Things Never Change: Piecing Together College Life

Sometimes you stumble on something on eBay you just can\u27t pass up. It\u27s that $6 buy that is awkward, odd and just a little out of your scope. But it\u27s only$6. If you\u27d buy a burger for $6, you shouldn\u27t pass up an original letter from 1835. Every letter has a story. And each of those stories has its own drama, its own meaning, its own power. The mundanities of human life can be just as powerful as the battles and charges. [excerpt

For Gods\u27 Sake, Copy-edit that Textbook on the Wall

So, my social streams flooded on Monday with an article from the Denver Business Journal, a weekly Colorado publication with a circulation rate of about 16,000 issues. The internet is an amazingly powerful force for magnification. It can make a rant from one irate museum goer with very-close-to-nil circulation seem like a meaningful and broadly held opinion. [excerpt

An 1858 Patent Office Report: The Joy of Being Wrong

I love being wrong. I think every historian should love that feeling. Finding that one small piece of evidence that puts a crack in your perception of the past and makes you restructure your view of the flow of history is a joy. I had one of those moments a few weeks ago at Adams County Historical Society, digging through the vertical files for random things. I go digging every week or so, simply immersing myself in the raw material of the past and seeing what floats to the surface. [excerpt

Realize I Don\u27t Want to be a Miser : Giving Up Power

Oftentimes, \u27the visitor is sovereign\u27 is used as a crib notes version of, the customer is always right. That\u27s not what it was intended to mean. That is a gross bastardization of the concept, in fact. David Larsen in Meaningful Interpretation characterizes it succinctly: it is the audience that will ultimately decide if they\u27ve had a meaningful experience, connected emotionally and intellectually, and believe the place is worth caring about and for. [excerpt

Child\u27s Play: War, Toys and Avoiding the Trivial

This past weekend, I let my two hobbies combine. I spend a good chunk of my spare time doing incessant, weird and wild historical research. If you\u27ve read along on the blog for any appreciable time, you know the odd corners I\u27ve turned finding peculiar and striking stories both here in Gettysburg and beyond. But I have another hobby. I am an Adult Fan of LEGO. [excerpt

Halfway out of the Dark: Christmas 1863

A note received any day letting you know a son is gravely wounded is horrible. Receiving it on the first day of December is particularly horrible. In this month of gathering together, hearing your son is suffering can\u27t be cheering. [excerpt

...Sexual Relations with that Woman... : Why the Lee Quote is Still Valid

A quick reflection this week. This started as a comment on Brooks Simpson\u27s comments on Colin Woodward\u27s blog post at his new blog civilwarhistorian highlighting a quote he found in a Massachusetts newspaper. Whew... now that that\u27s out of the way. The validity of the quote has been called into question, and seemingly thereby its usefulness to the historian. But I object to consigning this tidbit to the dustbin of history. [excerpt

Saturday Extra: Guerilla Civic Engagement on the Landscape

Over at Civil War Memory, Kevin Levin brought the community\u27s attention to some installations placed on the fences surrounding a few of the statues along Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia. The signs are a redress of sorts to the Confederate narrative told through granite, marble and bronze on the massive monuments. They highlight black citizens of Virginia who challenged the racist establishment of the state throughout its history. [excerpt

Governor Wise\u27s War: My Misconception (Part 1)

I worked in the living history branch at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park for three years, wearing old timey clothing and talking to visitors about the meanings of John Brown. Harpers Ferry is where I began to understand what the concept of interpretation means, and how it is such a radically different concept from academic history. [excerpt