By Mike Reis, Senior Vice President The current rodeo of the GameStop bulls versus the hedge fund bears is tearing up any remaining old cobblestones on Wall Street, not to mention the sheer capacity of the stock markets and its …
The History and Use of the Defense Production Act: Part 1
To fully understand the current relevance and application of the Defense Production Act (DPA) to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) public health emergency, it helps to remember the two extraordinary wartime crises faced by Americans in the space of 10 …
Contested Transition: Lincoln’s Victory and the Coming of the Civil War
By Scott Vierick, Historian In November 1860, the election of Abraham Lincoln sent shockwaves through the country. The winner of a bitter four-way contest, Lincoln’s platform, which including halting the westward expansion of slavery, was seen as a serious political …
Showtime in Harpers Ferry: Separating Fact from Fiction in The Good Lord Bird
By Scott Vierick, Historian Since HAI’s three-part blog series on the story of John Brown, millions of people have tuned into Showtime’s The Good Lord Bird, about Henry “Onion” Shackleford, a fictional formerly enslaved teenager, and his encounters with the …
Planning Successful Virtual Interpretive Workshops and Visioning Sessions
By Scott Vierick, Historian While the COVID-19 pandemic has sent shockwaves through the museum world, it has also offered an opportunity for sites to reevaluate programming, exhibits, and major interpretive themes. With many sites closed or operating at reduced capacity, …
Bringing History On Demand Services to Digital Consumers
By Laura Starr, Engagement Strategist, and Jen Giambrone, Historian A Historical Retrospective of On Demand Services Need a ride? Groceries? Beer? A meal from your favorite restaurant? Want to read a new book, watch the latest trending show, or listen …
“A Pleasant Thanksgiving With Nothing To Do”: A Holiday and a Pandemic
By Jen Giambrone, Historian Back in the spring, when quarantines and stay at home orders still felt new, I wrote a blog exploring reactions to the 1918 influenza pandemic. Now, as Americans everywhere ponder how their Thanksgiving celebrations might look …
Variety is the Pumpkin Spice of Life: A PSL Retrospective
By Mimi Eisen and Colleen Kim, Historians As the days turn colder and darker, we couldn’t let autumn slip away without paying homage to its most iconic bastion: the pumpkin spice latte (PSL). From its sweet, humble beginnings at Starbucks …
Masterpiece Television: Celebrating 50 Years of PBS
By Scott Vierick, Historian Tonight on Frontline. This is Masterpiece Mystery! Let’s build a happy little cloud. Won’t you be my neighbor? Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street? Fifty years ago, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) …
From Starchives to RED Files: The Depiction of Archives in Film
By Margaret Long, Archivist Archives have long been a part of society’s infrastructure as they contain vital documents, objects, and information about various operations of organizations or even society as a whole. It is no surprise, then, that archives have …
Picture This: Historical Approaches to Data Visualization
By Mimi Eisen, Historian This blog was originally posted on July 16, 2020. Now, at the end of October, there have been more than 227,000 reported deaths from COVID-19. Lately, I’ve been thinking about the work data visualization can do …
Risky Business: A Brief History of Mechanized Travel and Changing Perceptions of Danger
By James McDonald, former HAI Research Historian, current Ph.D. candidate Travel has long incorporated some assessment of personal safety, but the mechanization of travel complicated this calculus. Concerns about safety have often conflicted with a desire to take advantage of …