About Tom

My interest in history can be traced to childhood where finding out who began what still resonates.

Vexillology

Originally, I learned about the world through flags beginning in the 1970s.  A flag encompasses all things social; art, history, culture, language, politics and symbolism, all in a generally pleasing design.  Even today, I remain a vexillologist, as we are called, and am still considered an expert in flags of government, official and otherwise, as a Worthologist, or recognized specialist, for WorthPoint.com, an antiques and collectibles website.

The Old Stone House

That experience came in handy as my tourism interest began with a stint as a volunteer at the Old Stone House in Georgetown, a neighborhood of Washington, D.C. from 1982 through 1985.  It was and still is the oldest existing complete structure still extant in the nation's capitol, built in 1765 on original lot #3.  As a volunteer docent I would gather historical facts and figures I generally knew from my interest in flags which helped to explain about the "new federal city they were building across Rock Creek" and relay them to visitors while acting as a member of the household in period attire.  It was there I learned a second trait: how to gauge the interests of visitors and how much to convey to them based on what they wanted to learn.

The White House

One of the interests I developed from vexillology, politics, also came in handy when I began to work as a volunteer and in paid positions within the Democratic Party.   Through fundraising and with time as a precinct co-chair in Arlington, Virginia I was able to volunteer at the White House on the transition team of Vice President-Elect Al Gore and later as part of the Visitor's Office at the White House itself.  It was there I created my first written tour.  Called "Finding White House Eagles," it was created especially for children to help them focus on the furniture, glassware, paintings and architecture by trying to spot as many of the ubiquitous eagles that were used as a motif throughout.  The tour was later made into a video by the White House Historical Association and shown on their website.

Years later, I would lead tours about the history of the flag and seal of the president at the White House for the Curator, the U.S. Secret Service, the Visitors Office, and the White House Historical Association.

Visitors Commission

At the same time, I began serving as a member of the Arlington County Visitors Commission from 1992-1994, a volunteer position to recognize my professional status as a meetings manager for corporations and associations; the first and only meeting manager ever appointed.  It is now the Travel and Tourism Commission.

Licensed Tour Guide

So, since I was doing all kinds of travel and tourism related work already, I took the licensed exam to become a tour guide in Washington, D.C.  Had some trouble with many of the historic churches in the city, but otherwise I knew more than I thought about the history of the nation's capitol.  For five years, from 1996 to 2001, I took groups and visitors, on buses, in car and on foot around the great city to talk about most of the well known and many of the lesser known sites.

Publications

At the same time as I worked as a part time tour guide, I created my first commercial publication "The Historic Walking Tour of Alexandria 1749", a historic tour of the colonial era in Virginia frequented by George Washington and the hometown of Alexander Graham Bell and Robert E. Lee.  Other brochures followed for Decatur House Museum, Great American Heritage Co, and Historic Tours of America.   By the time I ended my time as a licensed tour guide in 2001 I had also produced a three-part series of historic walking tours for Arcadia Publishing under their Images of America Series for Washington, D.C. and Georgetown.  A special tour of the three branches of government encompasses the public areas of the White House, the Capitol and the Supreme Court, but it also answers all the questions of the citizenship exam within the tours themselves.  It is my favorite book.

Today

After serving as a senior meetings manager and helping to launch WorthPoint.com, the antiques and collectibles website, I moved away from tourism issues and only published an ebook on Washington, D.C. in 2010 for walkingtours.com.  I've since discovered many unpublished walking tours for Lima, Peru, Manila, New York City, Boston and others and hope to begin the process of publishing them as ebooks or apps.

Launching the Self-Guided Tours blog site will allow me to come full circle again and concentrate on learning exactly where things began and by whom.  And that's where you can help.  Let me know your favorite walking tour and I'd be glad to review it here. 

Tom Carrier
December 2011
selfguidedtours@yahoo.com