The idea for the National Council on Public History began, in part, as a way to advocate for our field. In recent years the advocacy committee and NCPH leadership have responded to calls from the membership to expand the organization’s advocacy. Examples of this include both taking actions, like changes to the jobs board, and responding publicly to current events. With the new Long Range Plan (LRP), we recognized that our notion of advocacy needed to further evolve. That meant, for this plan’s advocacy pillar, it was time to put a stronger emphasis on public history as labor, something that wa ..read more

“Practice,”  is one of the five pillars of the NCPH’s Long Range Plan. This pillar consists of creating tangible resources and new programming that will better equip the organization to support the needs of the public history practitioners who are putting history to work in the world. By renewing our commitment to the practice of public history, NCPH will become the destination that professionals turn to for the support, encouragement, and resources that will empower them to excel throughout their entire careers. Lyon Municipal Archives. Image credit: Laurent Vella, Wikimedia Commons, CC ..read more

Image credit: fauxels from Pexels.com A key focus of the NCPH’s Long Range Plan (LRP) will be to continue the organization’s commitment toward creating an inclusive and diverse organization.  We commit towards reshaping the power structures of the field of public history in order to increase career access and equity for marginalized participants in the field. To paraphrase GVGK Tang, instead of “Columbusing” or “white savior narratives” that fall into co-optation, NCPH will push to highlight and support the public work already being done in marginalized communities that decolonize publi ..read more

From Around the Field this week: NCPH hosts our joint conference with the Utah Historical Society; the Oral History Association accepts applications for a research fund; the Learning Disabilities Association of America hosts a history webinar ANNOUNCEMENTS During NCPH’s 2024 annual meeting in Salt Lake City join WWII camp survivors on an one-day visit to Topaz, Utah on April 13 in attending the 81st memorial ceremony for James Wakasa, killed by a guard at the incarceration camp in 1943 The National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites have released a free, online toolkit tha ..read more

The Community Pillar of the new Long Range Plan (LRP) calls upon NCPH to develop, engage, and connect a public history community. In reviewing feedback from both members and nonmembers, two central themes stood out: a desire for more programming beyond the Annual Meeting and opportunities for mentoring. Though the Annual Meeting remains a critical piece of NCPH’s programming, not everyone is able to or wishes to attend in person. The LRP establishes a goal of having NCPH expand its programs throughout the year, both in person and online, through mini-cons, workshops, roundtables, affinity grou ..read more

In June 2023, the NCPH Board approved a new Long Range Plan for 2023-2028. This new plan is the product of several years of work from the Long Range Planning Committee and reflects feedback and input from stakeholders, including members, committee chairs, past and present leadership, and others. The purpose of the plan is to serve as both a vision and a guide for the organization, to ensure that we are intentional about how NCPH operates and grows. The Long Range Planning (LRP) Committee began work in early 2021, starting with an assessment of the 2017-2022 plan. It was clear that the prior pl ..read more

From Around the Field this week: The National Trust for Historic Preservation accepts applications for a grant program; the American Alliance of Museums hosts a webinar; the Oral History Review calls for proposals for a special issue ANNOUNCEMENTS During NCPH’s 2024 annual meeting in Salt Lake City join WWII camp survivors on an one-day visit to Topaz, Utah on April 13 in attending the 81st memorial ceremony for James Wakasa, killed by a guard at the incarceration camp in 1943 The American Association for State and Local History are now offering discounted rates for record ..read more

From Around the Field this week: National History Day invites participants for their alumni survey; the Society of US Intellectual History accept applicants for their 2024 scholars program; the National Council for History Education hosts their annual meeting; the Society of Civil War Historians Graduate Connections Meeting hosts a webinar ANNOUNCEMENTS During NCPH’s 2024 annual meeting in Salt Lake City join WWII camp survivors on an one-day visit to Topaz, Utah on April 13 in attending the 81st memorial ceremony for James Wakasa, killed by a guard at the incarceration camp in 1943 ..read more

Editor’s Note: This is piece is written from two perspectives to reflect on a collaborative public history placement at York University in Toronto, Canada. The authors, Alanna Brown and Leena Hussein, are profiled at the end of the piece. Screenshot from the Wikipedia “History of Caribana” page edited as a part of the Black History edit-a-thon that the authors participated in during their public history placement at York University. Screenshot courtesy of Adina Langer. Introduction: Credible sources are essential to improving both the reliability and credibility of Wikipedia as an academic r ..read more

Editors’ Note: We publish the editor’s introduction to the February 2024 issue of The Public Historian here. The entire issue is available online to National Council on Public History members and to others with subscription access. An overhead image of the installation “Tide Tribute” at the International African American Museum, Charleston, South Carolina. Image credit: Sahar Coston-Hardy. Used with permission from International African American Museum. We begin this issue with the third installment of our series, “Commemorating the 250th Anniversary of the American ..read more