Mark Twain House & Museum executive director Pieter Roos announces retirement

Pieter Roos is retiring after 6 1/2 years as executive director of the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, the institution announced Friday. His final day is today.

Michael L. Campbell, the institution’s chief operating and financial officer, has been appointed the interim executive director.

“The Twain House is one of Connecticut’s great landmarks and a destination for people from around the country and around the world,” Roos said in a statement on Friday. “It has been a privilege to lead the museum during this time. I wish it all the best in its next chapter.”

Roos became the director during a period of enormous growth for the National Historic Landmark, which greatly expanded and improved both the historic Twain House, the museum building and the grounds surrounding them. That momentum had followed a bleak period when over a million dollars was embezzled by an employee and an outbreak of mold affected thousands of items in the museum’s collection.

Under Roos’ watch, many new programs were created, the staff grew and the museum restored its reputation as a center for research on Twain and his legacy. Roos is also credited with stabilizing day-to-day operations and focusing on infrastructure issues.

In a release announcing Roos’ retirement, the museum said “Much of Pieter’s work took place as he led the organization through a global pandemic, positioning the museum for its return to a post-pandemic world.”

Roos was named director in July 2017, following the resignation of Cindy Lovell and an interim period helmed by Amy Gallent. Prior to the Twain House, Roos was the long-time executive director of the Newport Restoration Foundation in Rhode Island, where he headed restorations and organizational improvements similar to what he would accomplish at the Twain House.

When he was first appointed, Roos told the Hartford Courant that Twain was “such a transcendent figure in American history and literature, not only a great writer but a character so luminous. As a museum director, you’re always looking for great subject matter. It’s difficult to look back at American history and find somebody as fascinating as Mark Twain is.”

The Mark Twain House & Museum Board of Trustees announced its intention to search for its next executive director.

The Twain House is the actual home where Mark Twain (aka Samuel Clemens) lived from 1874 to 1891. Grief-stricken from the death of their daughter, Twain and his wife Olivia Clemens left the house and traveled extensively, eventually settling down in another part of Connecticut at the estate known as Stormfield in Redding. In Hartford, Twain wrote some of his most famous works, including “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.” He also invested in local businesses, including typewriting and typesetting companies that he hoped would streamline his work. His neighbors included Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose house is also now a historical landmark, and famed Hartford Courant editor Charles Dudley Warner, who co-authored the novel “The Gilded Age” with Twain.

The Mark Twain House & Museum curates special exhibits about Twain’s works. A current exhibit spotlights his summer vacation houses and leisure activities. Programs range from author events to lectures on American history and live performances. The Twain House also presents literary awards to noted American authors, has sponsored local writing competitions and even arranges for local writers to use Twain’s study area.

The house’s mission statement reads: “From this house, Mark Twain changed the way the world sees Americans and the way Americans see themselves. We continue the conversation we began.”

According to the Mark Twain House & Museum, Roos will continue to live in the area and do consultancy work for the institution.

For more information on the Mark Twain House & Museum, got to marktwainhouse.org.