Oscar P. Fitzgerald, Ph.D., earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in history from Georgetown University and served as director of the Navy Museum in Washington, D.C., until he decided to pursue full time his passion as a furniture historian and decorative arts consultant. He is a member of the faculty of the Smithsonian Institution/Corcoran School Master's Program in the Decorative Arts, where he developed and teaches a core course on the studio furniture movement. His book Four Centuries of American Furniture is the standard reference work in the field. Fitzgerald's 2008 book, Studio Furniture of the Renwick Gallery, chronicles the development and expansion studio furniture movement in the United States through the Renwick Gallery's collection. In 2004, he was awarded a prestigious James Renwick Research Fellowship, which funded research for an essay published in the 2005 issue of Furniture Studio.