General Public History
10/11/13 – Revisiting the Great Mud Bath of 1959 in the Boise Foothills
One of the things that gives Boise its particular sense of place is the Boise Front, the range of foothills that rise to the Northeast of town and stretch to the Rocky Mountain range. In 2001, Boise voters approved a $10 million dollar levy dedicated to acquiring open space in the Foothills jumpstarting conservation of… Read the Rest »
6/7/13 – Talking History
At SHRA, we specialize in putting history to work. For us, this most frequently means combing archives and weaving narratives from a variety of written or photographic records. However, SHRA is also proud to be a part of the growing trend of oral history projects that are occurring across the country. Currently, the oral history… Read the Rest »
5/24/13 – Celebrating 150 Years of History in Boise, Idaho
Providing environmental litigation support keeps SHRA busy with clients across the United States. Our historians love digging into primary source documents on topics relating to historical mining, land use, irrigation practices, and other issues. We also take great pride in working in general public history and jump at any opportunity to get involved with projects… Read the Rest »
3/22/13: The U.S. Government Helps the Hat Industry
My favorite research projects are those that lead me to new collections and new records that are unfamiliar to me. I have spent many hours – and probably years – of my life poring over records of the Bureau of Reclamation, the General Land Office, and the Bureau of Mines. But a recent project has… Read the Rest »
11/30/12: Abraham Lincoln and the Gem State
If it seems like you come across Abraham Lincoln at every turn in Idaho’s capital, you wouldn’t be far off. You might encounter him while walking through Julia Davis Park, driving along Capitol Boulevard, or grabbing a cup of java. The iconic Lincoln continues to keep a hold on our national imagination, as well, with… Read the Rest »
11/16/12: “Franksgiving” – Why Thanksgiving is when it is
Next week, we will sit down and observe that most American of celebrations – Thanksgiving. For generations, the fourth Thursday of November has been set aside to mark this tradition, and few people today realize that Thanksgiving was not nationally recognized until the late 19th century, let alone that it did not enjoy a fixed… Read the Rest »
9/21/12: A Look Back at the 1912 Presidential Election and its Parallels to Today
NPR teased its listeners on Wednesday morning with this: “It’s hard to be a Democrat in the Deep South.” The teaser was a plug for a political story that aired later that day and no doubt mentioned the increasingly contentious upcoming presidential race. It’s likely that some of the story’s interviewees may have lamented our… Read the Rest »
9/7/12: The Evolution of American Public Education
With autumn approaching, school buses and children carrying backpacks have again become a common sight in most communities. And, as in most election cycles, many communities are facing ballot measures over school funding, union rights, or some other related issue that will have a major impact on their public educational institutions. In Idaho, a ballot… Read the Rest »
8/10/12: Remembering the Great Fires of 1910
As Idaho, Colorado, and other western states suffer through another season of wildfires that claim lives and homes and pollute the summer air, we remember our region’s long history of forest fires and the evolution of the U. S. Forest Service’s approach to them over the past 100 years. Author and journalist Timothy Egan has… Read the Rest »
7/27/12: The Path to the Modern Olympics
In the run-up to the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, there has been a deluge of print, TV and internet coverage on everything from infrastructure upgrades, security concerns, cost overruns, political shenanigans and especially the human interest stories that make the athletes and their accomplishments transcend from the simply incredible to the mythic. Much is also… Read the Rest »