What does it take to create a museum? How can a museum help visitors grapple with a very uncomfortable aspect of their nation’s past? Ibrahima Seck, a member of the History Department at the University Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal, author of...
Not all historians publish their findings about history in books and articles. Some historians convey knowledge about history to the public in public spaces and in public ways. We conclude the “Doing History: How Historians Work” series with a look...
What kind of character should Americans have? Is it possible to create a shared sense of national character and identity that all Americans can subscribe to? Americans grappled with many questions about what it meant to be an American and a citizen...
What do we mean by the American Revolution? How do we define it? Was it a war? Was it a movement? Was it a series of movements? The Doing History: To the Revolution! series seeks to explore not just the history of the American Revolution, but the...
Throughout the “Doing History: How Historians Work” series we’ve explored how historians find and research historical topics, how they identify and read historical sources for information, and how they publish their findings so others can know what...
On April 30, 1789, George Washington became the first President of the United States. Between 1789 and 1825, five men would serve as president. Four of them hailed from Virginia. Many of us know details about the lives and presidencies of...
Why do we refer to the men who founded the United States as the “founding fathers?” Why do we choose to remember the American Revolution as a glorious event that had almost universal, colonial support when in fact, the Revolution’s events were...
Have you ever walked through a museum and wondered why its staff chose to feature the artifacts you saw? Cornelia King, Chief of Reference at the Library Company of Philadelphia shares her answer to that question in Part 2 of our 3-Part launch...