Elliot Thomas Archer, M.A. (he/him/his) is am Autistic and disabled public historian, disability justice activist, and arts & culture enthusiast.
When Elliot was growing up, he always loved telling stories and learning about new topics. Initially, this love manifested into art, specifically graphic design, illustration, and video editing. However, in 11th grade, he fell in love with history and social studies thanks to his U.S. History teacher.
When pursuing his undergraduate degree at Tarleton State University, he initially was interested in general social movement and revolutionary histories. He was training to become a middle and high school history teacher himself until he pivoted in his final semester towards teaching all kinds of people through public history.
He started his graduate studies in public history at the University of Missouri-Saint Louis in Spring 2022, with initial interests in only studying queer/transgender histories of the Midwestern United States. However, Elliot was experiencing significant pain since being diagnosed with COVID for the first time in Fall 2021. In 2023, after being misdiagnosed multiple times, he was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, orthostatic hypotension, and long COVID. He had also been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder just a year prior.
As a way of grieving his diagnoses while also providing important work regarding disability justice and studies, he wrote and illustrated More than Access: Disability Justice in the Context of Museums, a zine arguing that legal compliance just isn’t enough for disabled visitors at museums and cultural sites. He advocated for disabled visitors, staff, board members, and subject-matter experts to be involved early in the process of planning and executing new exhibits and programming, with evidence shown by three local St. Louis area cultural sites.
After graduating in 2024, Elliot fell into the world of general nonprofit grant writing and management. Thanks to experience he gained writing two arts grants with his internship at the National Blues Museum, he’s prospected and written over 100 grant applications for three nonprofit organizations in the Greater St. Louis region, one performing arts ensemble and two social services/health agencies.
Elliot hasn’t fallen out of love with public history, though. He is currently working on two disability justice public history projects. The first project is an accessible, online, and free database assessing the legal accessibility compliance, disability-centered programming, disability community involvement and trainings conducted, and WCAG 2.0 adherence of every museum and cultural site in Texas, his home state. Taking on every U.S. state and country would not be feasible without help, so there will be a survey asking the same questions he’s asking so users can assess their local sites. He wants this not only to be useful to public historians and researchers, but he wants this to be useful for out-of-town visitors who are disabled themselves or have a disabled person they’re with who wants to explore the city they’re visiting, and also for local community members to begin having these conversations with their local sites.
The second project, part of the WRSTL collecting initiative, is an online exhibit showcasing the history of a prominent disability rights/services organization in the St. Louis region, with help from their donated collections.
Ultimately, Elliot wants change for the disability community, especially in arts & culture spaces. Legal compliance is, of course, pertinent, but we need to involve disabled people early in these conversations and incorporate their perspectives and experiences into this work.
Elliot Archer graduated from Tarleton State University in December 2021 with a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in History with Honors. He graduated with his Master’s of Arts degree in Museums, Heritage, and Public History in May 2024. His undergraduate thesis touches on Robert F. Kennedy’s political changes between the 1950s and leading up to the 1968 election and his assassination. His graduate exit project, led with guidance from Dr. Lauren Obermark and Cass Hammerle, is a zine titled More than Access: Disability Justice in the Context of Museums.
Today, Elliot works in nonprofit grant writing and management. He is a member of multiple public history and arts organizations and committees, including the National Council on Public History (NCPH), the Alliance for Texas History (ATxH), the Dallas Area Society of Historians (DASH), the St. Louis Contemporary Art Museum’s Learning & Engagement Committee, and the Challenging History Initiative. He lives in the St. Louis area with his partner Blake and his senior black cat Cherokee.
