10 March 2021 – James F. Brooks and Sarah H. Case
Editors’ Note: We publish The Public Historian editors’ introduction to the February 2021 issue of The Public Historian here. The entire issue is available online to National Council on Public History members and to others with subscription access.
In December, 2016, Sarah H. Read More
09 March 2021 – James Newberry
The second of two installments in a series exploring the development of the “Our Side of the Tracks” exhibit at Doyal Hill Park in Acworth, Georgia. Part One described the origins of the project, starting with the partnership between Kennesaw State University’s Department of Museums, Archives and Rare Books and the city of Acworth, Georgia, as well as providing background on developmental changes over the past 40 years in Acworth’s historically Black neighborhoods. Read More
05 March 2021 – Priya Chhaya
For the last fifteen years I have worked as a public history digital content creator. Much of my work has been learned on the job as I engage with the tools and technologies of multi-disciplinary storytelling—and more recently, consider how technology facilitates community engagement with history in both public and intimate settings. Read More
03 March 2021 – Doris Morgan Rueda 3
Art was how I first encountered and understood history. Today, as a doctoral candidate researching the transnational legal history of juvenile justice in the American borderlands, I explore the history of the surveillance and policing of youth in places such as public schools, places of worship, and social services through historical visual sources and my own multi-media art. Read More
02 March 2021 – James Newberry
The first of two installments in a series exploring the development of the “Our Side of the Tracks” exhibit at Doyal Hill Park in Acworth, Georgia, Part One describes the origins of the project, starting with the partnership between Kennesaw State University’s Department of Museums, Archives and Rare Books and the City of Acworth, Georgia, as well as providing background on developmental changes over the past forty years in Acworth’s historically Black neighborhoods. Read More
24 February 2021 – NCPH Office
From around the field this week: the National Archives Foundation offers a research grant; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, holds a symposium; Historic Deerfield hosts a webinar.
23 February 2021 – Stasia Tanzer
Last year, in my role as the membership coordinator for National Council on Public History (NCPH), I had the pleasure of helping put on several virtual programs in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Soon after lockdown began and public history institutions started cutting hours and furloughing or laying off staff members, at NCPH we asked ourselves, in the spirit of rapid-response collecting, what could NCPH do for struggling public historians? Read More
18 February 2021 – Felicia Jamison 1
I first became interested in public history as a child. My church often had events that celebrated Black history. And at least once a year, my schools would create bulletin boards highlighting the achievements of African Americans. After graduating from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, I knew that I wanted to teach courses that explored how this history has been taught in public spaces. Read More
16 February 2021 – Evan Faulkenbury
On the evening of November 12, 2020, during a live Zoom call with seven other people, I spoke rapidly about history, excitedly displayed some photographs, and waved my arms around. That’s my usual teaching demeanor—whether in person or online—but I wasn’t teaching undergrads. Read More
11 February 2021 – Danielle Lehr Schagrin
As we grapple with the short-term (and potentially long-term) impacts of the COVID-19 health crisis on museums and cultural institutions, public historians across the field are dealing with layoffs, staff reductions, and decreased funding. And when non-history job prospects arise, offering higher salaries, healthcare benefits, and the ability to work from home, many face a difficult choice: to hold out for a position in public history or pursue opportunities in a different field. Read More