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Where Is Your Community Gathering Place?

“Every community or neighborhood has a gathering place.” So Bill Sauers, President of the Greece Historical Society in upstate New York, begins his May newsletter under that title. He devotes the column to the Dutch Mill founded in 1928 as a hot dog stand that grew over time. As the years rolled by the restaurant […]

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May 9: V-U Day or V-R Day?

More and more the current war in the Ukraine resembles World War II. It has bombed out cities, tanks galore, genocide and even a budding world alliance against the perpetrator of the war. It also will soon have its equivalent of V-E Day and V-J Day. The United States celebrated Victory in Europe Day on […]

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Local Colleges, Local History, Local History Teachers

Teaching local history in a time of statewide tests is a perpetual challenge. It is easier to teach about when slavery was ended in Texas than it is when it ended in your own state. It is easier to teach about the Battle of Yorktown than it is what happened in the American Revolution in […]

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Advocacy: Do’s and Don’ts From New York

Activists have returned to Albany, and some lawmakers don’t like it That was the headline of a recent article in New York. The advocacy issue here is secondary to advocacy decorum. Now that legislative buildings are open again, the quiet of Covid has been disrupted by the pleas of in-person advocates. Here is how one […]

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Lessons from an Advocacy Session: Connecticut

The New England Museum Association (NEMA) held a series of advocacy sessions for the six New England States; March 14-18 9:30-10:30 am – Rev Up! New England Museum Week webinar National politics get a lot of attention, but state and local government make a huge difference in our daily lives and communities. Celebrate how your […]

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History Museum Advocacy: Federal Level

To follow-up on my previous blog on museum advocacy at the Federal level, I want to explore the possibility of history advocacy at the Federal level. In particular, I wish to call people’s attention to the National Coalition for History: The National Coalition for History (NCH) is a consortium of over 50 organizations that advocates […]

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Museum Advocacy: The Federal Level

It’s advocacy time. The State legislature buildings are open. Given the uncertainty due to COVID regarding the opening dates, some of the in-person efforts have been curtailed or have migrated to virtual this year. In this blog, I will review a federal level museum advocacy program. I next will propose a federal level history advocacy […]

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Shakespeare and Indians

“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.” These words uttered to Paul Newman in the movie Cool Hand Luke (1967) have become part of American folklore. They attest among other things the challenge in effective communication. As anyone who writes or speaks in public (and even in private settings) knows that while you know […]

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History Scholars versus David McCullough: The American Revolution

The post continues the examination of the multi-authored section of the Journal of the Early Republic (JER 41 Summer 2021) dedicated to David McCullough’s The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West. This new feature called Critical Engagements represents an attempt by the Society of Historians of the Early […]

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