Political History

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.

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 »

1/7/15 – Women for Legislature: High-Brows or Flappers?

With the 2014 midterm election not far behind us, an archival article from 1930 on women serving in the Idaho state legislature seemed too good not to share. The Idaho Statesman article recounted a tongue-in-cheek debate between Mrs. Frank Bruins and Mrs. W.T. Leighton that took place at a Burbank Federation meeting and revolved around… Read the Rest »

12/17/14 – First Ladies of Idaho

Here’s a neat find from a recent trip to the archives: a booklet of photos and autobiographies of the first ladies of Idaho.[i] The booklet was published by the Friends of the Historical Museum in 1990, and it offers a glimpse into the lives (and wardrobes) of the wives of Idaho’s first governors. The early… Read the Rest »

12/8/14 – FDR’s Court Packing Plan

In April 1937, Texas attorney Richard Burges wrote to his childhood friend Hillary Shewmaker expressing doubt over his vote for Franklin Roosevelt in the recent presidential election. On the heels of his landslide victory, Roosevelt announced proposed legislation to change the composition of the United States Supreme Court, a thinly veiled effort to “pack” the… 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 »

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 »

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