Jobs in History

These days a common discussion in any space - virtual or physical - inhabited by graduate students in history is the state of the job market.  Again, as in the 1970s, part of that discussion includes what historians can do other than teach at a four year institution.  Having strayed from the path of tenured professor years ago, I actively look for opportunities outside of academia, and recently, am intrigued by public highlights of such jobs. Here's a spotlight from the Washington Post on the FBI's Official Historian.

AHA - What We're Reading

I am finding the AHA's weekly blog post "What We're Reading" a very useful tool.  A compilation of good articles and resources from across the history spectrum.  When I can, I feature one or two here in more depth.  This week, I recommend scanning the list yourself as there are several very interesting items, from a new children's museum in NYC to a retrospective on Howard Zinn to a request from the National Archive.  Enjoy!
http://blog.historians.org/what-we-are-reading/979/what-were-reading-february-4-2010-edition

An Exercise

An assignment for this week was to pick a famous quote about history from a given list and write a logical argument or defense.  

The historian depends on certain realities and comforts.  Some are ephemeral and physical - the smell of a leather-bound book, the sharp contrast of black gall ink on bleached linen paper.  One is visceral and immutable - the security of an extended intellectual community, the protection of a multiple participant dialogue.  The scholar of the past can depend on one fact - no historian works in a vacuum.  Unlike the tree in the forest, doomed to an eternity of philosophical inquiry made possible by the absence of an audience, the historian by nature of her profession has, at minimum, an inherent audience of peers who first listen and then continue to question.  Historians create a record defined by those who went before and subsequently altered by those who follow.  Philip Guedalla said of our craft, “History repeats itself; historians repeat each other.”  For in our search for the grail of truth, the answer to “what really happened” is discerned by repetition, not only of inquiry, but also of interpretation.  Only by layering observations compiled from different actors and interpreted by varied observers, can we hope to approach the horizon of historical understanding.  

Additional Mission for House Museum

The Decatur House, opened as a museum in the 1960s by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is reported to have a new mission and focus: the history of the White House.  According to the New York Times, the museum will now, "support research related to White House history, store historical documents, offer expanded educational programs for children, and host lectures and other programs that explore the history of the White House and the surrounding area."  The National Center for White House History at Decatur House will be operated by the White House Historical Association.

I have talked before about house museums as products of the political climates within which they are born.  (See Patricia West's Domesticating History: The Political Origins of American's House Museums.)  What drove Decatur's new mission? A political understanding that only part of the story was being shared? A desire to prove that lessons were learned from the discussions and controversies surrounding the revisioning of the Liberty Bell Center?  The intent to share with the public research compiled over the last several decades that represents a shift in how history is viewed and portrayed?

I am interested to see (not only on the museum's web site but also in the NYT) the emphasis on the museum's intention to interpret the lives of all who lived in Decatur House, free and slave.  Is this new or just newly talked about?  The original mission of the Decatur House Museum was to "educate the public about American cultural and social history as it relates to the House, its location, architecture, preservation, and its occupants and their stories,"  according to this document.  However, the museum summary also makes reference to discussions of who lived in the house and how space was used, demonstrating that urban slave life was being discussed at the Decatur as early as 2000.  Perhaps the "new" aspect at the Decatur is simply the public announcement of good history already being presented.

In addition to the links presented above, visit the National Trust for Historic Preservation's page on the Decatur House for more information, including images.

Reviews of West's book can be found here and here.

Historic Bethlehem Event

Looking for a fun evening in late January? The Historic Bethlehem Partnership is hosting a Winterfest and Beer Pairings on Sunday, January 24th from 4-7 p.m. at the Hotel Bethlehem.  Smithsonian Institution speaker Warren Perry will speak on the repeal of Prohibition.  

Can Scrensavers be an Engagement Tool?

A child of this digital age, my laptop is more than a tool, its a physical space where I work, play, think, relax.  I could pretend that this post was triggered because thinking about the spaces we inhabit is of interest to me.  Truthfully, I've been a junkie for pretty pictures and cool animation ever since the first flying toasters chased toast.  Luckily, that penchant can lead to deeper thoughts.


Today's early-morning-pre-coffee rumination was, "Hmm.  Christmas is over.  Need new screen saver that doesn't have presents and garlands in it. Wonder if there are history ones?" A simple search led to the cheesy screen saver sites of which a smart user is leery.   A few more minutes and I had found that PBS creates screen savers for some of its programming.  Those with a historical bent include: The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Ken Burn's The Civil War, Lewis and Clark, Tesla, and Theodore Roosevelt.  (For more, go to the PBS search page and put "screensaver" into the search box.) 


What about museums? Colleges and Universities discovered years ago that wall papers and screen savers featuring their campuses could draw alumni to an institution's website.  Surely museums have learned the same thing?  Along with this thought, however, came the question of resources.  How affordable/feasible is it to make a screen saver, even if you already have digitized images? Fast on the heels of THAT question...what about image policies and digital copyright? 


First, is the material available? Absolutely.  The Smithsonian's online exhibit, America by Air, has a page of images and objects.  The New York Historical Society online library has a digital collection, also.  (Check out Brooklyn Revealed for an example of a great history website.)  So pictures exist and are already online.  


The question of copyright from a user point of view boils down to "read the rules."  Some museums give you access to images and don't mind if you download for individual use, such as loading into a screensaver slideshow.  Others do mind.  Find, read, and follow the photography or images policy.  From an institutional viewpoint, have a policy.  Having spent last fall investigating museum policies, one of the mechanisms I found most useful as a user was the FAQ page offered within some policies.  A FAQ page allows the museum to answer specific questions such as "May I download an image to as a screen saver or wall paper on my personal computer?"


If the images are there, why then aren't there screen savers for download? I cannot be the first person to think of this.  Must be concern for resources.  While I can get my way around my laptop, I am not a power-user and definitely not a programmer.  However, my initial unscientific research suggests that creating an actual screen saver is much more than throwing some digital images together.  A screensaver is an application, one that must be specific to a platform i.e. PC or Mac, and one that would have to be written for each set of pictures.  Hmm.  Ok.  So where does that leave me as a user and as a professional?


Personally, depending on the institution's policy and my willingness to invest the time, I could download individual images into a folder, point my screensaver to the folder, and create a slideshow.  How can institutions benefit from the public's desire for images without spending significant resources?  My initial thought, based on half an hour of work and two cups of coffee, is this.  If your institution has digital images and a clear image-use policy, on a page where you offer individual images, also offer an option to download the entire set.  This allows me as an end use to have the entire set in a few key strokes instead of repeating the download process for each image.  


Where does this leave me this morning? Still with Christmas Trees flashing on the laptop screen when I stop to think a bit.  But also with the idea in the back of my head to be aware of collections of images I find while surfing history sites and the awareness to be thoughtful of how I professionally present images on web sites.  Now...what else can I find out there?

Separation, marginalization, collaboration - St. Augustine's Slave Galleries

Sometimes we compartmentalize our lives.  Work, school, home, church - we divide our resources between the activities and demands that call us.  Sometimes the lines blur, but often we work to keep them separate.


During today's morning routine of coffee and laptop, I skimmed the headlines of Episcopal Life Online and found a historical example of such separation.  Fairly front and center is a story on the recently renovated and interpreted slavery galleries in St. Augustine's Episcopal Church on New York's Lower East Side.  The church, built in 1828 (a year after slavery was abolished in New York State) collaborated on a renovation project with the Lower East Side Tenement Museum on the historic building's slave galleries, two small rooms behind the organ where blacks were allowed to worship - out of site and separated.  


This is the second recent project (within my awareness) where an Episcopal congregation has dedicated resources to understanding their own past in terms of slavery.   Why the Episcopalians?  On the modern end of the timeline, we've done a lot of soul searching of late (complete with hard work and loss) about owning differences and removing separations.  On the other end of the timeline, if one generalizes about Colonial congregations, Episcopalians tended towards possession of wealth, status, and in some cases, slaves.  The rooms existed in St. Augustine's because there was a (perceived) need.  Some congregants owned slaves (or had free blacks in their households depending on the date) as did some of the founding fathers who attended Christ Church in Philadelphia, another congregation putting commendable effort into revealing its past associations with slavery.  The Christ Church Preservation Trust sites a "mandate from the 2006 General Convention of the Episcopal Church to give a full, faithful, and informed accounting of its history" as the impetus for delving into their past and designing a tool for engaging that past in the present.  Sarah's Story is a 30 minute interpretive experience offered at Christ Church during the summer months.  An interpreter portraying a young, black, female slave shares stories of several historic figures, black and white, in a deliberate review of "early Philadelphia and its silent past." 


I remain proud of the Episcopal Church's work to own who we are and choose whom we will be.  Issues of segregation and marginalization are not only in our past. May we continue to find the strength to own and discuss past examples in our efforts to remove such obstacles from our present and our future.  Also continuing to "do good history" in the process - well, that's a delightful benefit.  Road trip to New York, anyone?