March 2020
Philanthropy and Public History, a National Council on Public History Working Group
In the 2017 Public History Employer Survey, practitioners noted that philanthropy is one of the biggest economic factors impacting the field of public history. However, few resources exist to help public historians navigate the ins and outs of developing sustainable fundraising strategy, communicating the value of history to funders, and dealing with how the interests of funders impact the collection, preservation, and interpretation of history. This working group will map out best practices for fundraising and grant seeking as they…
Details »Crafting History and a Place of Honor for Mary Brice at Point of Honor
In 2019, a neglected nineteenth century encased photographic portrait of a woman resurfaced in a pop-up exhibit at the Lynchburg Museum System. Currently kept by the Library of Congress, the daguerreotype was labeled by staff with the following inscription: "Mary Brice (or Bryce) of Point of Honor, Lynchburg, Virginia, half-length portrait, seated of middle-aged African American slave woman." The Lynchburg Museum System, a municipal entity, currently manages the early nineteenth century house called Point of Honor. Deeply enmeshed in Lost…
Details »September 2020
The Place of the Urban Past before “Public History,” 1850-1960
Historians that have studied the experience of modernity have often looked to periods of industrialisation and urbanisation in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Many approaches and definitions of modernity co-exist, but, in general, an element of rupture – a distinctive and often conscious break with the past – has dominated. Yet ‘the past’ did not necessarily disappear with urban transformations. Both the historic environment, and civic understandings of history within that space, could be used as a way to…
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