By Dr. Stephanie Fuglaar Statz, Senior Historian My first day as director of a very small museum in a rural town was unlike any first day I had ever had. There was a quick human resources meeting, and I got …
The Epidemic That Never Was: A Triumph of Public Health in Postwar New York
By Mimi Eisen, Historian For most of 2020, people across the globe anticipated the development of a vaccine to safeguard against COVID-19. The arrival of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s mRNA vaccines at the end of the year signaled a new phase …
The Capitol Has Fallen! When the British Burned the Capitol Building
By Scott Vierick, Historian By 1814, the War of 1812 between the United States, Great Britain, and their American Indian allies had been raging for over two years. While most of the fighting had occurred along the border with Canada, …
GameStop: Not the First Rodeo of Charging Bulls and Raiding Bears
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) …