Tag Archive
19 December 2011 – Will Walker 4
The Smithsonian is, of course, not the only institution associated with the federal government that maintains an archive about its own history. The National Park Service, for example, has made a substantial investment in documenting the histories of its parks. Read More
08 November 2011 – Zachary McKiernan 2
I have been traveling to and from Chile for various reasons at various times since 2005, acquiring a deep appreciation for the country and its cultural subtleties and social mores—to say nothing of a Spanish accent steeped in Chilean slang. But if I have learned anything since my initial days, it is that one must exercise sensitivity when approaching the dictatorial past. Read More
22 September 2011 – Suzanne Fischer
Hey, handsome stranger
Saw your pic in the archives
Too bad you’re dead now
Rebecca Goldman, winner, Archival Haiku 2011
02 June 2011 – Melissa Prycer
When I was a kid, I spent most of my time in the nineteenth century. It all started with the “Little House” books. My grandmother read them to me, and they became the very first chapter books that I could read all by myself. Read More
11 April 2011 – Cathy Stanton 2
Car ads are like little zeitgeist-meters. They’re amazingly responsive to all kinds of social anxieties, which they instantly repackage in ways that allow us to continue feeling good about driving. Feeling nationally or personally emasculated? Concerned about the transition into being a soccer mom? Read More
22 March 2011 – Suzanne Fischer 5
Many unlikely and whimsical projects flourish on Twitter, the popular microblogging service just celebrating its fifth birthday. Big Ben strikes the hour (“bong bong bong”), encounters with near-earth objects are automatically updated (the most recent one missed the Earth by about three million kilometers), a parody account for a politician becomes a compelling scifi short story and the Field Museum’s T-Rex, Sue, turns out to have a wicked sense of humor. Read More
08 March 2011 – Anne Gehr 2
I am obsessed with a chicken coop.
On a long and poorly charted road trip this past summer, I wandered into Lake Solano Park campground, located on the quiet banks of Putah Creek just off California Highway 128. The campground is on land originally populated by Patwin Indians, then homesteaded in 1875 by Daniel Tucker who managed a cattle and sheep operation and quarried limestone from local hills for area building foundations. Read More
12 February 2011 – Mary Rizzo 1
The process of gentrification is often linked with public history in varying ways. Urban planners and developers, for example, market neighborhoods through reference to their historic character, which can include anything from events that occurred in the far-distant past to interesting architecture. Read More
14 January 2011 – editors 3
In this post, Vintage Roadside’s first for “Off the Wall,” we’d like to introduce ourselves by touching on our motivation for launching our preservation-themed business followed by a brief review of a symposium we presented this past summer on Aquarama, a wonderful 1960s mermaid attraction once found on Lake of the Ozarks in Osage Beach, Missouri. Read More
18 November 2010 – Will Walker 1
The editors of the online journal Common-place perhaps had Whitman’s line from the 1855 preface of Leaves of Grass: “The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem” in mind when they decided recently to inaugurate a column that features contemporary poetry based on historical research. Read More