December 02, 2008
History Podcasts
By Jessica Pritchard
One of the many perks of teaching in a digital era is the multitude of alternative teaching methods. The same goes with learning for both students and enthusiasts of various disciplines; there are endless forms of interactive digital tools that can make learning a bit more engaging and, well, fun.
Take history podcasts, for example. You can download everything from academic lectures to speeches given by historic figures onto your computer and/or MP3 player. You can listen to these history podcasts in your downtime at work or in the morning on the metro.
There are a number of web sites available that span across countless historical eras, so you’ll likely be able to find at least one site that has podcasts conducive to your interests and/or your research.
The Gilder Lehrman, Institute of American History, offers recordings of dozens of historians discussing their latest, greatest books. Available podcasts cover topics from the Salem Witchcraft Trials to King Philip’s War.
Digital Campus has “biweekly discussion[s] of how digital media and technology are affecting learning, teaching, and scholarship at colleges, universities, libraries, and museums.” This web site includes podcasts on somewhat hot topics in the digital realm. From Google’s controversial book search to academic sustainability in a free-for-all era. From trends in future readers to concentration levels in a digitally distracting environment. Even to how, if at all, wikipedia is helpful. One could spend hours listening to these witty, modern podcasts.
You can search History News Network Podcasts for historian interviews or recordings from prominent historic figures. Topics range from religion to politics, both currently and historically.
For those interested in military history, again both currently and historically, there’s the Military History Podcast web site that explores everything from the current Iraq and Afghanistan Wars to the Peloponnesian War to Joan of Arc to Gladiatorial Combat. This web site brings “you the strangest anecdotes, innovative technology, and most significant events of military history.”
One final web site you may find interesting is the Organization of American Historians’ Talking History. Though they had to suspend airing their shows due to funding in 2006, they still have an expansive archive of interesting history podcasts, such as “The Confederation Emancipation,” which discusses the Confederates’ plan to free and arm slaves during the Civil War, and “American Brutus” that explores the conspiracy theories surrounding President Lincoln’s assassination. All of the Talking History podcasts are 29 minutes long, so they’re good when you have a limited amount of time to sit down and listen—they’re easy-to-download and fun to listen to.
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November 30, 2008
Results of 2008 AHA Election
See below for the winners of the 2008 AHA Election. These individuals will begin their terms of office following the 123rd Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
President (1-year term)
- Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Harvard University (early America, comparative women’s, material culture)
President-elect (1-year term)
- Barbara Metcalf, University of Michigan and emeritus, Univ. of California, Davis (history of the Indian subcontinent, especially the colonial period; history of the Muslim population of India and Pakistan)
Vice-President, Research Division (3-year term)
- Iris Berger, University at Albany-SUNY (Africa, comparative women’s, labor and working-class)
Council/Divisions (3-year terms)
Councilor Profession
- Sarah C. Maza, Northwestern University (18th-, 19th-, and 20th-century France, methodology)
Councilor Research
- John K. Thornton, Boston University (Africa, Atlantic, world)
Councilor Teaching
- Barbara L. Tischler, Horace Mann School, NYC (American cultural, the 1960s, women’s, labor, teaching practice)
Committee on Committees (3-year terms)
Slot 1
- Kriste Ann Lindenmeyer, University of Maryland Baltimore County (U.S. social with an emphasis on public policy, the history of childhood, and women and gender during the late 19th and early 20th centuries)
Slot 2
- Lloyd S. Kramer, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (modern European cultural and intellectual history with an emphasis on nineteenth-century France)
Nominating Committee (3-year terms)
Slot 1
- Marshall C. Eakin, Vanderbilt University (Latin America, with emphasis on Brazil and Central America; nationalism and nation-building, history of industrialization)
Slot 2
- Poshek Fu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (modern Chinese history, history of Hong Kong, Chinese diaspora, war and culture, popular culture, pan-Chinese and pan-Asian cinemas)
Slot 3
- Carol Anderson, University of Missouri-Columbia (Emory Univ. beginning Jan. 2009) (diplomatic, U.S. 20th-century, African American)
November 27, 2008
Grant of the Week: Pre-Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship in American Indian Studies
Michigan State University invites applications for its Pre-Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship Award in American Indian Studies. The fellowship award provides office space, access to Michigan State University’s library and computing facilities and to the faculty involved in the American Indian Studies Program, benefits for the year, and a substantial stipend. Applicants must be finished with all doctoral work but the dissertation, actively working in American Indian Studies, and committed to a career in Native Studies. The application deadline is February 1, 2009. See the award page online for more information.
November 26, 2008
What We’re Reading: November 27, 2008 Edition
This Thanksgiving edition of What We’re Reading starts off with a number of useful links to Turkey Day related pages and posts. Take a look back to Thanksgiving in the 1700s with the Library of Congress, find out what was served at the first Thanksgiving with the help of a historian at the National History Education Clearinghouse site, and see all of the features the History Channel has to offer for this holiday. Then, in non-Thanksgiving news, read about the opening of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, learn the background of President-elect Obama’s economic adviser choice Christian Romer, find out "What’s So Special About a Team of Rivals?", and finally, hear about a forum set up to examine misunderstandings in history.
Thanksgiving
- Thanksgiving Day
The Library of Congress celebrates Thanksgiving with a collection of links to Thanksgiving related documents like A Proclamation For a Publick Thanksgiving from 1721, George Washington’s proclamation of the first Thanksgiving under the Constitution, The President’s Hymn for Thanksgiving, and more. - Was Corn Served at the First Thanksgiving?
From the National History Education Clearinghouse, the Ask a Historian section responds to a question about the first Thanksgiving. - The History of Thanksgiving
The History Channel presents features, facts, and resources on the history of Thanksgiving.
What Else We’re Reading
- America’s Attic Is Ready for Its Public
After more than 5 years and $80 million, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History reopened on Friday, November 21st. Although architectural redesign may be the most noticeable change, there are also now more than 5,000 objects on display, as well as more displays highlighting the role of immigrants. Resources on the opening include: webcasts from NMAH, and coverage and photos from the blog DCist, and an article from the New York Times. - Who Is Christina Romer?
The Wall Street Journal profiles Christina Romer, President-elect Obama’s pick for head of the Council of Economic Advisers. The article explains that, “Much of Ms. Romer’s work has been on macroeconomic history – studying, for example, the causes of the Great Depression…” Also see the Chronicle’s coverage. - What’s So Special About a Team of Rivals?
Historian James Oakes asks, "What’s So Special About a Team of Rivals?" in this NY Times editorial. Turns out, not so much. - Histories of Misunderstanding
Dan Ernst at the Legal History Blog notes an upcoming History Graduate Students Conference at UVA that “will provide a forum for graduate students of history and related fields at all levels to discuss misunderstandings in history.” Also, see the call for papers on H-Net.
Contributors: Elisabeth Grant, Vernon Horn, and Lee White
November 25, 2008
From the ArchivesWiki: George Meany Memorial Archives
By David Darlington
While a research trip to Washington, D.C. usually means a stop at the Library of Congress or National Archives, labor historians also will want to visit the George Meany Memorial Archives in Silver Spring, Maryland, conveniently close to Archives II and the University of Maryland in College Park, as well as downtown Washington, D.C. The George Meany Memorial Archives page is profiled on our ArchivesWiki, with general information and a collection summary.
The AFL-CIO established the George Meany Memorial Archives in 1980 to honor its first president, George Meany, and to preserve its historical records and make them available for research. In 1987 the archives moved from the AFL-CIO headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C. to Silver Spring. The archives hold the institutional records of the AFL-CIO, “including administrative and staff departments, constitutional trade departments, and some federation-sponsored programs. Dating from the earliest days of the American Federation of Labor (1881), but offering almost complete records from the founding of the AFL-CIO (1955), the collections provide rich resources for historians, political scientists, trade union activists, and undergraduate and graduate students who want to examine a wide range of 20th-century American political and social issues.” Appointments are available for research five days a week.
Again, finding aids and catalogues for the George Meany Archives are available on its ArchivesWiki page. If you have experience in the Meany archives, please contribute to this project.
November 24, 2008
November Perspectives: History in New York
By Elisabeth Grant
As the “History in New York” title suggests this month’s issue of Perspectives on History contains numerous articles on the upcoming annual meeting in New York. Sharon Tune highlights AHA division and committee sponsored sessions, and communicates updates on making accommodations. Teachers should check out the extensive list of teaching sessions at the meeting, which includes topics like “Teaching and Learning through a Teaching American History Grant,” “Bridging Secondary School and Undergraduate Classrooms,” and “Students as Historians.” And finally, see the list of award winners to be conferred at the annual meeting and learn more about HistoriansTV. Also, look ahead with the 2010 annual meeting call for proposals.
Two articles this month take a peek behind the scenes of the organization. Robert A. Schneider reveals his “Confessions—and More—of the Editor of the AHR” while Robert B. Townsend explains what the AHA really does.
In the news, 2005-06 was a big year for undergraduate degrees in history, Debbie Ann Doyle reports on the recent meetings of the National Council on Public History and the American Association for State and Local History, the AHA launches a new Task Force on Disability, and the survey results are in for Perspectives on History. Also, the National Coalition for History keeps readers up to date on the news from Washington with assorted News Briefs.
The latest Masters at the Movies article is in, with Paul Boyer’s “A Life in American Cinema: The Nuclear Option,” introduced by Robert Brent Toplin.
Note also a number of articles on varied topics:
- Remembering Repression: The GULAG as an NPS Exhibit
by Martin Blatt - Using Book Tests to Get Students to Read
by Casey Harrison - Launching an Institute for Historical Studies
by H. W. Brands
And finally, this issue includes a letter to the editor, member updates, and two “In Memoriam” articles.
November 23, 2008
Historians Among Winners of 2008 National Humanities Medals
By David Darlington
President George W. Bush awarded the 2008 National Humanities Medals and National Medals of Arts at the White House this past Monday, November 17, 2008. Several historians were among the recipients of these prestigious awards given out by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
Gabor S. Boritt, director and founder of the Civil War Institute and professor of history at Gettysburg College received one of the National Humanities Medals. Dr. Boritt, recognized “for his scholarship on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War era,” is a member of the AHA. Albert Marrin, emeritus professor of history at Yeshiva University, received the award as well, for his work in using children’s books to open “young minds to history and made the lessons of the past come alive with rich detail for a new generation.” Also receiving medals were Richard Brookhiser, popular biographer of the Founding Fathers; Abraham Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer; journalist Myron Magnet, “who…combined literary and cultural history with an understanding of contemporary urban life to imagine new ways of relieving poverty and renewing civic institutions;” Milton J. Rosenberg, radio host and emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Chicago; philanthropists Thomas A. Saunders III, Jordan Horner Saunders, and Robert H. Smith; the John Templeton Foundation; and the Norman Rockwell Museum. More information on all the winners can be found on the NEH web site.
According to the NEH, the National Humanities Medal was created to honor “individuals or groups whose work has deepened the nation’s understanding of the humanities, broadened our citizens’ engagement with the humanities, or helped preserve and expand Americans’ access to important resources in the humanities.” The award was established in 1988 as the Charles Frankel Prize and became the National Humanities Medal in 1997. Up to 12 are awarded every year. The AHA congratulates all the winners.
November 20, 2008
Executive Director Search Begins at the OAH
The Organization of American Historians has called for applications from qualified individuals who wish to be considered for the position of executive director of the 100-year-old organization, which is dedicated to the promotion of “excellence in the scholarship, teaching, and presentation of American history.” The screening of applications began on November 15, 2008, but the search will continue until the position is filled. The appointment will initially be made for a five-year term.
The OAH is looking for candidates who have “a record of active scholarly pursuits; commitment to mobilize and communicate with historians of widely different interests and to represent their concerns in national, regional, and local settings; a sensitivity to the interests of the organization’s diverse constituencies; a vision of how the organization’s web presence and digital opportunities can be enhanced; experience with development and marketing strategies; and a sound understanding of non-profit organization finances.”
Pete Daniel (Smithsonian Institution), the co-chair of the search committee, informed AHA Today that while the search is being conducted, a Strategic Planning Committee set up by the OAH is at work, developing a blueprint for the organization’s future, and that the person selected to be the next executive director will be expected to actively contribute to the committee’s work. He also stated that promising applicants are likely to be interviewed at the AHA’s annual meeting in New York City in January 2009 and that the search committee hopes to present a finalist for consideration of the executive board of the OAH (which makes the final selection) in time for its meeting at the OAH annual meeting, scheduled to be held in March 2009 in Seattle.
Applicants are required to e-mail letters of application and c.v.’s to Pete Daniel, co-chair, OAH Executive Director Search, and have three letters of recommendation sent to the same e-mail address.
November 20, 2008
Grant of the Week: Newberry Library Fellowships in the Humanities
The Newberry Library, an independent research library in Chicago, Illinois, invites applications for its 2009-10 Fellowships in the Humanities. These fellowships support research (in residence at the library) that is appropriate to the collections.
- Long-term residential fellowships are available for periods of six to eleven months to postdoctoral scholars who must hold the PhD at the time of application. The stipend for these fellowships ranges from $25,500 to $70,000.
- The Terra Foundation for American Art Fellowship in art history, begun in 2008-09, carries an academic-year stipend of $70,000 for a full professor (or its equivalent outside the academy) and $50,400 for all other awardees.
- Short-term residential fellowships are intended for postdoctoral scholars or PhD candidates from outside the Chicago area who have a specific need for Newberry collections. The tenure of short-term fellowships varies from one week to two months. The amount of the award is generally $1,600 per month.
Applications for long-term fellowships are due January 12, 2009; applications for most short-term fellowships are due March 2, 2009. For more information or to download application materials, visit the fellowship page on the Newberry Library web site.
November 19, 2008
What We’re Reading: November 20, 2008
In the news this week, Bruce Cole departs the NEH for his new role at the American Revolution Center, and Louis Hyman, Harvard alum and AHA member, receives a fellowship through the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Then, read an article on the affect of blogs on public intellectuals. We’ve also linked to a number of digital and non-digital projects: the Rehnquist papers at the Hoover Institution, LIFE photos through Google, five centuries of board games, a range of resources on the Hammer Museum web site, Virginia Tech’s new digital archive, an interactive map of historic D.C. tours, and Google’s Rome site. Finally, read about a historian’s answer to Lincoln’s premonition of his death, Studs Terkel’s impact on the history field, and an opportunity to impact Social Studies-History standards.
- Bruce Cole to Depart the National Endowment for the Humanities
This press release announces the departure of Bruce Cole from the role of chairman at the NEH to the American Revolution Center where he will serve as president and CEO. - Visiting Scholars – American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Louis Hyman, Harvard alum and AHA member, was awarded along with eight others a fellowship through the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Visiting Scholars Program. - Public Intellectual 2.0
Have blogs arrested the much-lamented decline of public intellectuals? Daniel W. Drezner asks in the Chronicle, "[C]ritics fail to recognize how the growth of blogs and other forms of online writing has partially reversed a trend that many cultural critics have decried, and what Russell Jacoby called the ’professionalization and academization’ of public intellectuals. In fact, the growth of the blogosphere breaks down or at least erodes the barriers erected by a professionalized academy." - Rehnquist Papers up to 1974 now open to researchers
Legal History Blog reports that some of the papers of late Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist are now open at the Hoover Institution, including portions of his personal papers from 1947 to 1971, as well as papers from the 1972 to 1974 Supreme Court terms. See the finding aid (PDF) online. - LIFE Photo Archive available on Google Image Search
The Official Google Blog announced the new LIFE photo archive being hosted by Google. The archive includes photos and etchings that go back all the way to 1750. Eventually, as in months, Google plans to post the complete LIFE archive of nearly 10 million photos. - Five Centuries of Board Games
The BibliOdyssey blog presents images from the British Museum Prints Database, showing board games from 1588 to 1940. Hat tip. - Hammer Web Site Raises the Bar for Museum Offerings
The Chronicle’s Wired Campus blog profiles the web site of the Hammer Museum, and all the digital content offered there. - Virginia Tech Students Create Electronic Archive on Shootings
View nearly 6,000 pages of documents included in the Prevail Archive, a new site created by Virginia Tech students to provide the public with information about the April 16, 2007 tragedy. - D.C. Historic Tours
Discover D.C. through this interactive map that shows “historic landmarks, structures, and districts, city heritage tours, African American heritage sites and DC heritage trails, and where to get a pizza afterwards.” Hat tip.
- Take a Trip to Ancient Rome, via Google Earth
Google Earth has recently released their new interactive web site that takes users back to 320 A.D. when Constantine the Great ruled Ancient Rome. Users can tour the insides of famous Roman buildings, visit Roman landmarks, and learn about typical Roman lifestyles. - Did President Lincoln actually foretell his death to a reporter the day before he was killed?
Ward Hill Lamon, a bodyguard and friend of President Lincoln, said he was with the president a few days before he was assassinated. Lincoln allegedly shared a premonitory dream where he saw his own death. Though some historians are still a bit skeptical of the accuracy with Lamon’s story, check out this “Ask a Historian” question on the National History Education Clearinghouse site and decide for yourself. - ‘P.S.: Further Thoughts From a Lifetime of Listening’ by Studs Terkel
Tim Rutten highlights the late Studs Terkel’s impact on the history field, particularly his work as an oral historian, and explores his posthumous collection P.S.: Further Thoughts From a Lifetime of Listening. - Serve on an NBPTS Standards Committee
The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) is accepting applications for the committee responsible for reviewing and revising its Social Studies-History standards. The application will be available through December 12, 2008, 5:00pm EST. The NBPTS is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan and nongovernmental organization that aims to advance the quality of teaching and learning by developing professional standards for accomplished teaching, creating a voluntary system to certify teachers who meet those standards and integrating certified teachers into educational reform efforts.
Contributors: David Darlington, Elisabeth Grant, Noralee Frankel, Jessica Pritchard, and Robert B. Townsend
November 18, 2008
Jobs and Careers in History: Interview with Richard Gillespie – Part Two
By Jessica Pritchard
Part one of this interview, which appeared on the blog on Monday, with Richard Gillespie examined his current position as director of education for the Mosby Heritage Area Association and some of his thoughts on history. In Part two he discusses advice for job hunters with history degrees and comments on misconceptions of history.
Q: What advice would you give to those with history degrees who are looking for jobs outside of academia?
A: I think college education is now more and more towards liberal arts: the idea is to learn to read, learn to write, learn to think—history does that. Don’t feel like you have to stay in the history field just because you majored in it. Let’s say you don’t want to become a college professor or you don’t want to go into public education, but you do like history. The number one thing I would say is as early as possible you want to start to prepare a resume to show that you’ve been involved in history. People don’t care what school you went to or what your history degree is in, but if you have a resume that shows you’ve done a bunch of stuff in history, you’re going to be hirable.
The other side of it is you don’t choose history to stay in. You may want to major in it but you don’t want to stay in it unless it is a need: you need to work with history; you want to work with the public. The question is: are you doing something that you need to be doing?
I will say this—this is really important—if you either go into academic history or public history and you don’t care about your fellow man, if you don’t think that part of the point of history is to improve mankind, I don’t know why you would bother doing it. Realistically public history is all about making the world better. It is like an art, like literature. The point is not just to make money; the point is to better the world through examination of what we have been to give us something to reflect on such that what we will be will be better.
Q: Do you know of any places to send newbies out of college who have a history degree to even begin looking for a job? If they wanted to get an internship or even while they’re still in school getting their education, where would they go?
A: My first advice is don’t think you have to work for famous places just because you go to a good school. You don’t have to work at Smithsonian. You don’t have to work for Colonial Williamsburg. Local historical societies, local historical organizations, the local museum, the national park that’s closest, the state park, if it’s a history site, that’s closest. College towns inevitably have huge histories. Are college students welcome? Yes. Will they pay you? Maybe. Maybe not, but you are trying to build a resume in a field that is highly competitive. What I would say is grab every history opportunity you can get your hands on if public history is what you want.
If you want to go into teaching, then do what so many people do and try your hand at substitute teaching, so you’re beginning to think, if I were running this class, what would I do? If you’re thinking of law school, then obviously you want to get an internship with a lawyer. I’m not talking a formal one. There’s no reason in the world why when you’re 17 or 19 you can’t go to the local attorney and say, “Hey, I’d be willing to volunteer for two days a week.”
So you want a resume-builder. That is the key.
Q: What’s the best advice you’ve received within your field?
A: I have received some excellent advice in education, which is very relevant to history teaching from my stepmother, who suggested, “every child is equal, every child.” I really did believe that. I still do believe that.
You don’t think people are very interested in history. Your job is to grab them, your job is to provoke them, your job is to start them on their journey. You’re not going to get them there, but you can start them. You can plant that seed, and you may not know whether you did, so you just keep planting—play Johnny Appleseed. I think that is what history is about. It’s not just finding out what happened. I think overwhelmingly, if I’ve gotten anything out of my love of history it is if you play history and you aren’t provoked to think, what was the point?
Q: What do you think is the most common misperception of the history field? Why don’t you think people see history as important?
A: I’m not so sure that people don’t. In your day-to-day life, you’re busy. People don’t have a lot of time to think about history. For many Loudouners, the historic sites are sort of in certain places—maybe they’re in Leesburg, or they’re just across the mountain in western Loudoun, or on the back road somewhere in eastern Loudoun. Once it’s brought to their attention, what they’ve got is that this site is theirs. I grew up and that darn Minuteman statue was mine by god! I mean, whatever I want to do with that statue, that’s mine, that’s my heritage, that’s my baby. Once it becomes their baby, once it becomes their responsibility, once the stewardship of that is brought to their attention that is their heritage. People will rise to that. History dies if people don’t take care of it, if they don’t regenerate it—regenerate by storytelling, by sharing it, by taking people to it.
There’s a second piece of this—to a degree, which history is worth saving is determined by those who know how to popularize it or advertise it or bring its importance to people’s attention. In other words, as we take certain representative people or sites and make them into icons, then they become worth saving. We begin to save things. We begin to know our history when it confronts us. It’s almost the intimacy that not everybody else knows that sells it.
So getting back to your question—I think the misconception is that people don’t care. Do they ever really have a chance to? If given an opportunity to, won’t they?
November 17, 2008
Civil War Historians Sought for Times Topics
By Elisabeth Grant
The New York Times is seeking the help of Civil War historians for their Times Topics project.
The Times Topics site is organized into about 15,000 subjects, which pull from past New York Times articles to make pages that cover historical topics. Some examples include: North Korea’s nuclear program, the W.P.A., Pearl Harbor, and the 9/11 attacks.
While currently the articles included only go back to 1981, there are efforts underway to digitize the paper all the way back to 1851. This will allow Times Topics to really show the Times’ “entire body of coverage.” Eventually they would like to create 15,000 historical pages, and the first step toward this goal is to “create several hundred Topic pages devoted to different aspects of the Civil War, creating separate pages on key battles, generals, political leaders and subjects like slavery, conscription and the development of ironclads.”
This is where the help of Civil War historians comes in. The Times is looking for “some expert help in deciding what topics to choose.” If you’re a Civil War historian who’d like to contribute, contact John O’Neil at joonei@nytimes.com for more information and instructions.
Also check out some of the other online projects the Times is working on: the Times Traveler and the Times Machine. We recently profiled these projects on AHA Today.
November 16, 2008
Jobs and Careers in History: Interview with Richard Gillespie – Part One
By Jessica Pritchard
This post is first in a new series, titled Jobs and Careers in History, to be featured on AHA Today. The series will feature interviews with history professionals who have a range of backgrounds and have careers in a variety of workplaces.
Everyone has that one high school teacher they’ll never forget. Mine was Richard Gillespie, the local history guru in our little western Loudoun County, Virginia, hollow. Growing up, Mr. Gillespie not only taught history, he made it come alive by encouraging students to step outside the textbook and into the past. From crouching down in 19th-century cabins to touch floorboards to reading letters from Civil War soldiers by lantern-light, Mr. Gillespie teaches history through the senses—the sights, the sounds, the smells, the feels. He seeks to provoke and to impassion in order to truly connect with the past, to truly understand and rationalize history. As a former student, I learned invaluable skills from him that I carried with me through college and that today are still prevalent in my day-to-day life.
Though he has since retired from public schools, Mr. Gillespie continues to inspire and provoke in his new position as the director of education for the Mosby Heritage Area Association. Headquartered in the historic Caleb Rector House in Atoka, just outside of Middleburg, Virginia, he now works not only with students but also with the public, creating programs that promote preservation through education.
His passion for the past is absolutely infectious. I recently sat down with him to pick his brain about how he got into history, why he loves it, and how he’s made a fulfilling career out of his passion.
Q: What exactly do you do?
A: I’m the director of education for the Mosby Heritage Area Association. I have to invent, design, publicize, coordinate, and give programming for the Mosby Heritage Area. Our programming is on a dual level. Part of it is to the citizens of the Heritage Area—to try to get them to understand the historical resources they’ve got and to help preserve them. The second is through the schools—to try to get kids preservation-central and also to get kids to take what they get in the classroom and take it home to share with their parents.
Q: How did you get this job?
A: I think a couple of things really made coming to the Mosby Heritage Area relevant. I was asked to be on their advisory board, and so I knew of them. They used me as a consultant for educational programming, and pretty much their educational programming was what I recommended for them.
The other thing that’s really important [happened during the] 1998-99 school year when we started a project called the Western Loudoun Heritage Photography Project (WLHPP). The idea was that we should photograph western Loudoun because with massive growth [it] was expected to lose of a lot of its historical treasures, a lot of its rural landscapes, so students went out and photographed it. Out of that came the idea that we need to have a book of walking tours that would help people to go explore that rural environment, so that [book] came out in 2001. It was called Loudoun by Foot, which the Mosby Heritage Area now sells. Because of that, I got a real sense of the impact of growth on the historical environment, and that was really getting under my skin to the point that I would arrive at school all a-boil having seen another house, another subdivision [go up]. I really wanted to be able to do something about that, so when the Mosby Heritage Area interviewed me, it seemed that this would be a good opportunity.
They [The Mosby Heritage Area] exist to promote a preservation effort for people to understand the resources that they’ve got in Loudoun, Fauquier, Prince William, Clarke, and Warren [counties]. One of the amazing things is that this region looks so much as it did 150 years ago that people from the Civil War era would recognize much of it; and that it should last that long, until the 21st century, and then all in a flurry we should destroy it in two or three years time. It just seemed the kind of thing that was horrible. So for me to be able to make a dent on that as an educator, Hey, yes, that would be wonderful.
I was not all together certain that I would be good at working with their target, which was to go to kids in elementary schools that were taking Virginia studies—4th graders. I realized that with my love of storytelling, my historic site experience, and my being about as mature as a 10-year old that I pretty well could relate to them and that they couldn’t wait until I came to the class and told more of d’em stories! So it worked out pretty well. Almost ridiculously well.
Q: What kind of programs do you do when you go into the 4th graders’ classrooms? Is it primarily storytelling? Do you go in just once a year? Do you build the program based on what the teacher is teaching at the time?
A: If you’re a museum educator, you’ve got to correlate with what the teachers teach. What we do is take an aspect of the Standards of Learning and bring it alive through the sensual aspects of storytelling, using photographs, using artifacts, stories, [which] I think are probably the number one way that people learn history. It brings alive what you study that might be very dull in class. It may not be, it may be marvelous in class, but it makes it even more exciting if they’re stories that happen just outside the doors of your school. We always aim to tell stories that are like that. If you go and find the places of those stories, then you realize that those places are at great risk. From early on, you realize that places are what stories are about, and we need to save some of those places that illustrate these stories that bring our past alive, that memorialize the past, that remind us of the past.
We’re very mission-centric. We’re not just building preservationists; we also want to save the farm-scapes and the back roads and the dirt roads. If we go into schools, what do we do that will give kids a sense of that? 4th graders can barely understand the idea of preservation. Some of the people on my board wonder why on earth we target 4th graders, and it’s a real simple thing: it’s the point at which you become centered to the point of history and historic places. It’s to get them to start to think, from the get go, that stories and places can disappear. The stories have to be stories that kids and people would pass on.
Q: What led you to history—to study it, to pursue it?
A: I’ve thought a lot about that—why does somebody go into the field that they go into? You would like to say that there’s just one person that just turned you onto it, but really it was three or four things thrown together.
My grandparents always talked in terms of stories from the past such that when you talked with my grandparents even just in the now, you really knew all the nows from the past. We would sit at a breakfast for three hours or a supper for three hours and tell tales from the old days. By the time I was seven or eight, I was already writing short stories about WWII—pretty stupid ones, but…It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No it’s the Japanese about to attack Pearl Harbor!
I moved to a new neighborhood in the fall of 1960, and when I did, all the guys were like me—they read history, they read history comic books, they watched history shows, and there were lots of documentaries on TV. We would watch them, we would talk about them, we would reenact them. We weren’t geeks! We’d be talking about this while playing football.
Third thing: We grew up in the wake of WWII. Our fathers were all WWII veterans, and they’d talk about it. I think that made us love history. It didn’t hurt that I grew up in Lexington [Massachusetts].
Then my sister went into the field. She got a job as a guide on the Lexington Green one summer. When I was old enough, she urged me to do the same thing—get my license as a Professional Historic Guide, and I did.
Q: What’s your favorite time period? I know I can never pick just one.
A: Yeah that’s it! I believe in provoking other people to be fascinated to want to go explore something. If I’ve just read a really good book, if I’ve been to a really good historic site, then I will pick up a book, I will want to see a movie, and that will be my favorite time period for a bit. Sites to me are the key to provocation in history.
That being said, for years, the Revolution was it. I know I’m more fascinated by American history than other things because I have more of something to hang my hat on.
It’s where you are that’s the thing. The weird thing about the Mosby Heritage Area is in theory, heritage areas are as much for tourists as anything, but our emphasis, while we do not deny that and are quite willing to work with it, our real emphasis is on the people because they’re the ones who we need to turn into stewards for their historic resources.
Check back later this week for the second half of this interview.
November 13, 2008
Grant of the Week: Summer Seminars for Teachers
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is accepting applications for its Summer Seminars for Teachers. These seminars are designed to strengthen participants’ commitment to high quality history teaching. Public, parochial, independent school teachers, and National Park Service rangers are eligible. These weeklong seminars provide intellectual stimulation and a collaborative context for developing practical resources and strategies to take back to the classroom. Accepted applicants will receive room and board, books and teaching resources, and stipends of $400. See the Summer Seminar page for more information and instructions on how to apply. Deadline: February 15, 2009.
November 12, 2008
What We’re Reading: November 13, 2008 Edition
This past week we’ve taken a look at articles and resources related to Barack Obama’s historic presidential win; see the Newseum’s newspaper archive, a collection of election maps, and a look back at religion and campaigning. Then, read about librarians’ efforts to build a better search engine, PhDinHistory’s take on a number of recent professional issues, a summer institute from the NHC, lost photos from Hiroshima, financial teaching materials, and the latest Omeka release.
Election Related
- Front Page Archive: Wednesday, November 5, 2008
The Newseum archives newspaper front pages for major events. Check out their collection from Wednesday, November 5, 2008, the day after Obama won the election. Also see the Boston Globe’s Big Picture blog of photographs from the Obama campaign. - 2008 Election Maps
Jason Kottke, of kottke.org, has compiled screenshots of a variety of maps from the 2008 election. - Religion in the Presidential Campaign
The candidates’ faiths were scrutinized in this year’s election, just like they were one hundred years ago. The TimesTraveler blog has posted Theodore Roosevelt’s reaction to some voters’ criticism of Taft’s Unitarian beliefs: “To discriminate against a thoroughly upright citizen because he belongs to some particular Church… is an outrage against the liberty of conscience which is one of the foundations of American life.”
What Else We’re Reading
- Librarians Want to Out-Google Google With a Better Search Engine
The Chronicle reports on an effort to develop a better search engine, one that supplements the power of crowds in the Google algorithms with the power of expert knowledge (in this case from librarians). - PhDinHistory
After a two-month hiatus, PhDinHistory returns with two interesting posts–one taking issue with our concerns about journal ranking, and the second about the growing numbers of high paid administrators in higher ed. - American Immigration Revisited: A NEH Summer Institute
The National History Center announces a four-week National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute, “American Immigration Revisited,” which will run from July 6–31, 2009. Applications are due March 2, 2009. - Hiroshima: The Lost Photographs
The blog Design Observer reposts an article from the Guardian written by filmmaker and writer Adam Levy in 2005. He presents the story of the discovery of haunting images of the destruction of Hiroshima. - Facing Up to the Nation’s Finances
Most students are at least vaguely aware of the nation’s current financial crisis. The Facing up site aims to make them even better versed in the situation through classroom curriculum and online projects. - Welcome to Omeka 0.10
The Center for History and New Media recently released a new version of the open source web-publishing platform Omeka. Also check out sites that use Omeka to output their content.
Contributors: David Darlington, Elisabeth Grant, and Robert Townsend
November 11, 2008
Presidential Recordings Program
By David Darlington
The Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia has a useful resource for historians in their Presidential Recordings Program (PRP). The PRP was established in 1998 to make accessible to historians the secret White House recordings of Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt through Richard Nixon. Its work is funded in part by the NHPRC. There are nearly 5,000 hours of secretly-recorded meetings and phone calls from the era, and they require a lot of processing by historians and archivists before they can be used in research. The site has transcripts from the Kennedy and Nixon White Houses (the Kennedy transcripts were published in a three-volume set by W.W. Norton in 2001) and tape recordings of the six presidents from 1940 to 1973. Clicking on the president’s name on the left navigation will provide an overview of the collection and access to the records. Some collections are deeper than others – there are 3,700 hours of Nixon tapes in the collection (just over 2,000 processed), 800 for Johnson and 260 for Kennedy, but only 32.5 hours for Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower combined.
Site visitors will want to see the digital “exhibits” section, where a historian has written a paragraph or two on a historical subject and then linked to some audio clips from the archives. Here for example, President Nixon talks about the nomination of William H. Rehnquist to the Supreme Court. There’s also the Digital Classroom Initiative that is designed to get audio resources into the classroom. They’ve sorted audio clips and transcripts topically for easier browsing, and provided sample syllabi and classroom activities from middle school, high school, and college educators.
November 10, 2008
2009 Annual Meeting Program – Now Online
By Elisabeth Grant
The Program for the 123rd Annual Meeting is now available online. Use it to:
- Search for events and sessions by day and time (Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday)
- Browse affiliate programs (alphabetically or chronologically)
- View special events (like the film festival, the AHA’s General Meeting, and the National History Education Clearinghouse Workshop)
- Find meeting participants
Or use the search box to find sessions and events through relevant keywords.
For other Annual Meeting related information see the 2009 Annual Meeting page online. There you will find information on registering for the meeting, accommodations, transportation, and more. Also see the AHA web site for Job Center info, Exhibit Hall details, and maps of hotel locations and free wireless spots in New York.
November 06, 2008
Grant of the Week: Humane Studies Fellowship from GMU
The Institute for Humane Studies, based at George Mason University, is currently soliciting applications for the 2009-10 Humane Studies Fellowship. Last year they awarded $600,000 in scholarships to more than 150 recipients from around the world who are exploring the principles, practices, and institutions necessary to a free society through their academic work. Fellowships are open to graduate students and advanced undergraduates, and include scholarships up to $12,000 to study in the U.S. or abroad. Select winners and finalists are invited to present and discuss their research at the annual Humane Studies Research Colloquium and attend other colloquia throughout the year. Fellows also join a growing network of over 10,000 IHS academics who are committed to the ideas of liberty and intellectual freedom. For more information and instructions on how to apply, visit the Humane Studies Fellowship page online. The deadline to apply is December 31, 2008.
November 05, 2008
What We’re Reading: November 6, 2008 Edition
While the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth isn’t until next year, we link to the Library of Congress and Smithsonian, which are already talking about related exhibits and events. Also, we point to the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission’s web site and the wealth of Lincoln information available there. Then, submit your nominations for the 2008 Cliopatria Awards, check out two election related articles, read up on the Zotero lawsuit, find out why “John Smith” is leaving academia, and hear about incorporating rare books into undergraduate classes. Finally, see three articles on history on the internet.
Lincoln Bicentennial
- Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibit: Getting Ready for Prime Time
The Library of Congress blog announces the February 12th opening of the “With Malice Toward None” exhibit, to mark the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. - Lincoln at the Smithsonian
Also wanting in on the bicentennial celebration, the Smithsonian has planned a number of Lincoln-related exhibits and events. Hat tip. - Lincoln Bicentennial 1809-2009
And for bicentennial events around the country, check out the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission’s (ALBC) site.
What Else We’re Reading
- The 2008 Cliopatria Awards: Nominations
Cliopatria, an HNN blog, is now accepting nominations for its Cliopatria awards, which “recognize the best history writing in the blogosphere” in the categories of Best Group Blog, Best Individual Blog, Best New Blog, Best Post, Best Series of Posts, and Best Writer. The winners will be announced at the AHA annual meeting in New York. - Obama on Higher Ed
After his historic win on Tuesday, how will Barack Obama affect higher education policies? Scott Jaschik at Inside Higher Ed takes a look. - Thursday, Nov. 5, 1908
From the Times Traveler Blog, on November 5th one hundred years ago Republicans lose seats in Congress. - Statement from George Mason University on Center for History and New Media’s Zotero Software
George Mason University released an official statement last Wednesday about the lawsuit filed by Thomson Reuters (makers of EndNote), over the Center for History and New Media’s Zotero application. Hat tip. - I’m Leaving: "John Smith" on Academia
Pseudonymous John Smith writes about leaving academia in Inside Higher Ed. "I fear that I have become the archetypical professor whom I did not want to become," he says. He believes the college life is too easy on students. "Higher education for too many undergraduates at too many liberal arts colleges has become a puffy sofa nestled with down pillows." Do professors and college administrators "unnecessarily coddle" students, leaving them unprepared for the work force? John Smith thinks so. - Handle This Book!
The New York Times profiles how some universities are incorporating the use of rare books into their courses, encouraging students to look (and even touch) at original texts. Hat tip. - The Evolution of the Front Page
A look at how the layout of the Los Angeles Times has changed since 1881. - What Should Go in a Museum of Internet History?
The Chronicle’s Wired Campus blog takes a look at the Internet History Archive, an ongoing project to “document, archive, and commemorate the contributions of the academic community to the development of the Internet.” - Digitizing the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) is currently funding a project for the digitization of the incunabula of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München (Bavarian State Library).
Contributors: David Darlington, Elisabeth Grant, and Robert B. Townsend
November 03, 2008
Picturing U.S. History: An Interactive Resource for Teaching with Visual Evidence
By Jessica Pritchard
It seems everywhere we turn today we’re reading and hearing about new digital media fronts, especially when it comes to scholarly research and alternative teaching methods. Picturing U.S. History: An Interactive Resource for Teaching with Visual Evidence, a collaborative project between the American Social History Project and the Center for Media and Learning at City University of New York Graduate Center, is certainly no exception. Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, this interactive web site promotes ways for teachers in art history, American studies, and other humanities to incorporate historical visual media into their lesson plans.
Though today’s visual media has an extraordinary wow factor, which correlates to the effectiveness of alternative digital teaching methods, the past isn’t without its visual media forms. This interactive web site taps into the invaluable cliché of a picture is worth a thousand words. History’s visual media offers students and scholars a window into past events, societal ideas, cultural opinions, and overall trials and tribulations of those who came before us: “Like textual evidence, these historical images provide documentation about experiences, beliefs, lives, and circumstances that compose history.” By making digital archives more accessible, prompting discussions that strengthen students’ critical thinking abilities, and teaching research methods, this interactive web site offers a contemporary approach to stepping into the past.
Because the web site is still in its developmental stages, many of the available resources are limited in their content. For instance, users can explore Lessons in Looking, a section that includes scholarly essays that delve into the ways visual media shaped historical societies and historical societies shaped visual media. Currently, this section has only one essay posted— “White into Black: Seeing Race, Slavery, and Anti-Slavery in Antebellum America” by Sarah Burns of Indiana University and Joshua Brown of the CUNY Graduate Center, which looks at visual media such as statues, cartoons, paintings, and daguerreotypes (early photographs) as art forms that not only allow historians to get a snapshot of the past but also allow them to dissect these art forms to search for symbolism representative of Antebellum America.
There is also an annotated list of online resources helpful in visual media research. Each link contains the type of resource available (archive, teaching resource, visual history, exhibit), a brief synopsis of the information offered, and its applicability in the classroom as an alternative teaching tool.
Along with reading scholarly articles and perusing visual media links, users can also participate in online forums, which promote monthly discussions moderated by guest scholars in their fields of expertise. October’s forum was Jacksonian America, moderated by David Jaffee from the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture; this month’s forum deals with Colonial America, moderated by Peter Mancall from the University of Southern California’s history department. There is also a section in conjunction with these online forums that includes visual evidence essays written by the forum moderators as introductions to their monthly discussions: “each essay provides an overview of approaches to and scholarly sources for using visual or material culture in teaching, cites examples of compelling visual evidence, raises critical questions about historical method and pedagogy, and provides links to valuable online resources.”
Users can read bimonthly reviews on books, web sites, articles, and exhibits that focus on historical visual media and culture and that explore new methods of teaching digital history.
One final section, My Favorite Image, allows scholars to share their favorite archival images that they find the most useful in teaching American history, which includes everything from Native American assimilation to Irish street gangs.
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