Preserving the history of the mob in Las Vegas

26 March 2018 – Michael Green

Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of pieces  focused on Las Vegas and its regional identity which will be posted before and during the NCPH Annual Meeting in Las Vegas in April.

If NCPH members want proof that the mob no longer has power in the city hosting their conference this year, try to find a 99-cent rib special. Read More

Q: “Sir, would you like a history of this monument?” A: “F**k You!”

21 March 2018 – HIstorians for a Better Future 6

Members of Historians for a Better Future planned to encounter many personalities along the sidewalk when we set up in front of the Women of the Confederacy monument at the State Capitol building in Raleigh, North Carolina, on September 8, 2017. Read More

Around the Field March 21, 2018

21 March 2018 – editors

From around the field this week: the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation is holding its spring business meeting, open to the public, on March 22; the Newport Historical Society and Rhode Island Historical Society are hosting the public history panel “Myth, Memory, History and Heritage” on March 23; sign up now for a March 24 workshop on 18th century women’s clothing in Baltimore; the AASLH’s online course on Museum Education and Outreach starts March 26.  Read More

Cold War legacies: Preservation and use at historic sites

16 March 2018 – Billy Marino

Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of pieces  focused on Las Vegas and its regional identity which will be posted before and during the NCPH Annual Meeting in Las Vegas in April.

Cold War-era historic sites challenge public historians to strike a balance between the need for preservation and the need for continued use. Read More

The accidental web archive: The Tragedy at Virginia Tech Collection

14 March 2018 – Roger Christman

Editor’s note: This is the third post of a series that continues the conversation begun in the February 2018 issue of The Public Historian with the roundtable “Responding Rapidly to Our Communities.”

Eleven years ago, Seung Hui Cho killed thirty-two people and injured at least seventeen others before turning the gun on himself.  Read More

Disrupting institutional power: Imagining a regional model for public history education

09 March 2018 – Denise Meringolo

As the number of public history programs continues to grow, public history educators compete for students, grants, and partners. We flood cultural organizations with interns and redundant projects. Budgetary uncertainty forces educators working in state systems to make competing claims of primacy and excellence, pitting our programs against one another. Read More

Public health and public history: Rapid response to the Ebola crisis

07 March 2018 – Louise Shaw

Editor’s note: This is the second post of a series that continues the conversation begun in the February 2018 issue of The Public Historian with the roundtable “Responding Rapidly to Our Communities.”

As curator of the David J. Sencer CDC Museum, I collect, present, and interpret the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s history. Read More

Around the Field March 7, 2018

07 March 2018 – editors

From around the field this week: The National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Park Service, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services have all opened grant and fellowship applications due May 1; AASLH’s webinar on Cultural Heritage & Climate Science is this Thursday, March 8; Jason Steinhauer is delivering a talk at the University of Michigan (open to the public) on “The Future of (Public) History” Friday, March 9; the annual Wellesley-Deerfield Symposium, this year on “Monumental Narratives: Revisiting New England’s Public Memorials,” is Saturday, March 10. Read More

Sesquicentennial matters in Alaska

05 March 2018 – Anna Lee Hirschi

Throughout 2017, Alaskans marked 150 years since the Alaska Treaty of Cession made the territory part of the United States. From Utqiaġvik to Ketchikan, people both celebrated and mourned a year of “history and heritage” (so designated by a proclamation from the governor) in dozens of ways. Read More

Public history in the “Battle Born” state

02 March 2018 – Shae Cox 8

Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of pieces  focused on Las Vegas and its regional identity which will be posted before and during the NCPH Annual Meeting in Las Vegas in April.

On a cool, quiet morning in late April, we turned off the highway and up the winding dirt road to a green field nestled against the mountains. Read More