"And I Thought Historians Only Taught": Doing History Beyond the Classroom

David G. Vanderstel

Reprinted from the OAH Magazine of History
16 (Winter 2002). ISSN 0882-228X
Copyright (c) 2002, Organization of American Historians

The practice of history in the public's interest has been around for generations, ever since the first person opened a museum, erected a historical marker, organized an archive, preserved a historically significant structure, or created a program to commemorate a noteworthy event. Although the academic history profession itself dates from the late nineteenth century, the pursuit of becoming a professional historian to serve the public interest is much younger, emerging in the 1970s during a period of significant challenges to and changes within the discipline. It was then that Robert Kelley of the University of California, Santa Barbara, conceived of the field of "public history." He began to teach graduate students interested in pursuing careers in history that there were numerous nonacademic areas in which they could utilize their historical skills. Most significantly, Kelley argued that this history should be for the public's benefit, broadly conceived (hence the name "public history") and that it should not be confined to the traditional classroom or the normal activities of the academic historian.

Emanating from this new movement was the National Council on Public History (NCPH), the largest professional organization for public historians throughout North America, with an increasing number of foreign members. Established in 1979, NCPH has as its mission a commitment to broaden the public's understanding of and appreciation for the past, as well as to increase historians' awareness of their responsibilities to diverse audiences, especially the general public. NCPH members pursue their craft in a variety of institutions, including museums, historical societies, archives, national and state parks, government, historic preservation, business, the media, academe, and even private consulting firms. Consequently, public historians reach and affect many different types of public audiences through their work creating exhibits, designing public programs, maintaining archives, interpreting historic sites, preserving structures, assessing and making public policy, and providing research support for clients, among other tasks.

So why is it important to recognize that historians carry on a viable existence outside the classroom and have an impact on contemporary society, even while they study and interpret the past? Over the past several years, studies have shown that Americans obtain the vast portion of their knowledge about history through museums and historic sites--places where public historians work. Locations such as the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, Colonial Williamsburg, Gettysburg National Military Park, and thousands of local, state, and national museums and historic sites attract millions of visitors each year. It is at locations such as these where historians interpret American history and tell the stories that form the foundations of communities and the nation and shape us as a people.

The history learned at such public history sites is likely to have a greater and more lasting impact on individuals than sitting through a regular history class, simply because the public tends to trust these places as repositories and disseminators of "historical truth." This was proven recently by historians Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen, who explored the "popular uses of history in American life" in their book The Presence of the Past (1). The authors conducted a national survey, which revealed that 80 percent of respondents ranked museums as the most trustworthy source of historical information, followed by personal accounts from grandparents or other relatives (69 percent). College history professors were ranked at 54 percent, followed by high school teachers (35 percent), nonfiction books (32 percent), and movies and television programs (11 percent). Since the American public places so much trust in history museums as the conservators of America's artifacts and the preservers of its history, does this not then mean that historians have a particular responsibility to a much larger classroom--that is, the public at large? I quickly discovered this when I began my own career as a historian at a living history museum in central Indiana. The numerous programs and exhibits for which I provided research support reached?to varying degrees--more than 250,000 people annually, far more than the total number of students I would ever face in the university classroom. Consequently, I realized that, as a professional historian, I had a responsibility to make my research accessible to and understood by the visiting public. This proved to be a special challenge for me, who, like many others of my generation, was trained as an academic historian and prepared to deal with audiences of college students and fellow academics, not members of the general public.

If public historians work in the many areas that I listed previously--and not just in history museums or classrooms--consider the broad reach and potential impact they have in contemporary society. While this might certainly alter the reader's perceptions of what a typical historian does, what particular significance does this have for classroom history teachers? Public historians offer a rich diversity of resources and contacts to enhance the teaching of history. Because of those varied places that employ public historians, there are possibilities for building a network of relationships that will enhance the teaching of history at all grade levels, again demonstrating that there is much more to history and historical skills than the memorization of names and dates. Utilizing such contacts will make history more vibrant and meaningful to students of all ages and possibly encourage students to pursue a history-related career.

As teachers seek ways of improving the content of their classes and maintaining the attention of their students, what better way to study history than to explore it beyond the pages of a textbook and the confines of a regular classroom, by tapping the resources of the public history community (2)? Consider the following means by which to utilize the resources of the public history community and make history more engaging for students and teachers alike:

• Visit a museum to explore the history of your community, state, or nation. Meet with a historian and/or curator to learn about collecting, identifying, and preserving artifacts and how artifacts are used to study and interpret the past. Learn how exhibits are conceived and designed.
  
• Contact a historic preservation organization to learn about architectural styles, the methods of preserving old structures, and the importance of saving and reusing historic buildings. Have the students learn how to document a building or conduct a survey of structures around their school or in their neighborhood.
  
• Meet with an archivist to learn about the many types of documents and methods of preserving historical records. Have the students examine primary documents in order to understand the process of historical research. Incorporate primary sources into the curriculum as a means of enhancing the presentation of historical themes and subjects.
  
• Visit a historic site. Learn the historical significance of that site, how it came to be preserved, and how its story is interpreted for visitors. Examine the methods of interpretation (such as static exhibits, hands-on activities, role-playing interpreters) and what is involved in ensuring historical authenticity at the site.
  
• Contact a reenactment group to learn about the ways in which they interpret history. Learn about the extent to which historical research and documentation plays into the re-creation of their clothing and sets and the interpretation of the lives and times of the individuals and groups portrayed by reenactors.
  
• Invite a professional historian to speak to the class and discuss how he/she decided to become a historian and what he/she does. Have students discuss what is learned by studying the past and its applications for contemporary society.
  

Each of these activities can result in a variety of meaningful classroom projects that will help students become more enthused about studying history and develop critical thinking and research skills, which can be used throughout their academic careers.

As students of history, we all--whether university professors, public historians, or classroom teachers--face the challenge of making history more interesting and meaningful to our respective audiences. The National Council on Public History is committed, through its professional development opportunities, programming, and public outreach, to making history more enjoyable, understandable, and a part of daily life for the wider public. In so doing, NCPH seeks to encourage professional historians to reach beyond their fields of specialization and traditional arenas of academic discourse to participate in public teaching and conversations that demonstrate the joys of studying the past and the importance and relevance of the past to the present.

Existing as an organization dedicated to public outreach and collaboration, NCPH provides a variety of resources for classroom teachers. The NCPH Pre-Collegiate Education Committee explores ways of working with K-12 teachers and of introducing public or applied history into the classroom. NCPH supports National History Day in its efforts to enliven the teaching of history and to instill excitement in the past among students of all ages. Through the several dozen public history programs located at universities throughout the United States and Canada, graduate students learn about the field and how to develop and adapt their historical skills for the good of the public, whether that be in writing grants, preparing National Register nominations, organizing archives, writing exhibit scripts, doing oral history, making documentaries, assessing public policy, or teaching in the classroom. Indeed, probably the strongest asset of NCPH is its network of public historians, which reaches from all levels of the federal government to state and local historical societies to businesses and private consultants.

Many of us who have chosen careers in history had parents who once expressed grave concerns that their children wanted to pursue such a path. At that time, apart from teaching at the elementary, secondary, or collegiate levels, there appeared to be few career options for people with degrees in history. The only sure guarantee, as many parents feared, seemed to be a life of poverty. Things have changed substantially over the years with the diversification of history and, most notably, with the emergence of the public history concentration, which encompasses a wide variety of specializations. Salaries for historians, however, still could stand some improvement.

As it moves into its third decade of existence, NCPH is exploring new ways of expanding its relationships with its varied audiences, including classroom teachers. Part of its recently adopted long-range plan calls for more specialized training for professional historians and teachers on methods of integrating public history into the curriculum, such as educator James Percoco has done in his Springfield, Virginia, high school classrooms. NCPH is convinced that a more thorough exposure to public history in precollegiate education will stimulate student interest in history, nurture an appreciation for the relevance of history in contemporary life, and inspire some to eventually pursue careers in history, or at least to appreciate the usefulness of historical skills.

Since NCPH considers internships to be an essential element of any graduate public history program, we encourage teachers to seek internship or volunteer opportunities at historic sites, museums, archives, or other public history venues as a way of strengthening their own professional development and as a way of "lighting the fire" under their students. Such is one way to strengthen one's appreciation for history, to reinvigorate the teaching of history in the classroom, and to demonstrate that history can in fact be done outside the confines of the traditional classroom.

Committed to making history accessible to and understood and enjoyed by a larger, more diverse public audience, the National Council on Public History invites you to share in the excitement of public history and to explore the many ways of incorporating public history into a classroom setting. By building a collaboration between professional historians (both in the academy and in public history venues) and teachers from all grade levels, we can instill in today's students the excitement and exhilaration about studying history that once drew today's practitioners into the field, one that offers exciting new opportunities for historical work and interpretation for future students of history. q

1. Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen, The Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in American Life (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998).

2. An excellent resource for exploring these options is James Percoco, A Passion for the Past: Creative Teaching of U.S. History (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1998).

Gardner, James B., and Peter S. LaPaglia, eds. Public History: Essays from the Field. Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing Company, 1999.

Howe, Barbara J., and Emory L. Kemp, eds. Public History: An Introduction. Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing Company, 1986.

The Public Historian, a quarterly journal of the National Council on Public History, University of California Press.

Public History News, a quarterly newsletter of the National Council on Public History, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis.

For more information about NCPH, contact The National Council on Public History, 425 University Boulevard, Cavanaugh 327, Indianapolis, IN 46202-5140; (317) 274-2716; <http://www.ncph.org/>.

David G. Vanderstel is the executive director of the National Council on Public History, located at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI). He also holds the positions of senior research associate at the Polis Center and adjunct assistant professor of history at IUPUI.