History 542, Fall 2001

                                                          The Practice of Public History

                                     Mondays, 5:45-8:25, Cavanaugh Hall 537, Four Credits

 

Professor:                     Philip Scarpino                        

Office:              Cavanaugh 503R

Phone:              274-5983

Email:                           pscarpin@iupui.edu

Office Hours:                Mondays 9:45-10:45 and 4:00-5:00; Wednesdays 1:00-2:00; and by appt.

 

History 542, which is the foundation course for the department's graduate program in public history, provides an introduction to the theory and practice of making history in and for the public.  This semester we will consider the development of the public history movement in the United States, discuss key issues and concepts related to the public practice of the historian's craft, examine a range of employment options for public historians, and gain some practical experience in the methods and practice of public history.  Several guest speakers will provide you with an opportunity to meet, listen to, and ask questions of practicing public historians.

 

Objectives:

 

I have four course objectives, each of which grows out of my belief that a good public historian must first be a good historian:  (1) to build on the research, analytical, and communication skills that each student brings to this class; (2) to encourage critical examination of concepts that are key to making history in the public arena, including audience, delivery, limits, and ethics; (3) to develop an appreciation for the larger cultural and political context within which public historians practice; and (4) to introduce the various areas of public history and to provide an opportunity for limited experience.

 

Grading:

 

Local sources/

 land-use project                                   October           8          20%

Review of museum exhibit                     October           29        10%

IHRG grant writing project                    November        12        20%

Review of Archibald book                    November        19        10%

Final paper                                           December        5          20%

Class participation                                                                    20%

 

Local sources/land-use project:  Public historians routinely use local sources for a variety of purposes, including research on land use associated with past toxic contamination.  This exercise will introduce you to local sources that can be used for land-use research, as well as the many other types of work regularly performed by public historians.  It will also provide you with practice in analyzing and interpreting your findings and communicating your results.  You will be producing a report of eight to twelve pages, plus citations, bibliography, and appendices, which will summarize your research, develop a use profile of a parcel of property in Indianapolis, and draw conclusions based on your research.  I will provide a list of properties and a scenario.  I suggest that you consult with me as you develop your research design.

 

Review of museum exhibit:  Peer review is an important part of the on-going professional "conversation" among historians, and despite its shortcomings, is the single best tool for assessing the quality of historians' work.  In recent years, the public history movement has encouraged professional journals to expand their review sections to include exhibits, films, oral histories, and "gray literature."  This assignment will introduce you to the peer review process; provide you a chance to analyze an exhibit, which is an important means for delivering history to the public; and give you the opportunity to interact with museum professionals in the community.  You will be using the guidelines for exhibit review developed by Thomas Schlereth, in "Museum Exhibition Review," Journal of American History 76 (June 1989): 192-95.  There are examples of exhibit reviews using these guidelines in nearly every issue of the JAH since June 1989.  The Public Historian also routinely reviews exhibits.  See class handout before you begin.

   

Grant Project:  Using the standard application materials provided by the Indiana Humanities Council and the Indiana Historical Society, you are asked to prepare an Indiana Heritage Research Grant application.  Guidelines and sample applications will be on reserve in Cavanaugh 537 and on the department’s home page.  Grading will be based upon the degree to which the applications meet the guidelines; the feasibility of the project considering time frame, volume of work, and human and financial resources; the clarity of purpose and significance; and the appropriateness of the budget.  You will be preparing a resume as part of this assignment.

 

Book Review: Professional journals regularly review new books in most fields of history.  You should read several reviews in The Public Historian and The Journal of American History.  Read their review policies as well.  (Check out their web sites.)  Write a review of Robert Archibald’s book, A Place to Remember, using the same format as the most recent editions of The Public Historian.  You have no more than 750 words, which is about three and one-half double-spaced pages.  Your review should summarize what the book is about and assess its contribution to the literature of public history.  (By December you should be in good shape to do that.)  Reviews offer praise where that is due and criticism where it fits.

 

Paper:  The general subject of your paper will be your evolving understanding of public history based upon the readings, class discussions, remarks of guest speakers, and projects.  Further important information on this assignment may be found on a forthcoming handout.  I will evaluate the organization, clarity, and persuasiveness of your argument; the degree to which you draw upon key themes; and evidence that you have an evolving understanding that is informed by the readings, discussions, guest presentations, and projects.  Papers should be typed, about fifteen to twenty pages, plus endnotes and a bibliography of sources used.  Please keep in mind that this is a semester-long project.  I suggest that you keep an "idea journal" and that you talk to me about your paper well before you begin to write.

 

Class Participation:  After the first week, most of the class periods will be devoted to discussion.  Effective oral communication is an important part of graduate education.  I will look for evidence that individual students have done the required readings, that they have thought about the issues raised by the authors, and that they have established connections among the various readings.  I will consider the ways in which students advance the discussion by asking and answering questions; by commenting on, evaluating, and analyzing the readings; by linking the readings to broader issues and concepts related to public history; and by engaging in dialogue with guest speakers.

 

Please Note:  During the course of the semester, I will have two assignments that are part of class participation:  a written assignment related to bibliography and a class

exercise on interpreting material culture.  I will distribute scenarios in class.

 

 

Course Policies

 

Grades of Incomplete:                                                                                  

 

I will be very reluctant to give a grade of Incomplete (I).  I assign Incompletes only to students who have successfully completed most of the course work and who have been prevented by significant and unanticipated circumstances from finishing all of their assignments.

 

Cheating and Plagiarism:

 

My policy on cheating and plagiarism is to assign a zero to the work in question.  Plagiarism is the act of stealing the ideas or writings of someone else and using them as your own.  You plagiarize if you copy directly what someone else has written without quotations and proper citations.  You also plagiarize if you paraphrase someone else's writings to avoid using quotations and citations or if you use someone else's ideas or factual information without attribution.  For further information on cheating and plagiarism, consult the Campus Bulletin, 2000-2001: IUPUI, p. 36.  If you do not know when and how to cite your sources, I strongly recommend that you buy a copy of Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers, 6th ed., (1996).  A very good discussion of plagiarism, with examples, may be found in Neil R. Stout, Getting the Most out of Your U.S. History Course:  The History Student's Vade Mecum (1990), pp., 65-66.  If you cannot find a copy, you are welcome to look at mine.

 

Late work:

 

Employers expect work to be done on time, and so do I.  Unless I have approved your excuse, I will subtract two (2) points from your grade for each day that an assignment is late.

 

Attendance:

 

While I understand that everyone will face unexpected or unusual circumstances, ordinarily I expect graduate students to show up for class.  IUPUI requires that professors report on attendance.  While I don’t “count” attendance directly in grades, part of your grade is based on class participation and it is difficult to participate if you are not here.  I especially frown on the practice of skipping class on the evening that an assignment is due in order to finish it up.  If you need an extra day, arrange that with me in advance and then come to class.

 

 

 

 

Email and voice mail:

 

I have email and voice mail that is on twenty-four hours a day.  If you need to contact me, you are welcome to use either.

 

Please note:  Ordinarily, I will not play "phone tag."  If you leave a phone message, speak slowly, provide a number where you can be reached, state when you will be at that number, and I will try twice to return your call.

 

Class materials on the Internet:

 

Class materials are posted on the History Department’s Home Page.

 

 

Office hours:

 

9:45-10:45 am and 4:00-5:00 pm, Monday; 1:00 - 2:00 pm, Wednesday, and by appointment.

 

If you have questions or if things are not clear or if you just want to discuss the class materials, I invite you to take advantage of my office hours or to make an appointment.  Generally speaking, if my door is open, and I am not otherwise busy, I will be happy to talk to you. 

Readings for H452

 

 

Readings on reserve:

 

Most of the readings for this class will be available in Cavanaugh Hall 537.  Please sign them out and consider them to be on two-day reserve.  If your schedule makes it hard to return readings after two days or so, please make arrangements with me in advance.

 

 

Readings in the Bookstore:

 

Willa K. Baum, Oral History for the Local Historical Society, Third Edition, Revised (1995).

Robert Archibald, A Place to Remember: Using History to Build Community (1999).

Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 6th ed., (1996).

 

Note:  While I am not "requiring" Turabian, it is a book that you should own.  I'll expect that your written work will conform to the guidelines for use of numbers, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and citations.

 

 

References for land use/local history project:

 

Craig E. Colten and Diane Mulville-Friel, Guidelines and Methods for Conducting

 Property Transfer Site Histories (Sept. 1990).

Dale A. Stirling, "Site Histories in Environmental Site Assessments:  A New Opportunity

 for Public Historians," The Public Historian 12(Spring 1990): 45-52.

Shelley Bookspan, "Potentially Responsible Party Searches:  Finding the Cause of Urban

 Grime," TPH 13(Spring 1991): 25-34.

Craig E. Colten, "Preparing Adequate Site Histories: Qualifications, Sources, and

 Products," in Proceedings of 1991 Environmental Site Assessments Case Studies and

 Strategies:  The Conference (July 29-31, 1991): 177-188.

 

 

Class Topics, Readings Schedule, Guest Speakers:

 

August 27         INTRODUCTION TO HISTORY 542

INTRODUCE LOCAL SOURCES/LAND-USE PROJECT

LECTURE:  "HISTORY, HISTORIANS, AND THE PUBLIC"

 

September 3                 Labor Day

 

September 10              HISTORY AND HISTORIANS

 

Carl N. Degler, "Remaking American History," Journal of American History 67(June

 1980): 7-25.

Michael Howard, "The Lessons of History," The History Teacher 15(August 4, 1982):

 489-501.

Peter N. Stearns, "The New Social History:  An Overview," in Gardner and Adams,

 Ordinary People:  Perspectives on the New  Social History (AASLH: 1983), pp.3-21.

Theodore S. Hamerow, "The Decline of the Historical Profession," OAH Newsletter

 (November 1987): 4, 21.

Carl Degler, "Is the New Social History Threatening Cleo?" OAH Newsletter (August

 1988): 4-5.

Richard H. Kohn, "The Future of the Historical Profession," Perspectives, American

 Historical Assoc. 27(November 1989): 8-10, 12.

 

 

September 17               HISTORY, HISTORIANS, AND MEMORY

 

David Glassberg, “Public History and the Study of Memory,” The Public Historian 18(Spring

 1996): 7-23.

“ Round table: Responses to David Glassberg’s ‘Public History and the Study of Memory,’”

 The Public Historian (Spring 1997): 30-67.

Otis L. Graham, Jr., Editor’s Corner, “Thinking abut O.J. Simpson and Multiplying

 Divisions:   Interpreting History in a Fragmenting Society,” The Public Historian, 18(Winter

 1996): 9-11.

Journal of American History (March 1989), Special issue on Memory and American

 Michael  Frisch, "American History and the Structures of Collective Memory," pp. 1130-55.

Nigel Worden, "Unwrapping History at the Cape Town Waterfront," The Public

 Historian, 16(Spring 1994): 33-50.  Winner of the G. Wesley Johnson Prize for the best

 article in TPH in 1994.

David Neufeld, “Public Memory and Public Holidays: The Goldpanner, Corporate Capital, Tourism and Yukon’s Discovery Day Holiday,” Paper delivered at National Council on Public History, Spring 1998.

 

 

 

 

September 24               DOING HISTORY

Otis L. Graham, Jr., "Uses and Misuses of History in the Debate Over Immigration

 Reform," The Public Historian 8(Spring 1986): 41-64.

Daniel Boorstin, "The Historian:  'A Wrestler With the Angel,'" The New York Times

 Book Review (20 September 1987): 1, 28-29.

Stephen Cox, "How to Write History," The Annals of Iowa (1988): 261-67. State

 Historical Society of Iowa.

David M. Oshinsky, "Oral History:  Playing by the Rules,"  Journal of American History

 77(September 1990):  609-614.

 

 

October 1                    DOING HISTORY IN PUBLIC:  REFLECTIONS ON

                                    CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES

 

 

NOTE:  THIS WEEK WE WILL BE DOING THE FIRST PARTICIPATION EXERCISE.    YOU WILL BE ASKED TO WRITE A SHORT LETTER RECOMMENDING A FEW OF THE READINGS (INCLUDING THIS WEEK’S READINGS) TO A SOON-TO-BE PUBLIC HISTORIAN.

 

 

"Symposium: Disney and the Historians -- Where Do We Go From Here?" TPH 17(Fall

 1995): 41-89.  Articles by:  Marcia G. Synnott, Cary Carson, Richard Frankaviglia,

 Patricia Mooney-Melvin, and Michael Wallace.

William Tramposch, “Mickey and the Muses,” History News 53(Winter 1998): 10-13, 15-16.

Douglas Greenberg, “‘History is a Luxury’: Mrs Thatcher, Mr. Disney, and (Public)

 History,” Reviews in American History Special issue on “The Challenge of American

 History” 26(March 1998): 294-311.

 

Neil Harris, “Exhibiting Controversy,” Museum News 74(September/October 1995): 36-38, 57-58.

 

 

October 8                    PUBLIC HISTORY:  AN OVERVIEW

 

** Guest Speaker      Linda Weintraut, PhD, President, Weintraut & Associates, historical consultants.  Dr. Weintraut will discuss various dimensions of the business of historical consulting.

 

George D. Smith and Laurence Steadman, "Present Value of Corporate History," Harvard

 Bus. Rev. 59(Nov./Dec.1981): 164-73.

Paul Soifer, "The Litigation Historian:  Objectivity, Responsibility, and Sources," The

 Public Historian 5(Spring 1983): 47-62.

 

Daniel J. Walkowitz, "Visual History:  The Craft of the Historian-Film maker," TPH

 7(Winter 1985): 53-64.

Laurie Kahn-Leavitt, “The Making of A Midwife’s Tale,” History News 53(Winter 1998): 18-22.

Alison Duncan Hirsch, review of “A Midwife’s Tale” TPH 19(Fall 1997): 106-110.

Barbara Howe and Emory Kemp, Public History (Krieger, 1986). Gerald George, "The Perils of Public History:  An Imaginary Excursion into the Real

 World,"  pp. 20-28.

Scott L. Bills, "Historians in Publishing:  A Career as Editor," pp. 95-104.

Beverly Bastian and Randolph Bergstrom, "Reviewing Gray Literature:  Drawing Public

 History's Most Applied Works Out of the Shadows, The Public Historian 15(Spring

 1993): 63-77.

 

Note: October 8 is Thanksgiving Day in Canada.

 

 

October 15      DOING HISTORY IN PUBLIC: ETHICS

 

GUEST SPEAKER: DAVID VANDERSTEL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL COUNCIL ON PUBLIC HISTORY.

 

Esther Katz, "The Editor as Public Authority:  Interpreting Margaret Sanger," TPH

 17(Winter 1995): 41-50.

 

Several articles from TPH 8(Winter 1986): Theodore Karamanski, "Ethics and Public

History:  An Introduction," pages 5-12.

Ronald C. Toby, "The Public Historian as Advocate: Is Special Attention to Professional

 Ethics Necessary?" pages 21-30.

Albert J. Hurtado, "Historians and Their Employers:  A Perspective on Professional

 Ethics," pages 47-51.

Stanley M. Hordes, "Does He Who Pays the Piper Call the Tune?...," pages 53-56.

"Principles and Standards for Federal Historical Programs," Society for History in the

 Federal Government, pages 60-63.

"Ethical Guidelines for the Historian," NCPH, page 64.

"Standards of Professional Conduct," California Comm. for the Promotion of History,

 pages 65-68.

 

"Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct," American Historical Association,

 (1997). 27 pages.

"Statement of Ethics," American Association for State and Local History, (1993). 2 pages.

"Code of Ethics for Museums," American Association of Museums (1994), 8 pages.

 

 

 

 

October 22                  MATERIAL CULTURE/HISTORIC PRESERVATION

 

    

Howe and Kemp, Public History, Barbara Howe, "The Historian in Historic Preservation,

 an Introduction," pp. 111-29.

J. Meredith Neil, "Is There a Historian in the House? The Curious Case of Historic

 Preservation," The Public Historian 2(Winter 1980): 30-38.

Rebecca Conard, "'Once I Built a Railroad':  Viewing History From the Depot

 Platform," The Public Historian 14(Spring 1992): 31-48.

Edward T. Linenthal, “The Place of Historic and Commemorative Voices,” History News

 52(Winter 1997): 10-14.

W. Richard West, Jr., “A Native American View of History and Place,” History News

 52(Winter 1997): 22-24.

Ian M.G. Quimby, Material Culture and the Study of American Life (W.W. Norton,

 1978), Introduction and articles by Brooke Hindle, Cary Carson, and Charles Hosmer.

Thomas J. Schlereth, "History Museums and Material Culture," in Warren Leon and Roy

 Rosenzweig, editors, History Museums in the United States:  A Critical Assessment (U.

 of IL Press, 1989), pp. 294-320.

 

 

October 29                  ARCHIVES AND ORAL HISTORY

 

GUEST SPEAKERS:

 

Daniel Freas, Director of Museum Programs, Conner Prairie

Daniel Schoeneberg, Manager, 1886 Liberty Corner, Conner Prairie

 

“Code of Ethics for Archivists,” Society of American Archivists, 1992, 4pp.

Joint Committee on Historians and Archivists.  Historians and Archivists:  Educating the

 Next Generation (American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians

 and Society of American Archivists, 1993).

Timothy J. Gilfoyle, “Prostitutes in the Archives: Problems and Possibilities in Documenting the History of Sexuality,” American Archivist 57(Summer 1994): 514-27.

Vernon R. Smith, "Pedagogy and Professionalism:  An Evaluation of Trends and Choices

 Confronting Educators in the Archival Community," TPH 16(Summer 1994): 23-43.

 

Charles T. Morrissey, "The Two-Sentence Format as an Interviewing Technique in Oral

 History Fieldwork," Oral History Review 15(Spring 1987): 43-53.

Ronald J. Grele, "On Using Oral History Collections:  An Introduction," Journal of

 American History 74 (September 1987): 570-78.

Susan Armitage, “Here’s to the Women: Western Women Speak Up,” Journal of American History 83(September 1996): 551-59.

 

Willa Baum, Oral History, Forward, Preface, Pages 1-30.

 

November 5                 ORAL HISTORY

 

GUEST SPEAKERS:

 

Todd Daniels-Howell, Head of IUPUI Special Collections and University Archivist

Jack McKivigan, Editor, Frederick Douglass Papers

 

Baum, Oral History, finish, pages 31-68.

 

THIS EVENING WE WILL DISCUSS THE "HOW TO'S" OF ORAL HISTORY.

 

 

November 12               BUSINESS, GOVERNMENT, AND PUBLIC POLICY

 

GUEST SPEAKER:

Jon Smith, Director, Indiana Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology

 

Charles Dellheim, "Business in Time: The Historian and Corporate Culture," The Public

 Historian 8(Spring 1986): 9-22.

Barbara Howe and Emory Kemp, Public History (Krieger, 1986), Ruth Ann Overbeck, "History as a Business," pp. 440-52; Philip F. Mooney, "The Practice of History in Corporate America:  Business Archives in  the United States," pp. 427-39.

 

Otis L. Graham, Jr., "The Uses and Misuses of History: Roles in Policy making," The

 Public Historian 5(Spring 1983): 5-19.

Hugh Davis Graham, "The Stunted Career of Policy History:  A Critique and an Agenda,"

 TPH 15(Spring 1993): 15-37.  Winner of the G. Wesley Johnson Prize for the best article

 in TPH in 1993.

R. Thomas Dye, “The Rosewood Massacre: History and the Making of Public Policy,” TPH

 19(Summer 1997): 25-39.

 

 

November 19               MUSEUMS AND HISTORICAL SOCIETIES

 

PARTICIPATION EXERCISE:  WE WILL BEGIN CLASS WITH A DISCUSSION OF YOUR REVIEWS OF ROBERT ARCHIBALD’S A PLACE TO REMEMBER.

 

Introduction," pp.xi-xxvi, and Gary Kulik, "Designing the Past: History-Museum

 Exhibitions from Peale to the Present," pp. 3-37, in Leon and Rosenzweig, History

 Museums in the United States (1989).

 

Thomas Schlereth, "Causing Conflict, Doing Violence," Museum News 63(October 1984):

 45-52.

 

Michael Olmert, "The New, No-Frills Williamsburg," Historic Preservation 37(October

 1985): 27-33.

David Peterson, "There Is No Living History, There Are No Time Machines," History

 News 43 (Sept./Oct. 1988): 28-29.

Thomas A. Woods, "Perspectivistic Interpretation," History News 44 (Jan./Feb. 1989): 14, 27-28.

Jane Lusaka, “Finding A Voice: Detroit’s Newest Museum Uses Innovative Techniques to Relate 500 Years of African-American History,” Museum News 76(July/August 1997): 32, 34-35, 68.

 

Thomas Schlereth, "Museum Exhibition Review," JAH 76 (June 1989): 192-95.

 

November 26               MUSEUMS AND HISTORICAL SOCIETIES

 

PARTICIPATION EXERCISE:   THIS EVENING WE WILL USE THE ARTIFACTS AND THE SCENARIO THAT I PROVIDED LAST WEEK, IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE GUIDELINES FOR INTERPRETING MATERIAL CULTURE IN WOOD'S ARTICLE, "GETTING BEYOND THE CRITICISM OF HISTORY MUSEUMS."

 

Thomas A. Woods, "Getting Beyond the Criticism of History Museums:  A Model for

 Interpretation," The Public Historian 12(Summer 1990):  77-90.

 

Kenneth L. Ames, Ideas and Images:  Developing Interpretive History Exhibits, (AASLH,

 1992), as follows: Kenneth L. Ames, "Peering into the Process:  An Introduction,"

 pp. 1-8.

Cynthia Robinson and Warren Leon, "A Priority on Process: The Indianapolis Children's

 Museum and 'Mysteries in History,'" pp. 211-232.

Kenneth L. Ames, "Finding Common Threads:  An Afterward," pp. 313-324.

Amina J. Dickerson, "African American Museums and the New Century:  Challenges in

 Leadership," in Bryant F. Tolles, Jr., Changing Directorial Roles in American History

 Museums and Historical Societies:  Leadership for the Future (AASLH,

 1991), pp. 167-82.

 

 

December 3                 LIMITS AND ETHICS OF PUBLIC HISTORY

                        WHO OWNS THE PAST?

 

John Bodnar, "Symbols and Servants:  Immigrant America and the Limits of Public

 History," Journal of American History 73(June 1986): 137-151.

 

Andrew Gulliford, "Curation and Repatriation of Sacred Tribal Objects," TPH 14(Summer

 1992): 23-38.

Clement W. Meighan, "Another View on Repatriation: Lost to the Public, Lost to

 History," TPH 14(Summer 1992): 39-45.

 

Andrew Gulliford, "Reply to 'Another View on Repatriation,'" TPH 14(Summer 1992):

 47-50.

Otis L. Graham, Jr., "Who Owns American History?" TPH 17(Spring 1995): 8-11.

Lonnie G. Bunch, "Museums Fighting the Good Fight," Museum News (March/April

 1995): 32-35, 58-62.

        , "In Black & White:  Interpreting African American Culture in Contemporary Museums," History News (Autumn 1995): 5-9.

“Is There Enough History to Go Around?”  Two articles from History News 51(Winter 1996): 22-25; Jerome Thompson, “ Overgrazing the Commons,” and Tom McKay, “Standing in the Local Societies’ Shoes.”

 

 

December 10               MUSEUMS AND HISTORICAL SOCIETIES

 

“Risk and Opportunity: The Museum as Career Choice,” Special issue of Museum News (July/August 1998): 32-42, 61, 66.

 

CLASS MEETS AT THE MEDICAL HISTORY MUSEUM

I’LL PROVIDE PIZZA

CLASS IS RESPONSIBLE FOR BRINGING DRINKS, PAPER PLATES, AND NAPKINS

 

GUEST PANEL FOLLOWED BY A TOUR

 

Virginia Terpening, Executive Director, Medical History Museum

Jeff Tenuth, Chief Cataloger, Indiana State Museum

Andrew Verhoff, Historical Agency Consultant, Ohio Historical Society (graduate of our program)

 

Directions provided later in the semester.