National Council on Public History Keynote Address, 2015

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-17
Author(s):  
Tiya Miles
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Native American ◽  
Public History ◽  
Keynote Address ◽  
National Council ◽  
Trial And Error ◽  
Historic Site ◽  
The Public

As public historians, we grapple not only with the “what” of history making (subject and argument) but also with the “how” (process and relationships). We strive to develop projects that are dialogic and collaborative in nature, and to widely share the results of our work with the public. In doing so, we often chart new academic territory, making our way by trial and error and taking risks. By focusing on a Native American and African American historic site as case study, this essay explores how the aim to illuminate ways in which history matters in the present often drives us to create “history on the edge.”

scholarly journals Blogging as Popular History Making, Blogs as Public History: The Singapore Case Study

2007 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Ho
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Public History ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Historical Society ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere

Blogging is a twenty-first century phenomenon that has heralded an age where ordinary people can make their voices heard in the public sphere of the Internet. This article explores blogging as a form of popular history making; the blog as a public history document; and how blogging is transforming the nature of public history and practice of history making in Singapore. An analysis of two Singapore ‘historical’ blogs illustrates how blogging is building a foundation for a more participatory historical society in the island nation. At the same time, the case studies also demonstrate the limitations of blogging and blogs in challenging official versions of history.

Queer Public History in Small-Town Wisconsin

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 70-93
Author(s):  
Christopher Hommerding
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Identity ◽  
Public History ◽  
Small Town ◽  
History Of Sexuality ◽  
Historic Site ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ways Of Thinking

This essay examines the interpretation of the lives and work of two queer men, Robert Neal and Edgar Hellum, at the Pendarvis Historic Site in the small town of Mineral Point, Wisconsin. Using this interpretation as a case study, the essay addresses how public historians might more fully incorporate the history of sexuality into historic site interpretative models. It suggests a number of strategies for helping visitors think critically about the history of sexuality and how our current understandings of sexual identity are not always useful or accurate ways of thinking about queer pasts.

Slavery Tourism

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bayo Holsey
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Public History ◽  
Slave Trade ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Cape Coast ◽  
Radical Interpretation ◽  
Atlantic Trade ◽  
History Of

This chapter presents a case study of the slavery tourism industry in Ghana, tracing its development and noting some of the struggles it has faced. Based around the dungeons in the Cape Coast and Elmina castles used to warehouse slaves bound for the Atlantic trade, Ghana’s slavery tourism industry emerged in the 1990s through complex negotiations among different interested parties. The chapter notes in particular the disjuncture between Ghanaian understandings of the history of the slave trade and that of international and especially African American tourists. It also critiques the tourism industry’s focus on the triumph over slavery and considers the ways in which such an emphasis forecloses the possibility of a more radical interpretation of history. Finally, it places Ghanaian slavery tourism within the broader context of a global public history of slavery.

Theatre: A Neglected Site of Public History?

2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 21-39
Author(s):  
David Dean
Keyword(s):  
Public History ◽  
Living History ◽  
The Public ◽  
National Theatre ◽  
Film And Television ◽  
The Past ◽  
Theatre Company ◽  
Theatrical Representations ◽  
And Performance

Abstract Although theatrical representations of the past have been examined by theatre and performance studies scholars, public historians have preferred to focus on historical re-enactments in living history sites, museums, or on film and television. This article argues that theatre is a compelling site for representing and understanding the past through a case study of one of the most performed plays in recent Canadian repertoire, Vern Theissen's Vimy. Drawing on a survey of audience members and the author's experiences as an academic historian working with a national theatre company, it proposes ways in which further study and practice can illuminate our understanding of the public and its pasts.

National Council on Public History Presidential Address

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 10-24
Author(s):  
Patrick K. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Public History ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
National Council ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
The Public ◽  
Professional Activities ◽  
Contested Space ◽  
Community History ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Social Privilege

In this reflective essay, the author addresses how, through the course of his professional public history career, he developed an evolving understanding of the complexities of interpreting community history, the nuances of contested space, and how social privilege fit within this process. Drawing upon decades of personal experiences and professional activities with community and oral history–based projects, he expresses how public historians can recognize multiple perspectives and then work in tandem with various constituencies to navigate an array of interpretive and preservation challenges. Finally, he encourages his fellow practitioners to acknowledge and understand the intricacies of social privilege, from both a personal and project-oriented perspective, in the practice of the public history craft.

The Queerest House in Cambridge

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 44-69
Author(s):  
Hilary Iris Lowe
Keyword(s):  
Public History ◽  
Historic Sites ◽  
Historic Site ◽  
Historical Interpretation ◽  
House Museums ◽  
The Past ◽  
House Museum ◽  
Historic House ◽  
History Of

One of the great challenges for public historians in LGBTQ history is finding and developing interpretation of the history of sexuality for public audiences at current historic sites. This article answers this challenge by repositioning historic house museums as sites of some of the most important LGBTQ public history we have, by using the Longfellow House–Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as a case study. At this house museum, we can re-see historical interpretation through a queer lens and take on histories that have been until recently “slandered, ignored, and erased” from our public narratives of the past.1

Cultures in Conflict: An Argument Against “Common Ground” Between Practicing Professional Historians and Academics

2008 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 29-50
Author(s):  
JACK M. HOLL
Keyword(s):  
Federal Government ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Public History ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Department Of Energy ◽  
National Council ◽  
Middle Ground ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Academic History

Abstract There is a fundamental distinction between practicing professional historians and academics, and any celebration of a “common ground” tradition masks the fundamental cultural differences between historians who practice and historians who teach. Over the past three decades, since the founding of the Society for History in the Federal Government and the National Council on Public History, practicing professional historians have struggled with definitions of public history. “Struggling with our own identify,” the author states, “many federal historians did not want to be labeled public historians, the professor's euphemism for non-academic historians.” Rather, federal historians belonged to a “cadre of professionals who practiced their specialties in the public sector.” With extensive knowledge of the federal history sector (with particular attention given to the historical office of the Department of Energy) as well as academic history departments and policies, the author argues that “professional historians [should] be defined by what they do, rather than by where they work.” The historical profession must acknowledge that federal and other professional historians “occupy their own solid ground, perhaps not adequately mapped,” and represent more than a “middle ground” between the public and the academy.

scholarly journals Augmented Reality Markerless Multi-Image Outdoor Tracking System for the Historical Buildings on Parliament Hill

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (16) ◽  
pp. 4268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Blanco-Pons ◽  
Berta Carrión-Ruiz ◽  
Michelle Duong ◽  
Joshua Chartrand ◽  
Stephen Fai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Augmented Reality ◽  
Tracking System ◽  
Rehabilitation Program ◽  
Time Of Day ◽  
Outdoor Environment ◽  
Historic Site ◽  
The Public ◽  
Image Tracking ◽  
National Monument

Augmented Reality (AR) applications have experienced extraordinary growth recently, evolving into a well-established method for the dissemination and communication of content related to cultural heritage—including education. AR applications have been used in museums and gallery exhibitions and virtual reconstructions of historic interiors. However, the circumstances of an outdoor environment can be problematic. This paper presents a methodology to develop immersive AR applications based on the recognition of outdoor buildings. To demonstrate this methodology, a case study focused on the Parliament Buildings National Historic Site in Ottawa, Canada has been conducted. The site is currently undergoing a multiyear rehabilitation program that will make access to parts of this national monument inaccessible to the public. AR experiences, including simulated photo merging of historic and present content, are proposed as one tool that can enrich the Parliament Hill visit during the rehabilitation. Outdoor AR experiences are limited by factors, such as variable lighting (and shadows) conditions, caused by changes in the environment (objects height and orientation, obstructions, occlusions), the weather, and the time of day. This paper proposes a workflow to solve some of these issues from a multi-image tracking approach.

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