William J. Murtagh (1923–2018) was a historian who served as the first "Keeper of the Records" for the National Register of Historic Places.
[2][3] He was a Fulbright scholar in Germany and also studied historic Pennsylvania Dutch barns before becoming Director of the Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts.
The National Park Service hired Murtagh as the first Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places and he collaborated with the State Historic Preservation Officers oversee the program and gather the first nominations.
Murtagh published Keeping Time: The History and Theory of Preservation in the United States.
[4] Later in life he resided at Penobscot, Maine, and Sarasota, Florida, where he died of heart failure in 2018.