Tag Archive

community history

Our Side of the Tracks: Community Curation of Black History in Acworth, Georgia (Part 2)

, , ,

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

Our Side of the Tracks: Community Curation of Black History in Acworth, Georgia (Part 1)

, , , ,

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

In support of a National Museum of the American Latino at the Smithsonian

, , , , ,

 

On December 21, 2020, as part of the omnibus spending bill, Congress approved a National Museum of the American Latino (along with a Smithsonian Women’s History Museum).[1] This approval came after a previous effort was blocked by Senator Mike Lee of Utah who argued that such efforts to create new museums were divisive and that the existing Smithsonian buildings—not separate new ones—were the appropriate places to explore histories of Latinx people and women. Read More

Creative nonfiction as public history: a Q&A with author Miles Harvey

, , , , , ,

Editor’s Note: Miles Harvey is author of The King of Confidence, A Tale of Utopian Dreamers, Frontier Schemers, True Believers, False Prophets, and the Murder of an American Monarch, which tells the story of James Jesse Strang, a 19th-century con man, who—as a self-proclaimed prophet and king of the universe—led a sect of the Mormon faith called the Strangites. Read More

From IRL to URL: A past, present, and future approach to storytelling in changing times

, , , , , , ,

As a public historian for twenty years, I often look back on my time in the classroom and the daily debates on the definition of the term “public history.” Recently, I find myself reflecting more often on these classroom conversations from decades ago. Read More

Riding the 1919 Chicago Race riots: biking across divides to confront the past

, , , , , , , ,

Editor’s note: This essay is part of a series of reflective posts written by winners of awards intended to be given out at the NCPH 2020 annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. The Chicago 1919 Project, organized by the Newberry Library, was the 2020 recipient of the Outstanding Public History Project Award. Read More

Chicago 1919: a citywide conversation about past and present racial violence

, , , , ,

Editor’s note: This essay is part of a series of reflective posts written by winners of awards intended to be given out at the NCPH 2020 annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. The “Chicago 1919” project, organized by the Newberry Library, received 2020 Outstanding Public History Project Award. Read More

Navigating overlapping traumas as a new professional

, , , , , , , , ,

Editors’ Note: This is one in a series of posts about the intersection of archives and public history in the age of COVID-19 that will be published throughout October, Archives Month in the United States. This series is edited by National Council on Public History (NCPH) board member Krista McCracken, History@Work affiliate editor Kristin O’Brassill-Kulfan, and NCPH The Public Historian co-editor/Digital Media Editor Nicole Belolan. Read More

A Virtual Walking Tour in Decatur, Georgia: Linking Race, History, Community

, , , , , , , ,

I teach a seminar on ethnography and community engagement in Goucher College’s graduate historic preservation program. Last year, I took my students to Baltimore’s Otterbein neighborhood, a historic district and one of the nation’s earliest urban homesteading neighborhoods.[i] The COVID-19 pandemic pushed our summer term online and that meant no class field trip to Baltimore, an annual program tradition. Read More