William Lawrence “Larry” Bird, Jr. is Curator Emeritus at the National Museum of American History – Smithsonian Institution. He received a B.A. in History from the University of Maryland (1973); M.A. in History from the University of Arizona (1975); and Ph.D. in History from Georgetown University (1985). He began his museum career as a graduate student at the University of Arizona, working part time at the Arizona Historical Society with a grant-in-aid funded by Emory and Ann-Eve Johnson. Bird is a former Rockefeller Foundation Humanities Fellow at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, University of Wisconsin – Madison; and a recipient of a Four Freedoms Foundation research grant awarded by the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York.

His work has appeared in Smithsonian; History Today; Technology & Culture; The Encyclopedia of Radio; The Encyclopedia of Television; and American Art Review. His Smithsonian books and exhibitions include Design for Victory: World War II Posters on the American Home Front (with Harry R. Rubenstein, 1998); Paint by Number: The How-to Craze that Swept the Nation (2001); Holidays on Display (2007); America’s Doll House: The Miniature World of Faith Bradford (2010); Souvenir Nation: Relics, Keepsakes, and Curios from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (2013); and is co-author and co-curator of American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith (2017). His most recent book, In the Arms of Saguaros: Iconography of the Desert Giant, is published by the University of Arizona Press (2023). He lives in Tucson, Arizona.

Book

• Bird, William L. 2021. In the Arms of Saguaros: Iconography of the Giant Cactus, Wilder, Benjamin T., editor. Tucson: Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill/University of Arizona. In Proceedings of the Desert Laboratory, Contribution no. 3. 2021
• Bird, William L. 2013. Souvenir Nation: Relics, Keepsakes, and Cruios from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Washington, DC, and New York: Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, Washington, DC, in association with Princeton Architectural Press, New York. 2013
• Bird, William L. 2013. Souvenir Nation: Relics, Keepsakes, and Curios from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. 2013
• Bird, William L. 2010. America's Doll House: The Miniature World of Faith Bradford. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. 2010
• Bird, William L. 2007. Holidays on Display. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. 2007

Chapter

• Bird, William L. 2017. "The Machinery of Democracy." In American democracy: a great leap of faith. Rubenstein, Harry R. and Bird, William L., editors. 70–93. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books. 2017