OAH/NPS Current Projects

Imperiled Promise: The State of History in the National Park Service

The OAH is pleased to announce the availability of Imperiled Promise: The State of History in the National Park Service, a new report examining the practice and presentation of American history in the National Park Service and at its sites.

African American Experience on the Overland Trails, Special Study

The National Trails Office, in conjunction with the OAH, has launched an investigative effort to learn more about the experiences of African Americans on the Oregon and California Trails. This study will consider slave and free migrants, paying special attention to any existing structures that may assist NPS personnel in telling this story to the public.

African American Theme Study

The goal of this project is to assess the comprehensiveness of national landmarks commemorating African American history. The OAH assembled a team of scholars to work with the National Landmarks Office to review the current list of landmarks and offer feedback on whether all aspects of African American history are being represented. We are now completing some landmark nominations to address directly the issue of underrepresentation.

Blackstone River Valley Study of Significance

For over 20 years, the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor has been overseen by a federal commission. This federal management body is due to expire in the next few years, and the National Park Service has been directed by Congress to consider the possibility of designating a new unit of the national park system in the Blackstone Valley. The OAH has employed a historian to draft a Statement of Significance, the first step in evaluating whether the site should become a national park.

Buffalo Soldiers Theme Study

This project will assemble a team of scholars to advise the National Park Service on the history of the black regulars in the frontier army, otherwise known as buffalo soldiers. The NPS is compiling a report on this history to ensure that the sites associated with the buffalo soldiers are documented and preserved.

Cape Lookout Historic Resource Study

This research effort will document the history of the area now encompassed by Cape Lookout National Seashore in North Carolina. The goal of this project is to better understand how to manage the park’s historic resources.

Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site Administrative History

The Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site in the North Carolina mountains comprises the home and farm of the author Carl Sandburg. This project will research the establishment and management of the site.

Carter G. Woodson Home Historic Resource Study

The Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site in Washington, D.C., is a new unit of the National Park Service, not yet open to the public. (The house requires substantial restoration.) In planning for this park, an OAH researcher is documenting Carter G. Woodson’s life and career as a founder of the field of African American history, paying particular attention to the ways this history can be illustrated within Woodson’s home.

Catharine Furnace Historic Resource Study

Catharine Furnace is an early nineteenth-century industrial furnace within the boundaries of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park in northern Virginia. This historic resource study will chronicle the history of this site with an eye toward preserving and interpreting it.

Cedar Creek and Belle Grove Historic Resource Study

Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park is a relatively new and developing unit of the National Park Service. The site documents both the nineteenth-century history of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley and the Shenandoah Civil War campaign. This historic resource study will examine events that occurred within the boundaries of the park.

Chinese American Theme Study

Focusing primarily on the western United States, this project will assess the comprehensiveness of national landmarks commemorating the Chinese American experience.

Environmental History Series

The OAH is working with the western region of the National Park Service to publish a series of environmental histories of national parks. These reports are completed and must now be readied for production.

Evaluation of the National Park Service History Program

The OAH is evaluating the state of history within the National Park Service. A team of four OAH members are surveying staff at all park units, visiting sites, and interviewing administrators at selected parks. We hope to release our findings in late 2010.

Everglades Administrative History

This project will provide a more accurate history of the establishment and management of Everglades National Park, in Florida. A major component of this history will be an examination of early efforts at ecosystem restoration and the origins of the idea of a wildlife habitat untouched by humans.

Fort Frederica Administrative History

Fort Frederica National Monument is located on St. Simons Island, off the coast of Georgia, and preserves the archeological remnants of an eighteenth-century British settlement and fort. It was the site of a territorial battle between Spain and Great Britain, which determined that Georgia would remain a British colony. This project will document and analyze the history of the park’s establishment and administration.

Frederick Law Olmsted Historic Resource Study

Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site in Brookline, Massachusetts, preserves the home and office of Olmsted, a founder of landscape architecture. This study will consider how Olmsted and his sons (who took over the business after their father’s retirement) interacted with the neighborhood surrounding the property. Much of the nearby community was actually designed by Olmsted, and his neighborhood was home to numerous influential architects and landscape developers. This research will examine how community may have influenced the work of this thinker.

Frederick Law Olmsted Scholar’s Site Visit

As part of the same planning process that inspired the Olmsted Historic Resource Study, the OAH assembled a team of four scholars to visit the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site and consider the significance of Olmsted’s legacy for today’s site visitors.

Fredericksburg/Spotsylvania Administrative History

Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park in northern Virginia preserves the sites of four Civil War battles—Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the battle of the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania. Because the park is located within the East Coast megalopolis, study will document the post-1950s impact of urban sprawl and economic development on the management of the park and the Civil War resources it is charged with protecting.

Jean Lafitte Administrative History

The OAH is conducting a history of Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve in New Orleans, a park that commemorates the culture and history of southern Louisiana, including the battle of New Orleans and the War of 1812. The story of the park’s development intersects with many larger trends in the history of commemoration and the history of the National Park Service.

John F. Kennedy NHS National Register Nomination

Staff at the John F. Kennedy National Historic Site are working with the OAH to update the site’s National Register documentation (which governs its historic preservation efforts). The OAH has assembled a team of scholars to help create a broad understanding of the site’s historical significance as a memorial shrine and symbol of the Kennedy dynasty.

Lake Mead Administrative History: Final Production

The administrative history of Lake Mead National Recreational Area in Nevada was completed by the historian Hal Rothman before his death, but was never edited or distributed. The park has asked the OAH to take the report through those final phases in the absence of the author.

Martin Van Buren NHS Administrative History

The Martin Van Buren National Historic Site preserves the Hudson River valley home of President Martin Van Buren..This project will document the park’s establishment and management over its thirty-five year history—a period during which professional understanding of historic house museums has changed substantially.

Midwestern Statements of Significance

In order for a site to become a unit of the National Park Service, the agency needs to conduct a Special Resource Study (SRS) to analyze the site’s feasibility, integrity, and significance. One component of the SRS is the statement of significance, which analyzes the national importance of the place by situating it in historical context. The OAH is collaborating with NPS personnel to produce SRS statements of significance for four potential park units in Arkansas and Missouri.

Minute Man Administrative History

This project considers the history of Minute Man National Historical Park, a Massachusetts site commemorating both the opening battles of the Revolution and the literary history of the nineteenth century. Part of this history involves the restoration of a revolutionary-era farming landscape within the context of mid-twentieth-century suburbanization.

Minute Man Scholar’s Visit

In collaboration with the NPS, the OAH has assembled a team of five scholars to visit with staff at Minute Man National Historical Park to discuss how to fit the park’s interpretation with current scholarly understanding of the causes and consequences of the American Revolution.

Oklahoma City Memorial Administrative History

The Oklahoma City National Memorial preserves the memory of the victims and survivors of the bomb that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995. The memorial is now nearly fifteen years old, and the NPS is collaborating with the OAH to produce a history of the site. The story of this memorial sheds light on efforts to commemorate the recent (and traumatic) past.

Oral History Series

The OAH is partnering with the western region of the National Park Service to conduct oral histories of key staff who are nearing retirement. The goal is to establish a record for various agency initiatives.

Pipe Spring Historic Resource Study

This project will document the history of Pipe Spring National Monument, a water source near the Arizona-Utah border. The research will focus primarily on Native American cultures, settlement by the Mormons, and the interactions between these various populations, and will form the foundation of the park’s interpretive processes.

Popular History Series

In order to make NPS research more accessible to a wide audience, the OAH and the NPS have begun collaborating on a series of booklets. Using editing and design, these publications will repackage innovative research into booklets aimed at lay readers. The first booklet in the series will examine the Statue of Liberty’s various symbolic and cultural roles.

Redwood Administrative History

An OAH researcher is preparing a history of Redwood National and State Parks in northern California. This study will provide NPS personnel with a historical context for current management of the site.

San Francisco Maritime Historic Resource Study

This research effort will capture the history of maritime activity in the San Francisco Bay area, to assist the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park in fulfilling its interpretive mission.

Sand Creek Massacre Administrative History

Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site preserves the site of an 1864 attack on a Cheyenne and Arapahoe village by the U.S. Army. Working with NPS staff, the OAH has hired a researcher to record the history of this site’s establishment as a unit of the National Park Service. The specifics of this history are part of the larger story of the federal government’s dealings with Native American communities.

Sand Creek Massacre Scope of Collections

Through this project, the OAH will consult with the NPS to develop a scope of collections for Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, to set the parameters for collecting and housing material artifacts in the museum.

Shiloh Park Historic Resource Study

This study will assess the historic resources within the boundaries of Shiloh National Military Park, a Civil War battlefield in Tennessee, including items from the Civil War era and post–Civil War memorials and markers.

Space Shuttle Columbia

This project will assess the historical significance of the crash sites of the space shuttle Columbia, with an eye toward determining if the area should become a unit of the National Park Service.

Springfield Armory Administrative History

The Springfield Armory National Historic Site in Massachusetts contains the world’s most comprehensive collection of U.S. military small arms. This project will document the history of the creation and administration of the park.

Women’s Rights Administrative History

The Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, New York, was established in the early 1980s, within the context of second-wave feminism. This administrative history of the park will chronicle its establishment as well as the management issues it has faced since it opened.

Underground Railroad Curriculum: From Hampton to New Bedford

Using the Hampton National Historic Site (a former plantation) and the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park (as a destination for those escaping slavery), the OAH is collaborating with the NPS to develop a fifth-grade curriculum covering the slave experience.

Underground Railroad Conference

This project will help small local organizations conduct a regional history conference about slave resistance, cosponsored by the National Park Service Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program and the OAH.