Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
-
- United States History (7)
- Museum Studies (3)
- Social History (3)
- Social and Behavioral Sciences (3)
- Women's History (3)
-
- American Art and Architecture (2)
- Cultural History (2)
- History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology (2)
- Oral History (2)
- Accessibility (1)
- African American Studies (1)
- American Material Culture (1)
- American Studies (1)
- Anthropology (1)
- Archaeological Anthropology (1)
- Architecture (1)
- Archival Science (1)
- Business (1)
- Cultural Resource Management and Policy Analysis (1)
- Disability Law (1)
- Disability Studies (1)
- Disability and Equity in Education (1)
- Education (1)
- Historic Preservation and Conservation (1)
- History of Gender (1)
- Law (1)
- Library and Information Science (1)
- Institution
- Publication Year
Articles 1 - 16 of 16
Full-Text Articles in Public History
From Silence To Interpretation: West Lawn Cemetery In Johnson, Tennessee And The Case For Cemeteries As Public History Sites, Julia Underkoffler
From Silence To Interpretation: West Lawn Cemetery In Johnson, Tennessee And The Case For Cemeteries As Public History Sites, Julia Underkoffler
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The preservation needs and historical significance located within West Lawn Cemetery in Johnson City, Tennessee, a historically African American Cemetery, show the potential cemeteries have as an impactful public history site. Similar to sites like historic houses, museums, and battlefields; cemeteries offer another insight into the past through interpretation and preservation. A cemetery's ethical and practical uses as a public history site can pose complex challenges. This thesis aims to provide a compelling argument for cemeteries as repositories of irreplaceable history, providing a space for their spot in the field of public history. Although little scholarly literature is given on …
Borglum’S Horse Flies: The Early Opposition To Mount Rushmore, Riley Merritt
Borglum’S Horse Flies: The Early Opposition To Mount Rushmore, Riley Merritt
Honors College Theses
This thesis explores the evolution of opposition to Mount Rushmore from 1923-1927—the period before carving began. The resistance was led by a group of preservationists who were concerned about the potential ecological and societal impacts of the project. While much of the existing scholarship has focused on the relationship between the local Indigenous community and the monument, I argue that the preservationists, who opposed the site for their own reasons, deserve similar attention. I aim to reframe the Mount Rushmore controversy within the broader context of the conservation movement, thereby contributing to wider environmental and historical debates. I also emphasize …
Physical Accessibility And Historic Preservation In Historic House Museums Of The Southeast, Abby Milonas
Physical Accessibility And Historic Preservation In Historic House Museums Of The Southeast, Abby Milonas
All Theses
Museums are a public good, as they provide educational recreation and preserve cultural history, and so it is crucial that they are physically accessible to as many visitors as possible. The aim of this study was to understand what architectural features of historic house museums are the least accessible and what has been done to ameliorate these challenges. The survey used in the study was developed using the guidelines for making historic buildings accessible as described in the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards. It was distributed by email to representatives of 220 historic sites, of …
Myths, Museums, Mothers, And The Power Of Letitia Carson, Hailey Brink
Myths, Museums, Mothers, And The Power Of Letitia Carson, Hailey Brink
University Honors Theses
Letitia Carson was a trailblazing Black Oregon pioneer woman whose life offered remarkable and unprecedented departures from the white pioneer status quo. Letitia's story presents numerous points at which she could be heralded for her successes; her pregnant journey across the Overland Trail, giving birth in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, cultivating and maintaining two separate homesteads, challenging and conquering two lawsuits against administrator Greenberry Smith, her midwifery and community involvement, and lastly, becoming the first Black woman to own land in Oregon in 1862. And yet, her story fell to obscurity, only to be revived nearly a century …
Inclusion And Interpretation: Examining Difficult History Topics At Eighteenth-Century Historic Sites In Southeastern Pennsylvania, Cassidy Michonski
Inclusion And Interpretation: Examining Difficult History Topics At Eighteenth-Century Historic Sites In Southeastern Pennsylvania, Cassidy Michonski
Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024
This thesis explores four distinct eighteenth-century historic sites in southeastern Pennsylvania and how they interpret difficult history topics. Difficult history, the parts of our nation's past that may be uncomfortable to discuss and learn about, should be included in historic site narratives to ensure that all people who lived at these sites are represented. Telling the stories of enslaved people, Indigenous groups, women, and members of the LGBTQ+ community often means addressing difficult topics. Four sites—Elfreth's Alley, Stenton, the Daniel Boone Homestead, and the 1719 Museum—were examined for this study. A review of their staff training and institutional investment in …
A Comparative Analysis Of Montpelier's, Monticello's, And Mount Vernon's Collaborative Effort With Their Descendant Communities, Rachel Gregor
A Comparative Analysis Of Montpelier's, Monticello's, And Mount Vernon's Collaborative Effort With Their Descendant Communities, Rachel Gregor
Masters Theses, 2020-current
Historical homes and plantation sites focus interpretation on the life and legacy of the white owners of the property and the architectural and decorative elements of the home. In order to tell the whole-truth history of these sites, there must be an active discussion regarding the lives of the enslaved population, especially since the enslaved individuals were the reason the white owner was able to be successful. While very little written historical records exist for enslaved communities in comparison to those that survive for the white plantation owner, the surviving documentation, when coupled with archaeological evidence and especially the oral …
America's Main Street Misremembered: The Myth Of Route 66, Jessica Corsentino
America's Main Street Misremembered: The Myth Of Route 66, Jessica Corsentino
Masters Theses, 2020-current
Most Americans’ idea of Route 66 is misinformed. The collective memory of the iconic highway was built on the existing problematic image of the American West, shaped by early Route 66 boosters, and perpetuated through popular media and amateur preservationists, all of whom stood to benefit from a selective, marketable version of the highway’s past. The gaps left by these promotional revisions are indicative of problems with the transmission of collective memory on a larger scale, in which elements of history that do not align with the desired image are softened or removed. The sense of continuity and shared identity …
Walking The Line: The Legacy Of The Lost Cause In Redefining Femininity At The Normal, 1909-1942, Jennifer D. Page
Walking The Line: The Legacy Of The Lost Cause In Redefining Femininity At The Normal, 1909-1942, Jennifer D. Page
Masters Theses, 2020-current
The students who attended the State Normal and Industrial School at Harrisonburg during the early period (1909 – 1942) used social organizations to echo, amplify, and rehearse Lost Cause hierarchies of class, gender, and race. The Lee and Lanier Literary Societies were the two elite groups on campus which provided spaces for the women to practice these societal norms. These groups created a system of gatekeeping that ensured exclusivity and elevated the social standing of those who were members. These organizations were spaces to rehearse refinement and to practice the white women’s own roles in society. Their understanding of their …
Early Photography In East Texas: An Exhibition, Jacob Austin Lee
Early Photography In East Texas: An Exhibition, Jacob Austin Lee
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The Stone Fort Museum is a steward for much of the historical and cultural character of East Texas. A new exhibition, such as the “Early Photography in East Texas” project is in part representative of these same social values. The exhibition serves to look at East Texas specifically as a microcosm of the social ramifications of the introduction of photography. The museum presents this project as a commentary and celebration of the culture of the region while being objective enough to discuss both the high points and the low points. The thesis project itself displays the best and most current …
Interpreting Access: A History Of Accessibility And Disability Representations In The National Park Service, Perri Meldon
Interpreting Access: A History Of Accessibility And Disability Representations In The National Park Service, Perri Meldon
Masters Theses
This thesis illustrates the accomplishments and challenges of enhancing accessibility across the national parks, at the same time that great need to diversify the parks and their interpretation of American disability history remains. Chapters describe the administrative history of the NPS Accessibility Program (1979-present), exploring the decisions from both within and outside the federal agency, to break physical and programmatic barriers to make parks more inclusive for people with sensory, physical, and cognitive disabilities; and provide a case study of the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site (HOFR) in New York. The case study describes the creation of …
Curating An American Immigrant Identity : German And Latin American Heritage Weekends As Placemaking In Louisville, Kentucky, 1974-1980., Sarah Elizabeth Mccoy
Curating An American Immigrant Identity : German And Latin American Heritage Weekends As Placemaking In Louisville, Kentucky, 1974-1980., Sarah Elizabeth Mccoy
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The multicultural Heritage Weekends, which began in 1974 in time for the bicentennial, were ethnic festivals in Louisville, Kentucky, and were used by different groups in disparate ways. German Americans and American Latinos used the festivals as placemaking, as they laid claim to the city of Louisville and curated their own interpretation of an American identity. Festival organizers, including city officials, however used the festivals as a way to encourage pluralism, while still promoting hegemony and assimilation. By analyzing newspaper articles and the history of both German Americans and American Latinos in the city, the work of heritage among ethnic …
Fantasy Frontier: Old West Theme Parks And Memory In California, Amanda Tewes
Fantasy Frontier: Old West Theme Parks And Memory In California, Amanda Tewes
Doctoral Dissertations
This study examines sites of Old West tourism—specifically the three California theme parks of Knott’s Berry Farm, Calico Ghost Town, and Frontier Village—as avenues through which the myth of “the West” gets propagated, even among the people of the American West, and even if these sites do not reflect the actual history of the region. California’s Old West theme parks act as windows into mid-twentieth-century cultural conflicts of politics and identity within the state. But these sites are artifacts of a particular historical moment and their fantasy of the Old West memorializes mid-century renderings of the past rather than nineteenth-century …
Evaluating Contested Ground: Civil War Interpretation In The Shenandoah Valley, Kyle P. Rothemich
Evaluating Contested Ground: Civil War Interpretation In The Shenandoah Valley, Kyle P. Rothemich
Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019
This research focuses on how three distinct Civil War sites in the Shenandoah Valley interpret the American Civil War. The Virginia Museum of the Civil War in New Market Virginia, the Visitor Center housed by the Kernstown Battlefield Association in Kernstown Virginia, and Harpers Ferry National Historical Park information center in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Each of these three organizations is administered by a different governing body ranging from the National Park Service to the State of Virginia, and lies in the geographical and cultural region of the Shenandoah Valley. Research is based off; interviews conducted with interpretative managers at …
The Afro-American Slave Music Project: Building A Case For Digital History, Laura Cepero
The Afro-American Slave Music Project: Building A Case For Digital History, Laura Cepero
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This public history thesis project experimented with the application of new technology in creating an educational resource aimed at twenty-first century public audiences. The project presents the history, musicology, and historiography of Afro-American slave music in the United States. In doing so, the project utilizes two digital media tools: VuVox, to create interactive collages; and VisualEyes, to create digital visualizations. The purpose of this thesis is to assess how the project balances the goals of digital history, public history, and academic history. During the production of the Afro-American Slave Music Project, a number of the promises of digital history were …
Experiencing The World Of Franklin: The Making Of An Immersive And Interactive Historical Exhibit, Daniel Joseph Webster
Experiencing The World Of Franklin: The Making Of An Immersive And Interactive Historical Exhibit, Daniel Joseph Webster
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This thesis involves the creation of a historically-themed museum element. The element, titled “Improving Community,” is a virtual interactive game that allows players to explore certain realities of colonial American life. Within the game, players are presented with a number of civic-related issues that existed throughout the eighteenth century, and they are then given options to improve the situation. Interactivity and immersion are key features of the game, and they have been incorporated so that players may engage with the past and assume a more active role in the process of historical reconstruction. Research for the games draws mostly upon …
Double Duty: Processing And Exhibiting The Children's Home Society Of Florida Collection As An Archivist And Public Historian, April Anderson-Zorn
Double Duty: Processing And Exhibiting The Children's Home Society Of Florida Collection As An Archivist And Public Historian, April Anderson-Zorn
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The Children's Home Society of Florida, often referred to as "Florida's Greatest Charity", is the state's oldest non profit welfare agency. Founded in 1902, the society was instrumental in creating and reforming child welfare laws as well as helping countless children in the state of Florida find loving homes. This paper focuses on the archival processing of the Children's Home Society of Florida Collection papers and the creation of a subsequent web exhibit. The role of archivist and public historian is examined to see how each profession works toward a common goal.