Public History--What Is It?

Public Historians, as opposed to academic Historians, work with and for the general public. They work in archives, museums, public policy organizations, historical societies, and in media. Public Historians are devoted to practicing History outside of the classroom. Historians work for local, state, and national groups including corporations and governmental institutions. The purpose of a public historian is to collect, preserve, and disseminate information on the past. Public Historians use such tools as photographs, oral histories, museum exhibitions, and multimedia to address a wide variety of historical issues and to present those issues to a non-academic audience.

The National Council on Public History devotes itself to the professional advancement of Public History and Public Historians. Recently, there has been an increase in demand for Public Historians and, subsequently, a number of programs in Public History have emerged. These programs are primarily graduate programs connected to Departments of History, but there are also undergraduate majors in Public History or subdivisions thereof. The National Council provides links to graduate programs, which can be found at http://www.iupui.edu/it/ncph/graduatedeg... Some examples of Public History programs are California State University at Long Beach's Oral History Program http://csulb.edu/~agunns/relprm/oral01.h... as well as programs at Middle Tennessee State University http://www.mtsu.edu/~history/pubhist.htm Washington State University http://www.wsu.edu/~history/pubhist.html the University of Toledo http://www.history.utoledo.edu/PUBLICHIS... U.C. Riverside http://www.ucr.edu/history/phrmform.html the University of Wyoming http://www.uwy.edu/a&s/history/pub-hist.... and New York University http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/history/pub... Western Michigan University offers an undergraduate major in Public History http://www.wmich.edu/history/college.html and Wake Forest University offers both a BA and an MA in Applied History http://www.wfu.edu/Academic-departments/...

Programs in Public History vary from school to school. The Public History Program at SUNY Albany grants a Masters of Arts in Public History and a Certificate for Advanced Study in Public History http://www.albany.edu/history/pubhist.ht... the Public History Program at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington offers a Masters in History with a concentration in Public History http://www.uncwil.edu/hist/public2.htm and the MA Program in Public History at North Carolina State University offers a minor in Public History for students studying for a MA in History http://social.chass.ncsu.edu/~slatta/ph.... Public History programs also vary in the concentrations and courses they offer. Wright State University splits Public History into two fields, Historical Resources Management and Applied Research http://m44501c.cola.wright.edu/Dept/HST/... The Concentration in Public History in the MA in History program at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst splits Public History into three fields, Museum Studies, Archives, and Historic Preservation http://www.umass.edu/history/histpub.htm... Arizona State University's Public History Program is connected to the Certification in Scholarly Publishing Program, both within the Department of History http://www.asu.edu/clas/history/graduate...

It is important when choosing a program that you find a school that offers courses that you are interested in, particularly since each school varies in what they offer. Types of Public History courses include: Curatorial Practices for Historical Agencies (Albany), Community Studies (Wilmington), Historical Archeology (U Mass Amherst), Introduction to Historical Preservation (ASU), Records Management (Albany), The History of the Book (ASU), Heritage Tourism (Wilmington), and Information Systems and Technology (Albany). Some courses are common at all schools, for example, Introduction to Public History, but it is important to choose a program that will teach you the skills for your chosen Public History area of concentration.