General Public History
7/1/15 – July Blog Hiatus
In the spirit of the great American tradition of summer holidays, we’re taking a break from our blog for the month of July. To keep up with what is of interest to us, you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Or, take a look back at this post we did last year on the… Read the Rest »
6/24/15 – Big History on the Snake River
A few weekends ago, I paddled the Snake River from Swan Falls Dam to Celebration Park. The outing was recreational, but it also served as a fantastic history lesson. And not just any history lesson; this was a place-based, riverine version of Big History. In this new history curriculum, geared for high school students but… Read the Rest »
6/17/15 – Baasan
My undergraduate education gave me many things, one of which is my dear friend Samantha. We became fast friends, both of us were studious, avid connoisseurs of ice cream (but terrified of the dreaded freshman 15), and a quarter Asian. One of the many perks of our friendship was getting to meet Samantha’s family, including… Read the Rest »
6/10/15 – SHRA’s Jennifer Stevens on NCPH’s History@Work blog
This week on the National Council on Public History’s History@Work blog, SHRA’s Jennifer Stevens has a guest post on the intersection of public history and policy. Click here to read the entire piece, including how a discovery of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.’s work lead her to her career in entrepreneurial public history.
6/3/15 – Colorado Chataqua
On a recent trip to Boulder, Colorado I had the chance to stay in the Colorado Chautauqua, one of the few Chautauquas left in the U.S., and the only one still operating west of the Mississippi. The nationwide Chautauqua movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries was characterized by intellectual and cultural retreats… Read the Rest »
5/27/15 – 100 Years of Town Forests
This year, Vermont is celebrating 100 years of town forests. Town forests are just that – tracts of forest managed by the town, something that sounds so simple that it’s easy to forget their significance. I have fond memories of tromping through our town forest growing up in Ferrisburgh; it is on Shellhouse Mountain, a… Read the Rest »
5/20/15 – Cherry Blossoms
Despite my many research trips to Washington D.C. I’ve never had the opportunity to experience the city’s renowned cherry blossoms. Instead, every spring I gaze at the National Park Service’s live feed of the Cherry Blossom Web Cam. While most of the time my thoughts are rather rudimentary (“Golly, those flowers sure are pretty…”) this… Read the Rest »
5/13/15 – Go Fish
Looking at an image of (renowned Washington governor) Isaac Stevens, two things come to mind. First, he has a striking resemblance to Brad Pitt. Second, he looks like a man that gets what he wants, come hell or high water. As the first Territorial Governor of Washington and the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Stevens did… Read the Rest »
5/6/15 – Early Snow Surveys
While reading correspondence from the Bureau of Reclamation recently, SHRA researchers came across indications that some of the earliest snow surveys, dating back to the early 1920s, were conducted in the Boise River watershed. This piqued our interest in the early history of snow surveys and how technological developments have improved their accuracy. At a… Read the Rest »
4/22/15 – Jackson School
There’s a sign along Highway 20, just northwest of Mountain Home, Idaho, that has caught my attention many times. “Jackson School,” it reads, “1898-1925.” There’s no other explanation, and there’s not much else around aside from fields. After my last trip past the sign, I finally did some research. Jackson School was part of Rattlesnake Station,… Read the Rest »