Janet Holsinger
Senior Historian | Educator & Wordsmith
“As a storyteller and educator, I capture the meaning and humanity that underlie historical events to help audiences of all ages connect, empathize, and learn.”
Work at HAI
At HAI, Janet is a historian, content developer, writer, and project manager based in Virginia’s Hampton Roads area. With an eye for detail and a love of exploring new topics, she collaborates with clients to bring stories to life by identifying goals, workshopping content, crafting narratives, and searching out compelling imagery for exhibits, multimedia, smartphone apps, and more.
Janet’s project work has focused on military history, particularly World War II, but she welcomes opportunities to explore other topics ranging from women’s history to sports museums to tourism exhibits. She has also conducted extensive research relating to art and other looted Holocaust assets and the Atlantic slave trade. At HAI, her work includes exhibit and educational content development, scriptwriting and editing, interpretive planning, in-depth historical research, multimedia research and acquisition, and custom map design.
Her clients include:
- American Battle Monuments Commission
- American Battlefield Trust
- Americans in Wartime Museum
- Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial
- Discovery Education
- Fort Worth Aviation and Space Museum
- GlaxoSmithKline
- Hamilton Grange National Memorial
- Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve
- Las Vegas Mob Museum
- Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art
- National Museums Northern Ireland
- National Purple Heart Hall of Honor
- National World War II Museum
- Pearson Education
- Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
- Soldiers’ Memorial Military Museum
- Tennessee State Museum
- U.S. Department of State
- U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum
- White House Visitor Center
Additional topical research areas include:
- Holocaust Asset research
- Slavery disclosure research for financial institutions
- Business history and corporate succession
- Industrial site research and analysis
- U.S. government role in WWI, WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam War mobilization
Path to HAI
Janet grew up dreaming of being a writer, never imagining she would find a way to meld this with her passion for history and education. She worked at HAI right after college, honing her research skills at the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and countless local repositories around the country. Leaving to pursue a master’s degree in education, her subsequent work as a high school social studies teacher and a museum educator at the Virginia Aquarium fueled her interest in creating content for museum exhibits that teach and inspire visitors. She returned to HAI in 2004 to pursue a career as a multi-disciplinary content developer.
Janet received a master’s degree in education from the University of North Carolina. She holds a BA in history from the College of Wooster in Ohio.