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In a recent cover story on American memory of the Civil War, U.S. News & World Report (30 September 2002) mentioned the National Park Service's (NPS) collaboration with OAH as an example of efforts to bring public understanding of the past more in line with current scholarship. Indeed, this goal is at the heart of the OAH's ongoing relationship with NPS. During the past decade our work together has blossomed to encompass a wider variety of projects--such as conferences, resource studies, theme studies, and administrative histories--that have involved many OAH members.
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Appomatox County Couthouse, Appomatox County, Virginia (Library of Congress Historic American Buildings Survey and the Historic American Engineering Record photograph.)
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Success has come from a commitment on both sides to high quality historical interpretation in all venues, not just the college classroom. This goal is put into practice through dozens of projects, where the OAH draws on the expertise of its individual members to provide NPS with a variety of professional services, from exhibit reviews and conference presentations to original research and historiographical works. Since historical NPS sites receive more than 75 million visits each year, their educational influence is enormous, and collaboration between OAH scholars and NPS historians has a far-reaching effect.
Currently, OAH has twenty-two active contracts with NPS, and in January 2001 we created a half-time position to administer the growing number of projects. The list below shows the vast range of history, sites, and historians involved during the past several years. Please let us know if you are interested in participating in future projects.
Range of NPS Projects
Administrative Histories: Primary research on the history of the park itself (rather than the history that the park documents). Topics to consider include why the park was originally deemed historically significant, the effort to bring it under park service jurisdiction, various administrative strategies, and the changing ways the park has portrayed the past events it commemorates. While NPS has been doing administrative histories for decades, this is a new kind of project for the OAH. The first project of this type is Hopewell Furnace.
Conferences: Assistance in organizing symposia and conferences for NPS staff and the general public. The purpose of these events is to provide NPS personnel an opportunity for professional development and to bring current scholarship to a wider audience. Although we are not currently undertaking any conference planning, past examples include the John Brown Conference at Harpers Ferry National Park and the Washington and Du Bois Conference in Roanoke, Virginia.
Historic Resource Studies: Primary historical research into a topic that has not received much attention in the existing literature. This type of project is normally undertaken with a new historic site whose history is not well-documented or with an existing site preparing to address new topics in its exhibits. Examples of this type of project include the Rosie the Riveter project (a new park) and Sagamore Hill (an existing site).
Site Reviews: Review of the ways the park is presenting the past and suggestions on how to improve interpretation. Examples include the reviews of Valley Forge and the U.S.S. Arizona.
Theme Studies: A synthesis of the latest scholarship on a given topic, designed to give NPS personnel a snapshot of the field so that they can better assess the historical significance of sites and properties that have not yet received federal recognition as historic landmarks. Generally this type of project is performed for the National Landmarks Office; examples include the Civil Rights project and the World War II Homefront project.
Previous OAH/NPS Projects (1989-2000)
The names below are a partial list of the OAH members, NPS historians, and other scholars involved with these projects.
National Historic Landmark Theme Study on Women's History
Page Putnam Miller et al.
Revision of the NPS Thematic Framework
Page Putnam Miller, director; J. Barto Arnold III; Frederick Babb; Marty Blatt; Carol Berkin; Richard Betts; David S. Brose; Warren Brown; Michael Conzen; Bruce Craig; Linda De Pauw; Leon Fink; Jim Gardner; Brent Glass; Robert Grumet; Patricia Henry; Albert Hurtado; Heather Huyck; Alan Kraut; Antoinette Lee; Benjamin Levy; Earl Lewis; Barry Mackintosh; Hugh McCauley; Cecil McKithan; Dwight Pitcaithley; Don Ritchie; George Sanchez; Phillip Scarpino; Michael Schene; and Michael Spratt.
"Humanities and the National Parks: Adapting to Change," a Report by the Humanities Review Committee of the NPS Advisory Board
James Horton, chair; Raymond Arsenault; Ted Birkedal; Marty Blatt; Laura Feller; Laurence Glasco; Lois Horton; Steven Kesselman; Page Putnam Miller; Holly A. Robinson; Frederick Hoxie; Alan Kraut; Charles Mayo; Frank McManamon; Dwight Pitcaithley; Kenneth Prewitt; Holly Robinson; Richard West Sellars; Bruce Smith; Stephanie Toothman; Marie Tyler-McGraw; Sandra Weber; and Robin Winks.
"Life and Legacy of Ulysses S. Grant" Conference
Eric Foner; Joseph T. Glatthaar; Vivien Green Fryd; Ron Grele; Kenneth T. Jackson; Robert J. Kaczorowski; Michael Les Benedict; Kurt Piehler; Jerry L. Schober; and Nina Silber.
Exploring a Common Past: Interpreting Women's History in the National Park Service Booklet
Gail Dubrow; Sara Evans; and Page Putnam Miller.
Antietam National Battlefield Site Review
Barbara Franco; Gary Gallagher; and Leslie Rowland.
"The Monument to Robert Gould Shaw and the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment: History and Meaning" Conference
James Cullen; Barbara Fields; George Fredrickson; James Horton; Lois Horton; Jacqueline Jones; Edward Linenthal; William McFeely; Patricia Turner; and Jean Fagan Yellin.
Richmond National Battlefield Site Review
Edward Ayers; Gary Gallagher; and Sandra G. Treadway.
Little Bighorn Battlefield Site Review
Ed Linenthal; Dave Edmunds; Paul Hutton; and Fred Hoxie.
"Interpreting Edison" Conference
Brian Adkins; Neil Baldwin; Charles Bazerman; Amy Sue Bix; Brian Bowers; Barbara Brewer; Cynthia Clegg; Theresa Collins; Ruth Cowan; Andrea Dragon; Meryem Ersoz; Gregory Field; Robert Gabrick; Donald Gfell; Lisa Gitelman; Howard Green; Mary Ann Hellrigel; Paul B. Israel; Barbara Markham; Peter Martland; Kai Mikonnen; Andre Millard; Gilbert P. A. Mom; Charles Musser; David Nye; Maxine Lurie; Patricia McDermott; John E. O'Connor; William Pretzer; Michael Punt; Carroll Pursell; Thomas Schlereth; David Scilia; Christopher Sellers; Richard Sher; David Edison Sloane; Paul C. Spehr; John Staudemaier; Joseph P. Sullivan; Alan Trachtenberg; George Tselos; Steve Williams; John F. Wilson; George Wise; Marianne Berger Woods; and Deirdre Yates.
"Washington and Du Bois at the Turn of Two Centuries" Conference
Ann Alexander; Herbert Aptheker; Edward Ayers; Julian Bond; Scot French; Louis R. Harlan; David Levering Lewis; Carl Harris Marbury; August Meier; Michelle Mitchell; Robert Paynter; Jerry Thornberry; Peter Wallenstein; Cary Wintz; and Jeanne Zeidler.
Gettysburg Site Review
Eric Foner; James McPherson; and Nina Silber.
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Battle of Gettysburg veteran John Burns seated outside in a rocking chair with his musket. (Civil War Treasures from the New York Historical Society.)
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Sagamore Hill Site Review
H.W. Brands; Douglas Brinkley; John A. Gable; and Natalie Naylor.
The Stuff of Women's History Conference
Beth Boland; Janice Brandon-Falcone; Joan Jacobs Brumberg; Robin Campbell; Jean Choate; Christopher Clarke-Hazlett; Penny Colman; Rose Diaz; Faye Dudden; Jane Dusselier; Sarah Elbert; Miriam Formanek-Brunell; Allison Hepler; Heather Huyck; Polly Welts Kafuman; Susan Kaufman; Kathleen Kean; Emma Lapsansky; Barbara Little; Margaret Lynch-Brennan; Katherine Martinez; Edith P. Mayo; Beth Miller; Marla Miller; Jennifer Mitchell; "Sako" Fusako Ogata; Barbara Presnall; Vivien Rose; Mary Rothschild; Pamela Sanfilippo; Ellen Schwartz; Ingrid Scobie; Kathryn Kish Sklar; Barbara Clark Smith; Peg Killam Smith; Louise Stevenson; Shirley Teresa Wajda; Margaret Washington; Judith Wellman; and Patricia West.
Rosie the Riveter Historic Resource Study
Original research to document the impact World War II mobilization had on Richmond, California—site of the Kaiser Shipyards. This project will help NPS develop a plan for Rosie the Riveter National Park, a newly designated park on the former site of the shipyards.
Miss Anna Bland, a burner, is shown at work on the SS George Washington Carver, ca. 1943 at the Richmond (California) Shipyard of the Kaiser Company. (Office of War Information, Overseas Picture Division, Library of Congress from its "America from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945.")
John Brown Conference
Michael Antonucci; George F. Bagby; Kenneth Carroll; Paul Cimbala; Nicole Etcheson; Paul Finkelman; Rebecca Hill; Ted Hovert Jr.; Gary Kornblith; Carol Lasser; Douglas Ley; Jean Libby; Edward Linenthal; James Loewen; Timothy Patrick McCarthy; John Pyne; John Quist; Philip Schwarz; Gloria Sesso; Melissa Soto; John Stauffer; Marie Tyler-
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Sagamore Hill Historic Resource Study
Original research on the ways Sagamore Hill, Theodore Roosevelt's estate, fits into the larger history of the nation's twenty-sixth president. H. W. Brands; Kathleen Dalton; Lewis Gould; and Natalie Naylor.
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Theodore Roosevelt House, "Sagamore Hill" in Oyster Bay, Nassau County, New York, ca. 1933 (Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress, Prints and Photograph Division.) |
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McGraw; Shirley Teresa Wajda; and Julie Winch.
Meanings of Freedom Conference
Marty Blatt; Edward Countryman; Joseph Ellis; David Hackett Fischer; Eric Foner; William Fowler; James Horton; Linda Kerber; Pauline Maier; David McCullough; Gary Nash; Barbara Clark Smith; and Alfred Young.
Civil War Through Current Scholarship and Technology Kevin Foster; Paul Ghiotto; Richard Hatcher; Daniel McGrail; Arnold Schofield; and Glenn Thomas.
Women and Historic Preservation Conference
Ruth Abram; Allida Black; Daniel Bluestone; Gail Dubrow; Heather Huyck; Antoinette Lee; Edith Mayo; Marla Miller; Page Putnam Miller; Richard Moe; Dwight Pitcaithley; Vivien Rose; and Fath Davis Ruffins.
Racial Desegregation in Public Education Theme Study Vicki Ruiz; Waldo Martin; Harvard Sitkoff; and Patricia Sullivan.
Appomattox Courthouse Site Review
Edward Ayers; Joseph Glatthaar; and Joan Waugh.
Kennesaw Mountain Site Review
Anne Bailey; David Blight; Gary Gallagher; and Tom Scott.
Current OAH/NPS Projects (2000- )
Underground Railroad in Virginia and Maryland
Primary research to determine extent of underground railroad activity connected to two plantations that are now held by NPS. Marie Tyler-McGraw and T. Stephen Whitman.
Jamestown Fellowships and Research
Distribute fellowships to graduate students whose dissertations promise to provide new insight on the history of Jamestown settlement and meeting of cultures. Anna Sophia Agbe-Davies; Ira Berlin; Michele Marie Hinton; Lorena S. Walsh; and Karen Bellinger Wehner.
National Historic Landmark Theme Study Updates Synopses of the latest research on Asian and Latino immigration, Hispanic history, Latino migration, and history of agriculture. Elliott Barkan; Matt Garcia; Valerie Grim; and F. Arturo Rosales.
World War II Homefront Theme Study
A series of essays recounting the history of the homefront experience. Part of a service-wide endeavor to improve coverage of this often-overlooked aspect of World War II. Marilyn Harper; John Jeffries; Nelson Lichtenstein; Harvard Sitkoff; and William Tuttle.
Women's History Booklet
Assist staff at Women's Rights National Park to update the 1996 booklet "Exploring a Common Past: Interpreting Women's History in the National Park Service." Sheri Bartlett Browne; Jill Cowley; Sara Evans; Shaun Eyring; and Leslie Sharp.
Bibliographic Essays
Prepare a series of bibliographic essays aimed at a lay audience, to be published on the NPS web site. Topics include: commemoration, environmental history, exploration, civil war, military-Indian conflicts, history of religion, and history of technology. Adam Rome and James C. Williams.
Underground Railroad in Arkansas and Missouri
An effort to determine the extent of underground railroad activity in the region and create a database of findings.
Lincoln Highway Study
Primary research to determine the historic and cultural significance of the Lincoln Highway--3,300 miles of highway comprising one of the earliest national roadways.
Statue of Liberty Research Recommendations Recommendations for interpretive themes to be incorporated into future exhibits at the monument. Albert Boime; David Glassberg; and John Tauranac.
Hopewell Furnace Administrative History
A project documenting the history of Hopewell Furnace National Park, from its origins in the New Deal through the 1990s. Leah Glaser.
Governors Island Historic Resource Study
Primary research on the history of this former army base, which has recently been designated a national historic site.
Civil Rights Theme Studies
An ongoing project to help identify historically significant sites connected to the struggle by various groups to obtain civil rights protection. Phases of the project will address desegregation in employment, voting rights, housing, and public accommodations. Nan Alamilla Boyd; Albert Camarillo; Yong Chen; Roger Daniels; Sara Evans; Matt Garcia; Alton Hornsby; Peter Iverson; Steven Lawson; James T. Riding In; Leila Rupp; and Charles Vincent.
Aviation Theme Study
Prepare theme study on the history of aviation for the hundredth anniversary of flight.
Site Review Fund
Teams of historians review the historical interpretation presented at six national parks (including Valley Forge, the Ulysses S. Grant Home, and the U.S.S. Arizona) and offer suggestions for improvement. Catherine Clinton; Michael Fellman; Wilma King; John Simon; and Brooks Simpson.
National Historic Landmark Nomination for the U.S. Air Force Academy
Assist in preparing the nomination to designate the U.S. Air Force Academy a National Historic Landmark.
Web-based Finding Aids
Process NPS records held by the National Archives and publish the finding aids on a web site.
John Dichtl is deputy director and Susan Ferentinos is public history coordinator, Organization of American Historians.
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