Documentarian Ken Burns to Receive Ambrose Award and Present Excerpt of New Film on National Parks

WHAT: Presentation of the 2009 Stephen E. Ambrose Oral History Award to documentarian Ken Burns and an excerpt of Burns’ newest film, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, at the annual meeting of the Rutgers Living History Society

WHERE: Neilson Dining Hall, on the Douglass Campus of Rutgers University, 177 Ryders Lane, New Brunswick, N.J.

WHEN: Friday, May 15, 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Burns will be available to reporters from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. for informal interviews.

WHO: Ken Burns, director of 24 historical documentaries, including The Brooklyn Bridge (1981), The Civil War (1990), Baseball (1994), Jazz (2001) and The War (2007)

BACKGROUND: The Rutgers Living History Society is comprised of participants in the Rutgers Oral History Archives program. At its annual meeting, the society inducts new members and presents the Stephen E. Ambrose Oral History Award.  Ken Burns is the fifth recipient of the award, joining historian Rick Atkinson, director Steven Spielberg, historian Studs Terkel and broadcast journalist Tom Brokaw.