This public history thesis project experimented with the application of new technology in creating an educational resource aimed at twenty-first century public audiences. The project presents the history, musicology, and historiography of Afro-American slave music in the United States. In doing so, the project utilizes two digital media tools: VuVox, to create interactive collages; and VisualEyes, to create digital visualizations. The purpose of this thesis is to assess how the project balances the goals of digital history, public history, and academic history. During the production of the Afro-American Slave Music Project, a number of the promises of digital history were highlighted, along with several of the potential challenges of digital history. In designing the project, compensations had to be made in order to minimize the challenges while maximizing the benefits. In effect, this thesis argues for the utility of digital history in a public setting as an alternative to traditional, prose-based academic history.

The Children's Home Society of Florida, often referred to as "Florida's Greatest Charity", is the state's oldest non profit welfare agency. Founded in 1902, the society was instrumental in creating and reforming child welfare laws as well as helping countless children in the state of Florida find loving homes. This paper focuses on the archival processing of the Children's Home Society of Florida Collection papers and the creation of a subsequent web exhibit. The role of archivist and public historian is examined to see how each profession works toward a common goal.

This thesis explores four distinct eighteenth-century historic sites in southeastern Pennsylvania and how they interpret difficult history topics. Difficult history, the parts of our nation's past that may be uncomfortable to discuss and learn about, should be included in historic site narratives to ensure that all people who lived at these sites are represented. Telling the stories of enslaved people, Indigenous groups, women, and members of the LGBTQ+ community often means addressing difficult topics. Four sites—Elfreth's Alley, Stenton, the Daniel Boone Homestead, and the 1719 Museum—were examined for this study. A review of their staff training and institutional investment in interpretation, the comprehensive nature of their historical content, and their community outreach—all different methods for establishing a thorough interpretation—demonstrates that each of the sites have provided more inclusive interpretation in their narratives over time. These efforts have coincided with social movements such as the Civil Rights Movement and the American Indian Movement, the professionalization of public history, and the evolution of each site's community. Implementing difficult history into conversations at historic sites is a relatively new debate in the field; this research supports the argument that including narratives that challenge our comfort and incorporating community voices matter.

The preservation needs and historical significance located within West Lawn Cemetery in Johnson City, Tennessee, a historically African American Cemetery, show the potential cemeteries have as an impactful public history site. Similar to sites like historic houses, museums, and battlefields; cemeteries offer another insight into the past through interpretation and preservation. A cemetery's ethical and practical uses as a public history site can pose complex challenges. This thesis aims to provide a compelling argument for cemeteries as repositories of irreplaceable history, providing a space for their spot in the field of public history. Although little scholarly literature is given on this concept, this research provides information on the unique landscape and window into history cemeteries hold. Furthermore, this thesis aims to provide a practical guide to navigating the complexities of historical discourse and interpretation within cemeteries.

Walter White worked for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for thirty-seven years, 25 of which he served as executive secretary of the Association. Through his work in this office and through his writings he played an important part in preparing teh way for the civil rights revolution of the 1960's. This thesis in not a biography but an attempt to deal with certain aspects of White's career as they related to his fight for racial justice and equality.

In 1968, in the midst of the Civil Rights Era, the Louisiana government created the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL). During this period of heightened ethnic awareness, CODOFIL aimed to rectify the damage done by prior Louisiana legislation, which prohibited French language on public school grounds. In an effort to revitalize the French language in Louisiana, the organization hired teachers from foreign francophone countries and advocated for a curriculum rooted in Standard French. According to historians, many locals felt Louisiana-specific French dialects were once again rejected. Alongside these foreign teachers were teachers local to Louisiana. Utilizing interviews with Louisiana natives who became French teachers in the state, this paper aims to add to the narrative by presenting their discussion of the topic. The interviews consistently refute claims that local educators were opposed to CODOFIL’s hiring of foreign teachers. In addition, the interviews explore the strides these teachers made in revitalizing Louisiana French in spite of CODOFIL’s complicated founder, James Domengeaux.

The unfolding of our puprose with will be presented in five chapters. The titles of the chpaters are explanatory of their contents with the exception of Chapter I, the introduction: The Pastor and Evangelist, The Promoter and Financier, The Educaotr and the Theologian, and the Conclusion.

It is the primary purpose of this thesis to resurrect the ideals, hopes, theories and accomplishments of a man whose active years paralleled the stormy and provocative years of slavery. It is desired, in the resuscitation of these events, to connect them properly with the contemporary features of the stated period.

Scholarly work on the relationship between heritage and memory has largely neglected living memory (that is ‘everyday’ memories of lived experience). There is a common assumption that heritage fosters or maintains broader ‘collective’ memories (often referred to as social, public or cultural memories) in a linear sense, after living memory has lapsed. However, given the range of complex conceptualisations of ‘memory’ itself, there are inevitably multiple ways in which memory and heritage interact. This thesis argues that where heritage displays represent the recent past, the picture is more complex; that heritage narratives play a prominent role in the tussle between different layers of memory. Empirically, the research focuses on two prominent mining heritage sites; Big Pit coal mine in south Wales and Geevor tin mine in Cornwall. Industrial heritage sites are one of the few sorts of public historical representation where heritage narratives exist so closely alongside living memories of the social experiences they represent. The study more clearly models the relationship between heritage and memory by analysing three key components in relation to these sites; the process ‘heritagisation’, living memories and broader cultural memory. It is argued that heritagisation is a process in which dominant narratives of the past are socially constructed and reliant upon particular political, cultural and economic circumstances. In these cases, heritage discourses imposed particular senses of value in relation to the mining past, emphasising the more distant past and the inherent ‘historic’ value of the industry. Through oral history, the relationship between autobiographical memories and these dominant heritage narratives is then explored. The study finds that living memory provides a more complex, nuanced account of the past which both challenges and goes beyond fixed heritage representations. As such, the meeting of heritagisation and living memory creates a number of points of contest. However, heritagisation directly influences the construction of dominant cultural memory, suggesting that heritage narratives actively construct new ways of ‘remembering’ the past. In turn, while living memories are not ‘forgotten’, they are gradually bleached out, diluted or even subsumed by dominant cultural memory.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 391-395).