Alaska Military History Museum Task Force

What is Public History

According to the National Council of Public History (NCPH), public history is ‘applied history.’ In other words, it describes the many and diverse ways in which history is put to work in the world. Public History programs are available to students at universities across the nation (and worldwide). They consist of MA and PhD programs, undergraduate programs, internships and certificate programs, which give public history students a range of tools that make them attractive to potential employers. To view a guide to Public History Programs, visit https://ncph.org/program-guide/.

Practitioners of Public History

Public historians find work in a range of professions. They may be historical consultants, museum professionals, government historians, archivists, oral historians, cultural resource managers, curators, film and media producers, historical interpreters, historic preservationists, policy advisers, local historians, industrial archeologist and community activists. All share an interest and commitment to making history relevant and useful in the public sphere.

Public History in Action

Although public historians can sometimes be professors, public history is usually defined as history beyond the walls of the traditional classroom.

• Interpretation: History consumed by the public. Examples include: battlefields and memorials, museums, documentaries, historical societies, and national parks, guided tours.
• Cultural Resources Management: The protection and management of the tangible remains of past human activities. Examples of cultural resources include buildings; structures; prehistoric sites; historic or prehistoric objects or collection; rock inscription; earthworks, canals, or landscapes. Management types include Section 106 compliance, Historic resource surveys, cultural landscape reports, ethnographic surveys, oral histories and traditional cultural places.
• Professional Services: History conducted for clients. Examples include institutional histories, corporate archives, exhibit curation, legal or legislative histories, environmental impact statements, and genealogy.
• Historic Preservation: History to protect and promote place. Examples include architectural & historic surveys, heritage tourism, community projects, walking tours, reuse and rehabilitation of sites, and other avenues of economic development.

Public vs Academic History

In terms of intellectual approach, the theory and methodology of public history remain firmly in the discipline of history, and all good public history rests on sound scholarship. Unlike many historians in the academy, public historians routinely engage in collaborative work, with community members, stakeholders, as well as with university and professional colleagues. Public Historians consult/work directly with archeologists, anthropologists, folklorists, archivists, ethnographers, architects, cartographers, museum curators, linguists, geologists, attorneys, cultural bearers, and community leaders. In fact, collaboration is a fundamental and defining characteristic of what public historians do.

Public History for Alaska?

Although there are hundreds of protected cultural and historic sites in Alaska, many remain unknown and unprotected. Thus, a strong argument can be made that a robust Public History program is needed in Alaska. Demand exists for qualified public historians from both private and public employers and most agency internships (federal and state) find qualified students from Universities outside of Alaska. A public history program designed to collaborate with private and professional sectors would also fulfill President Johnson’s plan for the University of Alaska to “improve contributions to economic and workforce development in Alaska; conduct additional and more impactful research; improve institutional cost effectiveness; and improve educational attainment.

National Council of Public History

To learn more about the field of Public History, visit the National Council on Public History’s website at https://ncph.org/what-is-public-history/about-the-field/. It might be in the interest of the UA to send a representative to the NCPH Annual Conference, which takes place in Hartford CT, March 27-30.

Prepared by Katie Ringsmuth, Ph.D.
Department of History
University of Alaska Anchorage