public history

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• SOURCE: Daily Gazette (Schenectady, NY)
  10/24/2020
  

  Schuyler Mansion Works to Bring Clarity to Alexander Hamilton’s Role as Enslaver

  Jessie Serfilippi of the Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site examines Alexander Hamilton's relationship to slavery and challenges his image as a proto-abolitionist. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/17/2020
  

  The Women Behind the Million Man March

  by Natalie Hopkinson

  Community archives such as the District of Columbia’s are critical interventions into the omissions of history. This one, like others, makes clear that behind every great feat in the public record lies an untold story of the unsung foot soldiers, architects, analysts and fixers — and these are often women.

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• SOURCE: Reuters
  10/19/2020
  

  'Slavery and the City' Tour Sheds Light on London's Dark Past

  An organization advocating for the teaching of Black history in British schools has organized walking tours demonstrating the degree to which the city's financial and political institutions were tied to slavery. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/17/2020
  

  Despite Everything, People Still Have Weddings at ‘Plantation’ Sites

  Despite claims by many estates that weddings and events pay for educational programming that addresses the history of slave labor on the property, many still debate the ethics of using plantation properties for celebrations. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/8/2020
  

  Is There a Place for the President of the Confederacy?

  Removing Confederate monuments from public grounds to museums is easier said than done, drawing on scarce resources and pleasing few parties in the conflict over memorializing the CSA. 

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• SOURCE: Perspectives on History
  10/9/2020
  

  #WEWANTMOREHISTORY

  by Greg Downs, Hilary N. Green, Scott Hancock, and Kate Masur

  At historic sites across the United States on September 26, dozens of participating historians presented evidence to disrupt, correct, or fill out the oversimplified and problematic messages too often communicated by the nation’s memorial landscape.

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• SOURCE: Contingent
  10/8/2020
  

  The Desert Keeps Receipts

  by B. Erin Cole

  A meditation on the preservation of the Nevada Test Site in graphic form.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/5/2020
  

  Mellon Foundation to Spend $250 Million to Reimagine Monuments

  “The beauty of monuments as a rubric is, it’s really a way of asking, ‘How do we say who we are? How do we teach our history in public places?’” Elizabeth Alexander, the foundation’s president, said.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  9/28/2020
  

  Amid the Monument Wars, a Rally for ‘More History’

  “Historians have different views on taking down statues,” said Gregory Downs, a professor at the University of California, Davis, and one of the organizers. “But that debate doesn’t really capture what historians do, which is to bring more history.”

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• SOURCE: Golf Digest
  9/29/2020
  

  What’s in a Name? For Some Clubs in the South, Uneasy Ties to the Confederacy

  Historian Adam Domby comments on pressures faced by many golf courses in the South to change their names to remove Confederate associations (he's in favor). 

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• SOURCE: Outside
  9/28/2020
  

  The Problem of Confederate Statues on U.S. Public Lands

  Governments have recently addressed the problem of memorializing the Confederacy on public land. Why should monuments in cemeteries like Arlington or on Civil War battlefields be treated differently? 

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• SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
  9/20/2020
  

  California finally sweeps away most of its tributes to the Confederacy. What took so long?

  by Kevin Waite

  California was home to a substantial secessionist community in the 1850s, and white migrants to the region in the early 20th century brought the Lost Cause mythology with them. 

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• SOURCE: Austin Chronicle
  9/25/2020
  

  Ways of Remembering: A Racial Geography Tour of UT-Austin’s Campus

  What makes the campus such a great teaching tool? "Nothing goes up on a college campus that hasn't been thought through," explains Gordon. "Everything that gets placed and gets named on a college campus has a meaning behind it."

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• SOURCE: TIME
  9/22/2020
  

  Ibram X. Kendi: 100 Most Influential of 2020

  The Rev. Al Sharpton honors Prof. Ibram X. Kendi as a scholar engaged with antiracist activism and an intellectual guide for this year's protest movements.

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• SOURCE: National Council on Public History
  9/17/2020
  

  Inside Journal of the Plague Year's COVID-19 Curatorial Collective

  by Rebecca S. Wingo

  Creating a public digital archive of the COVID pandemic isn't a simple undertaking. A public historian leading the effort discusses how it's developed and how to be involved. 

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• SOURCE: Journal of the Civil War Era
  9/22/2020
  

  Civil War Day of Action: Leading a Reading Group

  by Julie A. Mujic

  Leading a reading group is a great, and socially-distanced, way to take part in the Day of Action for Civil War history. Here are some tips. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  

  Four Principles to Guide Us on Whose Statues Should Topple and Whose Should Remain

  Kevin M. Levin, Lalane Schmidt, Kevin Gover and George Derek Musgrove are among the scholars offering perspective on how local community deliberations about problematic memorials should proceed. 

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• SOURCE: NBC News
  9/20/2020
  

  These Confederate Statues were Removed. But Where Did they Go?

  While many localities have moved swiftly to remove Confederate memorials from public ground, the ultimate disposition of many of the statues is still to be determined. 

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• SOURCE: National Parks Traveler
  9/16/2020
  

  Ed Bearss, Past Chief Historian Of National Park Service, Dies At 97

  Ed Bearss was one of the most important figures in the preservation of Civil War battlefields as sites for the American public to learn about history.

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• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  9/12/2020
  

  My Local Confederate Monument

  by Casey Cep

  The author examines the history and politics of the last remaining Confederate monument on public lands, other than battlefields and cemeteries, in the state of Maryland.