Introduction to public history: interpreting the past, engaging audiences

201 Pages·2017·4.332 MB·English

by  Lyon, Cherstin M.;Nix, Elizabeth Morrow;Shrum, Rebecca Kathleen

Introduction to
Public History
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR STATE AND LOCAL HISTORY
BOOK SERIES
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Kimberly Springle, Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives
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ABOUT THE SERIES
The American Association for State and Local History Book Series addresses issues critical to the field of
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Introduction to
Public History
Interpreting the Past,
Engaging Audiences
Cherstin M. Lyon
California State University,
San Bernardino
Elizabeth M. Nix
University of Baltimore
Rebecca K. Shrum
Indiana University-Purdue
University Indianapolis
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lyon, Cherstin M., 1971– author. | Nix, Elizabeth M. (Elizabeth
Morrow), 1964– author. | Shrum, Rebecca K. (Rebecca Kathleen), 1972–
author.
Title: Introduction to public history : interpreting the past, engaging
audiences / Cherstin M. Lyon, Elizabeth M. Nix, Rebecca K. Shrum.
Description: Lanham, MD : Rowman & Littlefield, [2017] | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016051418 (print) | LCCN 2016053613 (ebook) | ISBN
9781442272217 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781442272224 (pbk. : alk.
paper) | ISBN 9781442272231 (electronic)
Subjects: LCSH: Public history. | Public history—Textbooks.
Classification: LCC D16.163 .L96 2017 (print) | LCC D16.163 (ebook) | DDC
900—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016051418
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National
Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/
NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
For Our Children
Gareth Imparato, Nicholas Imparato, Forrest H. Lyon,
Savannah M. Lyon, and Matthew Brady Shrum

Contents
Preface for Instructors ix
1 Introducing Public History 1
2 Thinking Historically 21
3 Interpreting the Past Case Study:
The Baltimore ’68 Project 33
4 Collecting History 57
5 Interpreting and Exhibiting History 83
6 Engaging Audiences 113
7 Engaging Audiences: Case Studies from the Field 141
8 Putting Public History to Work in Your World 163
Index 177
About the Authors 187
▲ vii

Preface for Instructors
Welcome to Introduction to Public History: Interpreting the Past, Engaging Audiences. We
wrote this book to provide public history educators with a foundational text that is short
enough to adapt to a variety of situations, that will aid in assessment of student learning,
and that can support more in-depth examinations of the questions that drive a variety of
public history projects and venues. That said, we do not intend to provide a comprehen-
sive, encyclopedic examination of every aspect of public history, nor cover every venue
where nonacademic audiences encounter historical content. Given that the majority of
students who take public history coursework do not become practicing public historians,
we focus here on issues that arise at the kinds of venues that everyone encounters as con-
sumers of the past.
This collaborative project began as a series of conversations between professors of pub-
lic history at the annual meetings of the National Council on Public History (NCPH),
the main professional organization supporting public history practitioners and teachers.
One of those key conversations took place in Portland, Oregon, in 2010 at a working
group organized by Cherstin Lyon and Rebecca Shrum, with Elizabeth Nix as a dis-
cussant, along with Donna DeBlasio, Jennifer Dickey, Catherine Lewis, Allison Marsh,
and Phillip Payne. We continued to seek input from colleagues (both anonymously and
known) and from students as we have developed this manuscript from the proposal stage,
through an earlier draft, to the published version you have before you. Despite our efforts
to meet diverse needs with a single volume, we know that each program, each instruc-
tor, and each group of students is unique. We encourage instructors to use this book in
conjunction with the resources they have on their campuses and in their communities to
develop activities and projects for their classes to serve as a genuine springboard into the
field with as many local connections as possible.
Philosophy of the Book
The book as a whole aligns with the NCPH “Best Practices” for undergraduate students as
a basic framework for introducing public history to undergraduate or graduate students.1
Regardless of a student’s standing, public history should first be rooted in the best practices
of history and should be grounded in a solid understanding of historical content. Introduc-
tory courses are useful to orient students to the range of fields in which public history is
practiced. Merely presenting the fields of practice, however, can look like a parade of career
options to students, and also suggest that public history is a vocational choice rather than a
▲ ix