David Pierce is a historian and archivist whose research examines the connections between film history, copyright, distribution, exhibition, and ownership. His articles have appeared in American Cinematographer, American Film, Film Comment, Film History, The Journal of Film Preservation, and The Moving Image. His report "The Survival of American Silent Feature Films: 1912-1929" was published by the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress in 2013. Pierce founded the Media History Digital Library to provide free and open access to the printed record of the motion picture, broadcasting, and recorded sound industries. He is a member of the editorial board of "The Moving… Image," the journal of the Association of Moving Image Archivists. He has lectured at film preservation schools, academic conferences, and festivals. Pierce is a graduate of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and he received an MBA from George Washington University in Washington, DC.