The Smithsonian’s Museum on Main Street (MOMS) was recently awarded a grant to engage underserved, rural youth in using technology to capture local stories related to the MOMS’ Journey Stories exhibit. As part of the grant, I will join another scholar as we conduct workshops in oral history methods for teachers, students and museum staff…
Category: Consulting Historian
Reconstructing a Community’s Past as a Consulting Public Historian
For most of 2011, I’ve been doing fieldwork to document the public history of Havre de Grace around the time the British burned the town in May 1813. To aid in understanding this era, I just completed a study of the population and demographic characteristics of the community in the first third of the 19th…
Participating in Focus Group Discussing How to Strengthen Smithsonian’s Museums on Main Street Program
This week I participated in a focus group discussing how to strengthen the Smithsonian’s Museums on Main Street (MOMS) program. The Maryland Humanities Council, the sponsor of the initiative in this state, assembled a panel of stakeholders and subject matter experts to share perspectives on how to strengthen the program. This cultural initiative serves small town…
Helping 141-Year Old Newspaper Focus Content on Area’s Heritage
This morning Chesapeake Publishing unveiled its newest publication, “Weekend Whig.” This feature-rich section is loaded with local stories about the people and history of the county. As they focus these pages on local copy, the publisher noted that they’re tapping into the interest in Cecil County’s roots and the wealth of information and photographs about…