Paul D. Brinkman is Head of the Environmental Humanities Research Lab and Curator of Special Collections at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and Adjunct Associate Professor of History at North Carolina State University. This interview is based on […]
museums
American Bible Society closes its $60 million museum
American Bible Society (ABS) spent a lot of time and money to build the Faith and Liberty Discovery Center (FLDC). I was present at the first content planning meeting for this museum. During that meeting, the ABS planners believed that […]
Historian Jane Kamensky is the new president at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello
Kamensky comes to Charlottesville from Harvard University’s history department. Here is the press release: CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – The Thomas Jefferson Foundation, the private nonprofit that owns and operates Monticello, is pleased to announce the appointment of Jane Kamensky, Ph.D., as […]
The International African American Museum opens in Charleston
Here is Holland Cotter at The New York Times: In Charleston Harbor, where the initiating shots of the Civil War were fired — Fort Sumter is distantly visible — I’m on the site of a former shipping pier known as Gadsden’s […]
Is Colonial Williamsburg going “woke”?
Some on the right believe that Colonial Williamsburg’s commitment to telling the full story of the 18th-century city means that the world’s largest living history museum is going “woke.” I would argue that Colonial Williamsburg is trying to tell a […]
The Author’s Corner with Matthew Dennis
Matthew Dennis is Professor Emeritus of History and Environmental Studies at the University of Oregon. This interview is based on his new book, American Relics and the Politics of Public Memory (University of Massachusetts Press, 2023). JF: What led you to […]
A museum exhibit on Roe v. Wade
It’s at Harvard Schlesinger Library. Here is Jennifer Schuessler at The New York Times: In the corner of a ground-floor gallery at Harvard’s Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America sits a small plexiglass case, holding two cowboy […]
Episode 101: Exhibiting Evangelicalism
Have you visited the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C.? How about the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, North Carolina? In this episode, historian Devin Manzullo-Thomas, author of Exhibiting Evangelicalism: Commemoration and Religion’s Presence of the Past, helps us make sense […]
The International African American Museum will open in Charleston
It was one of the busiest slave trading posts in early America. Here is CNN: The International African American Museum will open the weekend of January 21, 2023, the museum announced Wednesday. The 150,000-square-foot facility will be at the former site […]
The Author’s Corner with Sam Redman
Sam Redman is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Public History Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. This interview is based on his new book, The Museum: A Short History of Crisis and Resilience (NYU Press, 2022). […]
A preview of the Bob Dylan Museum
Here is Douglas Brinkley at Vanity Fair: When news broke in 2016 that Bob Dylan had given his vast archive of recordings and artifacts to the George Kaiser Family Foundation of Tulsa, people were taken aback. Why was this cultural trove […]
Pennsylvania governor Thomas Wolf invests $4 million in York African-American History & Lecture Center
Here is the press release: Governor Tom Wolf today visited the future site of the Crispus Attucks York African American History & Lecture Center which received a $4 million state investment through the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) in downtown […]
The Author’s Corner with Clarissa J. Ceglio
Clarissa J. Ceglio is Associate Director of Research for Greenhouse Studio and Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities at the University of Connecticut. This interview is based on her new book, A Cultural Arsenal for Democracy: The World War II Work […]
The Author’s Corner with Marita Sturken
Marita Sturken is Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University Steinhardt. This interview is based on her new book, Terrorism in American Memory: Memorials, Museums, and Architecture in the Post-9/11 Era (NYU Press, 2022). JF: What led […]
Erin Bartram does history
Longtime listeners of The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast may remember our interview with historian Erin Bartram in Episode 37: “Should You Go Grad School?” In that episode we discussed Bartram’s February 2018 blog post “The Sublimated Grief of […]
Museums will play a key role as the United States heads toward its semiquincentennial in 2026
Here is John Garrison Marks at the blog of the American Alliance of Museums: While the US Semiquincentennial Commission outlined a broad vision for the commemoration in its 2019 Inspiring the American Spirit report—describing a grassroots commemoration that educates, engages, and unites […]
Museums across the country participate in the “Civic Season”
Lila Thulin of Smithsonianmag.com reports on this new initiative. Here is a taste of her piece: …Civic Season, a three-week period that stretches from Flag Day on June 14 through the Fourth of July, and includes Juneteenth and Pride Month, […]
Chicago’s DuSable Museum is getting Kamala Harris and Barack Obama hate mail
Here is Patrick Elwood at WGN-TV: The president and CEO of the DuSable Museum of African American History went public Tuesday with news of a series of threatening letters that began after the Capitol insurrection and shortly before the Biden/Harris administration took […]