This site is my portfolio as a public historian, and part of my final coursework for a MA in Public History at American Military University. Public history as a discipline is unfamiliar to many. Unlike many “academic history” fields, it is primarily focused not on content in a narrow specialty, but on the skills needed to function as a liaison between the public and their heritage. Public historians are museum curators, archivists, teachers, historical consultants, corporate or institutional historians, local historians, interpreters, film producers, conservationists, and others who make history relevant and interesting to the public. I initially undertook this course of study to improve myself as a band and orchestra conductor and music educator!
History plays a pivotal role in building and stewarding community. It is not dusty old books, dates, and random factoids: it is central to defining and unifying the traditions, activities, places, and rituals that comprise a culture, at any scale. History provides context, illuminating our place in the web of human endeavors. The public historian is the guide who helps a community build its understanding of itself, of where it came from, and of where it is going.