Public history on the American Historical Association conference program
30 December 2013 – Debbie Anne Doyle
Julia Child’s kitchen is part of the “FOOD: Transforming the American Table 1950-2000” exhibit at the National Museum of American History. Photo credit: National Museum of American History
As part of its ongoing efforts to highlight the diversity of career opportunities for historians, the American Historical Association has organized an offsite workshop at the National Museum of American History during its conference this week. The workshop offers a chance to hear from leaders from some of the foremost history museums in the United States. The event will take place on Friday, January 3, 2014, from 10:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. in the museum’s Warner Bros. Theater.
Attendees are welcome to attend one or both of the panels. At History Museum Directors on the Past, Present, and Future of History Museums: A Roundtable Discussion, John Gray (Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History), Joan Marshall (Bullock Texas State History Museum), Lonnie Bunch (Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture), Kevin Gover (Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian) and Louise Mirrer (New-York Historical Society) will discuss the state of the field and the historian’s role in museums. At Historians and the Work of History Museums: A Roundtable Discussion, historians employed at history museums will discuss the work they do and the ways in which their doctoral training prepared them (and failed to prepare them) for their museum careers.
Between the two sessions, curators will lead tours of the following NMAH exhibits:
- The Price of Freedom: Americans at War
- FOOD: Transforming the American Table 1950–2000
- America on the Move
- The First Ladies
- American Stories
- Lighting a Revolution—Electricity Hall
Space on each tour is limited; advance registration is strongly encouraged. To register, email [email protected] with your name, affiliation, and the name of the tour you are interested in.
Tour groups will meet at the Constitution Avenue Visitors Welcome Desk on the first floor of the museum at 1:10 p.m.
For other public-history-focused sessions at AHA, including several sponsored by the National Council on Public History, click here. The full AHA program can be found online here.
~ Debbie Anne Doyle is Coordinator of Committees & Meetings for the American Historical Association.