft.org.  His analysis of Wright photographs appeared in Hidden Images in the Wright Brothers' Photographs (2005; reprint 2011).  An expanded edition appeared as Hidden Images of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk in 2019.  His narrative on the Wright brothers' clandestine 1908 powered flights at Kitty Hawk is contained in his book Conquering the Sky: Secret Flights of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk (2009).  A further book on the environment and culture of the Carolina coast appeared in 2019 titled Circa 1903: North Carolina’s Outer Banks at the Dawn of Flight. A long-term project to produce an annotated edition of the correspondence of the Wrights at Kitty Hawk continues. 

In a separate research endeavor Tise has delved into Sir Walter Raleigh’s 16th century explorations of the Carolina coast as reported in a heralded book by the scientist Thomas Harriot titled A Briefe and True Report on the New Found Land of Virginia (illustrated edition, 1590). After examining dozens of these folio editions in Europe and America, he published his analysis of the varied versions of the work.   While viewing linguistic variations of the book, he also encountered striking hand-colored copies.  He launched an international inventory of the known and accessible hand-colored copies. This effort culminated in 2019 with the publication of an elephantine edition of the copper plate engravings in the first nine volumes of German publisher Theodore de Bry’s fantastical “Grand Voyages” (Harriot’s book was the initial volume). Designed and produced by the renowned art publisher Taschen, Theodore de Bry—America: The Complete Engravings, 1590-1602 presents Tise’s ambitious research findings. 

Slavery and Race in American History:  Tise's principal interest as a scholar has involved a lifelong pilgrimage to understand the problems of race and slavery in American and world history.  His first book on this topic, Proslavery: A History of the Defense of Slavery in America, 1701-1840 (University of Georgia Press, 1987) was the outgrowth of researches for his Ph.D. dissertation.  Acclaimed as a new departure in documenting the national character of proslavery thought, the award-winning book took its place as a classic text in American history literature.  With the assistance of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities during 1993-1994 and intellectual stimulation at the McNeill Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, he issued in 1998 a companion study titled The American Counter-revolution: A Retreat from Liberty, 1783-1800.  At East Carolina University he expanded his exploration of this topic by organizing in 2013 an elaborate tricentennial commemoration of the bloodiest battle of North Carolina’s devastating Tuscarora War (1711-1713).  He created a new website exhibiting this research Neyuheruke.org, mounted exhibits, guided the creation of a massive roadside monument, and published a documentary volume titled Neyuheruke 300: Commemorative Guide.  The conundrum of race and slavery remains a central focus of his ongoing research and writing. 

Private Practice Historian:  Tise coined the term “private practice historian” to describe his parallel career of providing history services on a billable basis whenever such activities were permitted in his executive appointments and other capacities. Beginning while a graduate student, he has subsequently worked on a fee basis as author, editor, carpenter, roofer, exhibit designer, researcher, documentary film producer, and tourism promoter.  In the realm of awards and prizes especially, he has conducted research for corporations, governments, foundations, and  eleemosynary individuals seeking to create new internationally distinguished awards.

Other Professional History Contributions 

• North Carolina History: Throughout his career Tise has promoted greater research and writing on the history of his native state. Two books of provocative essays almost forty years apart produced in collaboration with his colleague Jeffrey J. Crow have advanced this goal: Writing North Carolina History (1979) and New Voyages to Carolina: Reinterpreting North Carolina History (2017).

• Organization Formation: From his first days as a history executive, Tise recognized that not-for-profit associations could expand the reach of government history programs. Both in North Carolina and Pennsylvania he formed numerous statewide support groups and associate organizations for archives, historic preservation, historic sites and museums. Simultaneously he played a key role in founding both the National Council on Public History (1979) and the International Congress of Distinguished Awards (1994).

• National Leadership: He has also served in leadership roles and on the boards of national and professional history organizations including the following: Bicentennial Council of the Thirteen Original States, 1974-1991; Organization of American Historians; National Trust for Historic preservation; and Preservation Action. He also served as President of the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (NCSHPO), 1977-1981; an appointed member of U. S. Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, 1979-81; President of the National Association of State Archives and Records Administrators, 1979-81; and two terms as a member of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, 1979-81, 1985-89. He was both an incorporator and second presiding Chair of the National Council on Public History, 1981-83.

• Pro Bono History Services: As a longtime public figure in two states and on a national level, Tise has been called upon to lend stature and professional skills in a variety of important historical endeavors. Among his notable pro bono projects are these: He wrote a denomination wide archives and records management plan for the United Methodist Church and assisted in establishing the program nationally. After moving to Philadelphia in 1989 he played crucial roles in the preservation and transformation of Philadelphia’s renowned Eastern State Penitentiary into a profitable prison museum and in protecting and preserving Philadelphia’s unique Lazaretto (port quarantine station).

Personal Life and Contact

Tise was married to Alice Brandon Smith on August 15, 1965 (deceased June 21, 2002).  They had two sons:  Larry Edward Tise, Jr., born 1968, and Nicholas Allen Tise, born 1973.  His son William Zane Lawrence was born September 3, 1988.  He has lived and worked from his historic Philadelphia home from 1989 to the present.

Principal Works

Books

• The Yadkin Melting Pot: Methodism and the Moravians in the Yadkin River Valley. Winston Salem: Clay Printing, 1967.

• Winston-Salem in History. (general editor; author of 4 vols.) Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press for Historic Winston, Inc., 1975. LC 75-21745

• Southern Experience in the American Revolution. (co-editor) Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1978. ISBN: 0-8078-4059-9 William R. Davie Award, Society of Cincinnati, 1979.

• Writing North Carolina History. (co-editor) Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1979. ISBN: 0-8078-1369-9

• Proslavery: A History of Defense of Slavery, 1700-1840. University of Georgia Press, 1987. ISBN: 0-8203-0927-3 Hebert L. Feis Award, American Historical Association, 1989

• A Book about Children. Falls Church, Va.: Hartland Publishing, 1992. ISBN: 0-9634400-0-4

• The American Counterrevolution: A Retreat from Liberty, 1783-1800 (Harrisburg: Stackpole Books, 1999. ISBN: 0-8117-0100-X Independent Publishers Best Book Award, 1999.

• Benjamin Franklin and Women. (editor/author) University Park: Penn State University Press, 2000. ISBN: 0-271-02035-0

• Benjamin Franklin: Printer, Inventor, Diplomat. Philadelphia: Eastern National Parks, 2004. ISBN: 1-59091-135-4

• Hidden Images in the Wright Brothers’ Photographs: Kitty Hawk, 1900-1911. Charleston: History Press, 2005; reprint, 2011. ISBN: 1-59629-054-4

• Conquering the Sky: The Secret Flights of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, Inc., 2009. ISBN: 978-0-230-61490-1

• Neyuheruke 300 Commemorative Guide. Greenville, N.C., Thomas Harriot College, East Carolina University, 2013. ISBN: 978-0-615-78666-7

• New Voyages to Carolina: Toward a New Narrative for North Carolina History. (co-editor/author) Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017. ISBN: 978-1-4696-3459-3 North Caroliniana Society Award for 2018.

• Circa 1903: North Carolina’s Outer Banks at the Dawn of Flight. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019. ISBN: 978-1-4696-5114-9

• Hidden Images of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk. (new edition) Charleston: History Press, 2019. ISBN: 978-1-4671-4243-4

• Theodore de Bry—America: The Complete Plates, 1590-1602. (co-author) Cologne, Germany: Taschen, 2019. ISBN: 978-3-8365-5209-3

Selected Essays & Articles

• “The Future of Public History,” The Public Historian (Fall, 1979), 2:58-64.

• “Report and Recommendations of the Special Committee on Public Historians,” Organization of American Historians Newsletter (January, 1980), 7:7-10, with Carol Groneman and Richard G. Hewlett.

• “Jacques Cousteau, the USS Monitor, and the Philosophy and Practice of Public History Institutions,” The Public Historian (Winter, 1983), 5:31-45.

• “Organizing America’s History Business: A New Ethic and Plan of Action,” History News (March-April, 1988). A Special Report

• “Taking up Quaker Slaves: The Origins of America’s Slave Imperative,” Varieties of Southern Religious History, edited by Regina Sullivan and Monte Hampton (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2015), 35-50.

Websites

• ICDA.org Official website, International Congress of Distinguished Awards, 1996.

• WorldAloft.org Wilbur & Orville Wright at Kitty Hawk and in France & Italy, 2003.

• Neyuheruke.org Tuscarora documents and commemorations in North Carolina, 2013.

Further Reading 

Dianne Martin, “History Goes Public,” History News, vol. 34, no. 5 (May 1979), pp. 121-43.

Cole C. Campbell, “The Tar Heel of the Week: Dr. Larry E. Tise: ‘To be civilized . . . you have to have a memory’”, Raleigh News and Observer (2 September 1979), p. 3—iv.

Directory of American Scholars (8th ed.; New York: Bowker, 1982)

Eugene D. Genovese, “Larry Tise’s Proslavery: A Critique and an Appreciation,” The Georgia Historical Quarterly, vol. 72, no. 4 (Winter 1988), pp. 670-83.

Kathy Boccella, "A Booster Club for Obscure Awards," Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine (3 May 1999), pp. C5, 7.

Contemporary Authors (Detroit: Thomson Gale Research, 2002)

Charlene F. Newsom, “The Mystery of Manteo’s Not-so-Buried Treasure: Researching the Origins of a Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I,” Artsee Magazine (March-April 2012), pp. 30-36.

Tise’s books frequently contain biographical and autobiographical information as well as historical contexts for undertaking those works. 

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