Orange County Library System’s Post

One of the great shifts going on in the history museum field is the way we think about, manage and present the interpretive technique known as "living history." This piece in the The Colorado Sun is an excellent and thoughtful look at how the tensions around representation, volunteerism, and historical accuracy are being experienced at one NPS site in Colorado. Institutional models are changing, and there's a new generation of independent interpreters who choose the times and places they want to present who are changing the focus and experience of living history. Scott Magelssen, whose scholarship on this has been so influential, makes some interesting comments in the piece about how these changes in museums are sitting within a broader cultural interest in immersive experience. I'm interested in more conversation about first-person techniques - when, how, and even whether to use them - and how they are evolving in a time of whole history - perhaps for a future issue of the Journal of Museum Education. Let me know of interesting trends, presentation styles, experiments, and challenges you're witnessing out there! #livinghistory #museums #publichistory #interpretation #performance #museumtheatre #immersiveexperience #volunteers Museum Education Roundtable (MER) @https://lnkd.in/eVERh6uc

A few weeks ago, our 8th grade students embarked on a transformative trip to D.C. where they reflected on U.S. history with memorable museum and memorial visits. Read more about their trip and reflections from students themselves in the latest blog post at the link below! #TheOaksAcademy #TheOaksBlog #transformativeeducation #DCtrip #classicaleducation #handsonlearning #classicalschool #indyschools #school

5 Presidential Libraries That Offer Culture, History and ‘Labs of Democracy’

It will be March before demolition of the existing State Historical Society Museum on #Madison’s Capitol Square gets underway, and late 2026 or early 2027 before a new and much larger “History Center” rises on that site and two adjacent properties. Just don’t think #history is taking a holiday in the meantime. In fact, for people living across #Wisconsin, it will become a chance to take in some road shows. Founded in 1846, two years before statehood, the Wisconsin Historical Society is more than a depository of artifacts, books and manuscripts from the state – but an important link to national and pre-history gems. A journal from the Lewis & Clark Expedition, Abraham Lincoln’s shawl, the largest film collection outside Hollywood, native canoes once preserved under water, some of the first copies of founding documents, a huge array of colonial newspapers and one of three original copies of the “Star-Spangled Banner” are in the collection. Not everything has been on display, of course, especially in the smallish former hardware store on the corner of State and Carroll Streets. A massive, climate-controlled building on Madison’s East Side serves as a repository for millions of items and will remain so. But once the $160 million public-private History Center reopens, more rotating exhibits will have their rightful space. Article: 'Inside Wisconsin: New history center three years away, but society's work carries on' https://lnkd.in/gGz3dUKG via Tom Still

Thank you MLive Media Group for coverage of the Historical Museum of Bay County's Oral History program! The story is subscriber-only, so I will post some of it here: "BAY CITY, MI — Honest history — that’s what Sam Fitzpatrick set out to record and share when he launched the Bay County Historical Society’s oral history project last fall. 'The stories we’re being told versus what’s been written is just vastly different,' said Fitzpatrick, the historical society’s education coordinator. 'There’s that white-washed history, and then there’s the real history. And the real history should be recorded, documented and preserved for people to know.' Since October, Fitzpatrick has been interviewing people with connections to Bay County and working to preserve their diverse lived experiences, memories and reflections. Recordings of these interviews are available to the public for free on the the Historical Museum of Bay County’s website and Bay County Historical Society’s YouTube channel. Some interviewees have lived in Bay County for decades, while others are recent transplants. Some have recognizable names — they’re elected officials or have ties to long-standing local businesses. Others have experienced significant adversity, including racism, discrimination and incarceration. All of them have a story to tell. 'I want everyone to be included. When people think of history, they think of museums and books, documentaries and stuff, which are all great, but I think the oral history is very important from the people themselves,' Fitzpatrick said. 'You could read about something in The Bay City Times, you could read a book, but what about an interview when you talk to someone who experienced it, who was there? Everyone’s going to have a different perspective depending on their age, race, gender, and we’re just trying to increase that diversity as much as we can.'" #baycitymi #baycountymi #oralhistory #michiganhistory #michigan #oralhistorymatters #blackhistory #asianamericanhistory #herstory

Collecting the history that is happening today is part of what museums and historical societies should do.

Is it so radical to consider the arts as a vital part of our national infrastructure? Historical precedents exist… https://lnkd.in/erpGMVCH

"Retain and explain" is an interesting and instructive public history tool. To reframe these public representations of the past in ways that inform an evolving present might have applications beyond these statues in London. What if we think about Mount Vernon and Monticello and Montpelier in this way? Does it require some explanation, even in the titling? Think about the interpretive power of "Mount Vernon: George Washington's Home and Slave Quarters" or "Monticello: Thomas Jefferson's Home and Slave Quarters", along with "retain and explain" contextualization throughout our public spaces.

Eight years ago, during my tenure as Curator of Collections and Exhibitions at the Roswell Museum, I started learning about federal community art centers, a remarkable New Deal initiative that remains one of the most expansive art-sharing programs in the history of the United States. Ever since I learned about this program, I've wanted to map its history digitally so that researchers could follow the movement of art exhibitions, observe the opening and closing of art centers, and trace the migrations of art center personnel as they were assigned to different sites. Today, I'm happy to share I've taken a first step toward this long-term goal by creating a StoryMap about federal community art centers. Here, I share all the information I've learned about them since 2016, from the addresses of specific sites to the contents of circulating exhibitions. This StoryMap, in short, represents eight years of ongoing research and analysis. More than a repository for my research though, this project is an invitation to other researchers interested in federal community art centers. I'm asking everyone interested in this initiative to share their data so we can compile all our research in one place. This program is too vast for one person to document, and I know there are others as passionate about it as I am. So let's get together and share our data. Together, we can document this significant but understudied initiative. #newdeal #digitalhumanities #federalcommunityartcenter https://lnkd.in/eenEHd_p

We are one week into #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth, and if you're still wondering how to celebrate and honor the history, culture and contributions of indigenous peoples here in Chicago, then check out this ⬇️ comprehensive guide from Choose Chicago! https://lnkd.in/eBCNr8B4.