Ralph Eshelman has over 35 years of cultural resource management experience. His work includes researching and writing the Historic Context Study for the oystering and fishing industries of the United States for the National Maritime Initiative of the National Park Service. Eshelman prepared the Cultural Resource Management Plan for the United States Coast Guard. He has written numerous successful National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Landmark nominations including the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and Grand Central Terminal Oyster Bar. Eshelman served as historian for the team that wrote the “Historic Lighthouse Preservation Handbook” for the United States Coast Guard and National Park Service and he wrote the Recommended Criteria for the Selection of the Principal Museum for the Monitor Collection of Artifacts and Papers. Specific to the War of 1812, Eshelman was co-director of the Patuxent River Cultural Resource Survey which discovered and partially excavated an American War of 1812 military vessel from the U.S. Chesapeake Flotilla. Eshelman also conducted a holistic inventory of War of 1812 sites in Maryland for the National Park Service’s National Battlefield Protection Program. This resulted in two reports: “Maryland War of 1812: Battlefields, Selected Skirmishes, Encampments, Earthworks, and Related Sites” (2000; co-authored with Christopher George); and “Maryland Revolutionary War and War of 1812 Battlefields/Skirmishes and Associated Historical Properties Survey" (2002; co-authored with Susan Langley and Ben Ford). Eshelman served as the historian for the “Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail” Study Team of the National Park Service. He researched and established the precise route used by the British in their invasion of Maryland and determined portions where this route has been destroyed because of modern development. Eshelman also provided the list of primary and associated resources that were used in establishing the recommended sections of the designated national historic trail. Eshelman serves as co-chair of the Resource Stewardship and Visitor Experience Committee of the Maryland War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission and chairs the Maryland Resource Inventory working group. He served as a consultant to ERM to develop an access, stewardship, and interpretive opportunity plan for the water portions of the Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail for the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development. Eshelman has published several books including Maryland's Largest Naval Engagement: The Battle of St. Leonard Creek, 1814, Calvert County, Maryland (Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum, Studies in Archeology, No. 3, 2005); The War of 1812 in the Chesapeake: A Reference Guide to Historic Sites in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia (co-authored with Scott Sheads and Donald Hickey); A Travel Guide To The War of 1812 in the Chesapeake: Eighteen Tours in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia (both Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010 and 2011); In Full Glory Reflected: Discovering the War of 1812 in the Chesapeake (co-authored with Burt Kummerow, funded by the National Park Service, Chesapeake Gateways Program, Maryland War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission, and private funding); and Chesapeake Legends And Lore From The War of 1812 (co-authored with Scott Sheads, The History Press, 2013).Eshelman was designated "Honorary Colonel of the Fort McHenry Guard", by the National Park Service in 2009. He currently serves as a consultant to the National Park Service Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail Comprehensive Management Plan. Eshelman has visited every known War of 1812 site in the Chesapeake Bay region and is considered among the leading experts on this resource base. Eshelman frequently gives lectures and conducts history tours.