Author: Mary

history pragmatic historian

History’s Hierarchy of Purpose – Education & Entertainment

By Mary | by Mary

  My Experience with History Education Working our way up from Resource Location & Preservation on History’s Hierarchy of History, we come to Education & Entertainment. When most people think of history, they think of their history education in school and how much they hated it. When I was in high school, history was presented as a series of events, names and dates to memorize, typically jumping from war-to-war, with very little of what happened…

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history pragmatic historian

Challenge – How Would You Preserve an Artifact?

By Mary | by Mary

One more challenge for the time being, this one related to the preservation of historical resources. In the museum field, we tend to call 3-dimensional historical resources “artifacts” and books, documents, and photos “archival materials.” The term “artifact” can also encompass archival materials, so to simplify this post, I’ll mostly use “artifact.” Artifacts and archival materials make their way to museum collections through a variety of routes, but often they come to museums from individuals…

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history pragmatic historian

Challenge – Using Archival Materials in an Institution

By Mary | by Mary

Here is my second challenge related to locating and preserving historical resources. Challenge – Using Archival Materials in an Institution Visit your local historical society or museum, one that has a research archive open to the public. Ask to see a local newspaper from the year of your birth. Spend time looking through the newspaper, noting anything interesting you find. Be sure to examine what was happening on the day of your birth, even if…

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