history museums pragmatic historian time

Library of Congress: The Ultimate Eye Candy

Continuing from last week’s post about my January trip to Washington DC, I’d like to share my impressions and photos of the Library of Congress. For some reason, this building was open during the partial government shutdown and I’m so very glad it was. First off, the Library of Congress is located in the Thomas Jefferson Building. The building is called that because Thomas Jefferson sold his significant personal library to the United States after…

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history museums pragmatic historian

An Outdoor Museum with Very Large Artifacts

I recently returned from a trip to the Washington DC area. My brother and his wife invited my husband and me out. It was my first trip to DC and wouldn’t you know it, there was a partial government shutdown. None of the Smithsonian Museums were open. This ended up being a blessing, not because I didn’t want to see any of the Smithsonian-related museums, but because I wanted to see too many of them.…

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history museums pragmatic historian

Sparking History

Tidying Up with Marie Kondo Have you caught the KonMari fever yet? I have. My husband and I have been watching the new Netflix show “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo.” The KonMari Method is Kondo’s branded process of sorting and folding and arranging possessions. She has been passionate about tidying since she was a child and on the show she will often exclaim, “I love a mess!” Kondo wrote a couple of books a number…

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A Great Partnership – Writers & Historians

I saw the following exchange on Twitter between @GregWiker and @Chris_Levesque_ and had to jump in. Here was my response: As I indicate in the tweet, writing and the study of history go hand-in-hand. It can be difficult for students to come up with interesting content to write about, particularly when they are young and don’t have a lifetime of experience to expound upon. Meanwhile, historians have more topics to write about than they could…

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history museums pragmatic historian

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs – Reexamining Stereotypes Through Historical Details

Over the weekend I watched “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” on Netflix. This is the new Coen Brothers movie that they call an anthology because it contains six unrelated stories. Well, except they are related in that they are all westerns and feature death and lonely people. As I don’t know where I’m going to end up with this post, I’m giving you a SPOILER ALERT right now. If this is a movie you want…

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