The public historian is one who works in fields outside of the more traditional work in academia, such as with the federal government, non profit organizations, museums, libraries, businesses, or historical associations. The public historian’s role with people is collaborative and multidisciplinary, and methods of communication with the general population are different than ways in which traditional professional historians share information.
For the historian, the process of working with the public collaboratively has evolved over time. In the book Museums, Monuments, and National Parks: Toward a New Genealogy of Public History, author Denise D. Meringolo explains how following the US Civil War, women took an interest in the historic preservation of private residences and artifacts of important political leaders, in order to preserve a predominantly white, Anglo-Saxon past. The women chose what they believed was worth saving. But academic historians considered the women to be amateurs, as they dismissed the importance of artifacts and objects as a part of the historic process (Meringolo 2012, 160).
Over time, public historians began to realize how engaging with the general population in preservation of memories was helpful. In the Handbook of Digital Public History, the editors acknowledge that amateur historians do contribute to the recording of history. By crowdsourcing the preservation of memories, facilitated by reaching the public through the internet, it “fosters the emergence of collective societal intelligence through forms of collaborative knowledge of the past and shared authority methods (Noiret 2022, 60).”
When working with the community in creating public history projects , the public historian must rely on the memories of those with whom they are collaborating. John Kuo Weitchen described the process of working with the community in the paper, “Creating a Dialogic Museum: The Chinatown History Museum Experiment.” He discussed how the historian can work with the audience in preserving their memories through documentation, whether by videotaping or recording on paper (Weitchen 1991, 316). Even though realizing that working in collaboration with the general public is necessary, public historians must still stay in control of the projects. Sharing authority does not mean accepting everything from the community. The public historian must still professionally discern content and contextualize sources (Noiret 2022, 52).
As public historians, teachers can show students how they can participate in the historical process by learning how to engage with historical content. In the article “Thinking Like a Historian,” Sam Wineburg explains how students can be guided to critically examine primary sources of people and events within the time and place of their creation. Teachers can model the kinds of questions to ask and discuss answers together. By practicing the skills of how to think like a historian, teachers can train students in the importance of co-creating public history projects together.
Sharing authority is crucial, but must be controlled by the public historian. They do not have to accept everything that the public presents, but must use their expertise in critical thinking and historical methods in deciding what to use. In the relationship between the audience and content in public history projects, the audience is involved as content creators through collaboration and shared authority with the public historian.
Merlingolo, Denise D. Museums, Monuments, and National Parks: Towards a New Genealogy of Public History. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2012.
Noiret, Serge. “Sharing Authority in Online Collaborative Public History Practices,” Handbook of Digital Public History, edited by Serge Noiret, Mark Tebeau and Gerben Zaagsma, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Oldenbourg (2022): pp. 49-60. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110430295-004
Weitchen, John Kuo. “Creating a Dialogic Museum: The Chinatown History Museum Experiment.” Smithsonian Institution Press: Washington, DC, 1991.
Wineburg, Sam. “Thinking Like a Historian.” Teaching With Primary Sources Quarterly, Vol. 3, No.1, Winter 2010. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/teachers/about-this-program/teaching-with-primary-sources-partner-program/documents/historical_thinking.pdf