One of the key points I keep making about history is that it is part of our infrastructure. Each community has a foundation of history, as does each state, and the nation as a whole. The unique history of each community, the events, people, organizations, and even its geography, gives the place its special character. These are the features that affect how the community develops. They also draw people to the community. The history of…
Last week’s blog post, “Two Broken Hips Away from Closing,” was inspired by a tweet from historian Larry Cebula. This week’s post is inspired by a tweet from historian David Grabitske (as seen above) in response to that post. Last year around about this time, I came to the realization that history is part of a community’s infrastructure and I wrote about it here. Since then, any time I have the opportunity, I tell people…
STEM, STEM, STEM … Education is all about Science, Technology, Engineering & Math. That’s it. Just topics that are directly applicable to the needs of Corporate America. This is a direct quote from the U.S. Department of Education’s webpage on STEM: In an ever-changing, increasingly complex world, it’s more important than ever that our nation’s youth are prepared to bring knowledge and skills to solve problems, make sense of information, and know how to gather…
The museum where I work sits on a high bank of the Mississippi River overlooking the confluence of a creek with a bridge. The riverbank is severely eroding and we are looking for natural solutions to that erosion so as not to endanger the museum building. In discussing this erosion with someone who deals with protecting the river, it was suggested that we talk about how this erosion will affect the bridge. Why? Because governmental…