Agriculture and public history: A working group

13 April 2018 – Debra Reid

It’s an exciting time for public historians interested in putting the farm-to-fork movement into historic context. Recent books, including Interpreting Food at Museums and Historic Sites (2015), Interpreting Agriculture at Museums and Historic Sites (2017), and Public History and the Food Movement: Adding the Missing Ingredient (2018), demonstrate that public historians are bringing new insights to bear on interpreting agricultural history and food history. Read More

Neon City: Power lines and plundered lands

12 April 2018 – James F. Brooks

I hope NCPH members and The Public Historian subscribers will enjoy our second foray into digital special editions tuned to the current moment in public history. Our Monuments, Memory, Politics, and Our Publics issue of last September responded to public debates around the removal of “Lost Cause” monuments then in the news. Read More

Crossing the line: Facilitating digital access to primary sources

05 April 2018 – Kate Johnson and Marie Pellissier

Our working group, “Crossing the Line: Facilitating Digital Access to Primary Sources,” started with a simple premise. If, as Sheila Brennan states, digital humanities projects are not “public” projects merely by virtue of their being accessible online, how then can we craft them so as to place public engagement at the center? Read More

Around the Field April 4, 2018

04 April 2018 – editors

From around the field this week: PubComm 2018 (Public History Community Forum on Racism and Resistance) is tomorrow, April 5, in Philadelphia; “Reap the Whirlwind: A Holistic Approach to Museum Internships” webinar from the Virginia Association of Museums, is next Monday, April 9; AASLH’s Call for Posters for their 2018 meeting (an event sponsored by NCPH) is now open through June 10; The Public Historian is open-access for the month of April.  Read More

How a Pennsylvania gal fell in love with Nevada

30 March 2018 – Deirdre Clemente

Editor’s note: This is the fourth 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.

I grew up scouring the grasses around the Juniata River for arrowheads and I hunted down second-hand fur coats in every rusty, steel town in western Pennsylvania. Read More

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