Author Archive

Adina Langer

Introducing the Consultants' Corner on H@W

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2012 is an ambitious year for NCPH, marking the launch of a true locus for our craft on the World Wide Web: the “History@Work” blog located on the new digital Public History Commons. Like the field of public history, this space will take advantage of every phase the Internet has to offer: its content delivery mechanisms will be multi-faceted, its content fluid, and its reach will encompass the entire cloud.   Read More

Where the universal present meets the personal past: "The Wilderness Downtown"

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For most of us, music videos don’t immediately bring to mind historical engagement. What’s more reflective of the current epoch than a viral YouTube video featuring feline euphony or Rebecca Black’s ultra-present-focused “Friday”?

But Arcade Fire’s “Wilderness Downtown” collaboration with Chris Milk, featuring their hit 2010 single, “We Used to Wait,” is a remarkable exception to this rule. Read More

Cleopatra's allure

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“Cleopatra, the Search for the Last Queen of Egypt,” which premiered at Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute in June, is probably the most widely hyped exhibition I’ve seen in a long time. Philly has adopted the exhibit as its own, promoting it on the Amtrak line to DC, and on every Philadelphia tourism website I’ve seen, even so far as to create a “Cleopatra VIP Hotel Package” available at 11 area hotels. Read More

Culture 24: Worth emulating?

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The UK’s portal to museums, archives, heritage sites and art venues is this year’s Museums and the Web recipient of the Archimuse “Longest Lived” award. First launched in 1999, the site is a true grand-dame in internet years, but with a 2009 makeover and an enthusiastic embrace of RSS, Twitter and open-crawling, Culture 24 is certainly “up” with the times. Read More