My name is Kaitlin Costley, and I am currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in History with Public History and Early America concentrations. Coming from a rural inland region of Georgia, I find there is a disconnection between the public and the distant past, as people struggle with accessibility. Although the state possesses a rich history regarding Native Americans and colonization, people often permit physical distance to inhibit their desire to visit historic sites and museums and/or learn about Early American history. With such awareness of educational circumstances and geographical restraints, I seek to not only bridge this “gap” for myself through my endeavors as a student, but I also share my experiences and knowledge with local educators in an effort to make the distant past more available for students.
Being a graduate student, I posed an additional question in my panel application that I felt is crucial to successfully mediating the past for today’s public— how are students and emerging professionals being trained to bridge this gap between Early America and the present for the public, and how can they be educated to tackle this issue? It is imperative that future public history practitioners are molded to critically evaluate and innovatively confront the “gap.” Since 2014, my undergraduate and graduate extracurricular activities have taken me to New England during the summers where I have witnessed the ongoing activities of various institutions to bridge the gap and to prepare a new generation of aware museum professionals. It is through these experiences that mentors have purposefully exposed me to the challenges of and tactics for interpreting Early American history for the public—tactics which have become key components of my academic and occupational endeavors in Georgia.
In 2014 and 2016, I spent my summers at Historic Deerfield, Inc. in Massachusetts where I was first a fellow in the Historic Deerfield Summer Fellowship Program and more recently the graduate student tutor for the program where I oversaw the fellows’ activities. Through the program, students are exposed to the many facets of the museum world, material culture, and public history. While living on- site, fellows partake in nine rigorous weeks of hands-on workshops, seminars, fieldtrips, and original research where they learn best museum practices, how to guide tours of house museums, and how to interpret material culture for the public. Furthermore, the program fosters an environment for learning and growing that instills confidence in handling and professionally presenting content to the public and encourages young public historians to directly tackle various topics. Historic Deerfield’s primary demographic of visitors includes older, retired Caucasian Americans. Therefore, the fellowship dedicates time to demonstrating how the museum reaches out to a wider audience through public programming and refining tours. For example, over the past few years in partnership with the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Historic Deerfield has incorporated the African American narrative into the interpretation of many of the house museums and provided public programming based upon the new research. Also, the museum partakes in “Free Fun Friday” where the public receives a day of free admission and the fellows volunteer. Attracting a diverse audience, the activities throughout the day include tours and living history demonstrations such as farming practices, open hearth cooking, weaving, and printing. The fellows’ involvement in Historic Deerfield’s programming also includes the Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife, the Buildings Archaeology Symposium, and the Historic Deerfield Summer Lecture Series. It is through such events that the fellows obtain a first-hand account of how Historic Deerfield continues to diversify its audience through offering more inclusive history and a variety of programs.
Additionally, from Plimoth Plantation and Old Sturbridge Village down to Colonial Williamsburg, the fellowship introduces students to a variety of other institutions’ methods for connecting with their audiences. For example, this past summer when the program director, the fellows, and I visited Plimoth Plantation, we participated in a roundtable discussion with Plimoth staff and interns where everyone discussed how to innovatively and respectfully engage audiences (i.e. topics included public engagement with the Wampanoag Village interpreters and the decolonization of museums). By continually offering such open dialogues to students pursuing a career in the field, I, as the fellows’ tutor, have learned how imperative it is to directly acknowledge issues, to make history more accessible across all demographics, and to be candid about institutional improvements for the sake of closing the “gap.” Therefore, as public history students receive more pragmatic opportunities to learn how to bridge this gap, they, including myself, are better prepared and more capable of confidently linking the past and present.
My time as one of Newport Historical Society’s (NHS) 2015 Buchanan-Burnham interns in Newport, Rhode Island, permitted me to critically link the past and present for the public, as I gave extensive walking tours of the city. Specifically, I led tours covering the city’s colonial history through the Gilded Age; however, the tours encompassed contemporary issues regarding religion, race, immigration, and gender, as these themes are deeply embedded in Newport’s complex history. Priding itself as an early champion of religious tolerance, Newport embodies ideas of diversity and opportunity; however, there are parts of its history that contradict these ideas. There I learned to successfully present Newport’s complicated history to tourist groups that included elderly people to young children. This became another obstacle to overcome—how to successfully deliver such a complex history to an audience with a wide age-range. Therefore, by utilizing the extensive historic landscape to illustrate these themes and engage children in the landscape (by asking them questions or to look for something), I captured the tourists’ interest on multiple levels. Additionally, fellow interns and I curated the exhibit Revolution House: John G. Wanton and Newport at War that explored the American Revolution in Newport through the life of Wanton. Again, the themes of religion and race were directly examined within the exhibit. I mention these various activities to enforce my argument that repeated exposure to and the practice of mediating contemporary issues in a historical context through programming, tours, exhibits, and landscapes encourages young historians to grow and make such interpretative approaches second nature.
Overall, these positions opened my eyes to the plethora of New England historic sites and resources available to the public, as many museums we visited discussed their websites and the teacher resources available. However, I find it concerning that southern awareness of these sites and resources are sometimes limited, as many current grade-school educators restrict their allotted classroom history time to Common Core, which contains curriculum gaps. As a result, my Early America experiences have equipped me to help fulfill this missing content by developing interdisciplinary classroom activities for teachers that supplement Common Core. These activities encourage not only improving students’ reading and comprehension skills, but also enhancing the students’ knowledge of history and awareness of historic sites and museum artifacts. By utilizing various informational books already present in teachers’
classrooms, I work with educators to create “close reading” activities of these books that include generating a series of comprehensive questions, encouraging thought-provoking ideas, and providing opportunities for accelerated activities. Also, relative photographs of museum artifacts or historic sites, primary sources, and links to supplemental online resources provided by historic organizations are shared. This supports children’s mastery of both reading and social studies standards, as they learn how to critically analyze sources, discover new historic sites and museums, and develop an appreciation for history. As a result of these activities, student performance and interest in social studies has improved across the entire grade level I worked with. Most importantly, by utilizing images of historic sites, documents, and artifacts, such tactics permit discussions that connect the past and modern issues. Thus, I believe educators are a crucial source for bridging this gap, especially for receptive young children. While history-affiliated institutions work to provide online resources more than ever before, there needs to be additional outreach to educators, especially to those geographically limited, to make their presence and offerings known. Awareness for all is key. As public historians, we need to be more proactive about developing an open dialogue with educators about what we can provide them and what they need in order to achieve success. As a result, we can slowly bridge this gap, so future generations will possess a connection to the distant past.
While this is a brief overview of my experiences in the field, they are simply personal reflections and not representations of my former employers. I value my time working in New England, as my experiences have molded me into an advocate in the South for bridging the gap between Early American history and the present. As my background demonstrates, with a hands-on approach and exposure to the issue, students and young professionals can be educated about this challenge, be prepared to address it, and help sustain a fruitful relationship between the public and the past in the future. Although I have not worked in the field for many years, I am excited to see how I can continue fostering this connection, as I learn from all of you as well.
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