Historian Edmundas Antanas Rimša was born on December 15, 1948 in Skirai village, Panemunėlis vicinity, Rokiškis region.

In 1977, he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in History from Vilnius University. He worked at the Ministry of Culture’s museums and at the scientific methodical service for the protection of cultural monuments. From 1981, he worked at the Lithuanian Institute of History. In 1993, he defended his thesis for a Doctorate of Humanitarian Sciences. Since 1991, he has lectured on courses of heraldry and sphragistics at Vilnius and other universities.

The main research interest is the auxiliary science of history. He has published more than seventy scientific and more than one hundred popular science articles on the questions of heraldry, sphragistics and genealogy and has written several books on Lithuanian heraldry and sphragistics.

In 2001, Dr E. A. Rimša was honoured with the National Science Award for the work, Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės miestų antspaudai (The town seals of the Great Duchy of Lithuania, Vilnius, 1999). Currently, he researches heraldry and sphragistics of Lithuanian sovereigns and state. He is the chairman of Lithuanian Heraldry Commission, an expert in the Bank of Lithuania coins’ designing group, a chairman of the board of the Lithuanian Institute of History, a member of the board of the library of Lithuanian Academy of Science and of the Polish Heraldry association, a consultant for the Lithuanian Fine Arts museum and a member of the editorial boards of several scientific magazines.

In 2004, the publishing house “Versus aureus” published the study of E. A. Rimša, Heraldika. Iš praeities į dabartį. A year later, the book was published in English – (Heraldry: past to present.)