Illinois State University: FALL 2014
HIS 432: Seminar on Local and Public History
Time: M, 6-9:50
Instructor: Alan Lessoff
Office Hours: M, 1-3, W, 1-4 (or by appt.)
Email: ahlesso@ilstu.edu
Place: Schroeder 104
Phone: 438-8083
Office: Schroeder 327
Web: www.ilstu.edu/~ahlesso
Description and Goals: “Public” history is the awkward but accepted term for the many
jobs done by historical professionals who are not college professors or schoolteachers. The
term can refer to archival, museum, historical site, or government work, preservation,
community work, filmmaking, free-lance writing, or anything else you can think of, apart
from direct instruction and traditional scholarly writing. The vast expansion over the past
fifty years of historical societies, museums, and sites, public and business archives, historical
preservation, and other forms of local and popular history have led to a burgeoning of
courses and programs in public history, as well as increased attention to such activities on
the part of academic historians with an ambition to interact with people other than the
traditional audience of other academic specialists.
While Illinois State has no public history program, we do offer relevant courses in a
few subjects, such as archives and manuscripts. This seminar focuses on aspects of public
history with which the instructor, an urban historian with experience in local history and
with local history societies, is familiar. Issues covered – museums, planning, downtown
renewal, preservation, historic districts – all interest historians because they relate to the way
that history infuses the physical setting in which we live and thereby, perhaps, shapes
understanding of ourselves and our communities.
Many Illinois State graduate students in history, historical archaeology, and other
fields have expressed interest in local and public history as a potential profession, as an
element of their work as teachers, or as an avocation. This course should offer ideas,
examples, and techniques that students can apply to any place they end up living and in
many jobs that they end up doing.
Format: This course includes virtually every type of activity except lecture. On reading days,
be prepared to discuss the readings in seminar format, with as little guidance from the
instructor as we can get away with. We will also have a series of in-class and out-of-class
activities, culminating in a course project to be presented the final day.
Requirements:
1. Research or exhibit project, due, M, 12/8..….…….... ……………………..…..500 pts.
2. Reading presentations/reports, as assigned….....…….…...……………………150 pts.
3. Web evaluation, 4-5 pages, due M, 9/15... ……..……...…………………...……150 pts.
4. Site or exhibit report, 5-6 pages, M, 10/20..……………………………..……...200 pts.
6. Participation ……….………………..……………...………………………. see below
1,000 pts.
{Grading: A= above 900, B=899-800, C=799-700, D=699-600, F=599 & below)
You will receive a guidelines in due time for each assignment, so fret not over details now.
1. Research projects are standard products of seminars such as this. Given the special nature
of this class, you have the option of writing a research paper of 20-25 pages, based upon
primary and secondary research, with footnotes or endnotes and an annotated bibliography.
Any relevant topic in local history, historical societies, museums, preservation, or whatever,
will be appropriate, as long as I approve the various steps of your research by the dates listed
in the course outline and in the forthcoming instructions. Or you may prepare a local history
project – a website or other digital project, exhibition plan, historic district or building
application, proposal for a community history project, or something similar—along with a
10-page paper explaining the historical basis of your project as well as your goals and
procedure. Such papers must be effectively researched and have footnotes or endnotes and
an annotated bibliography as well. Note the preliminary tasks in the course outline.
2. Once during the course, each student will make a presentation – around 10 minutes – of
issues raised by the day's reading. With your presentation, you are to hand to me a 3-page
analysis of the reading and its relevance to the course. The pedagogical purpose is to give
you practice in succinct statement of issues (an important talent in historical work). The
organizational purpose is to make sure that students, not the professor, generate discussion.
I will sign people up for this during the first week.
3. Every year, the different branches of public history grow more and more intertwined with
digital technology. A burgeoning number of historical exhibits, documentary projects and
other resources have found their way onto the internet and increasingly onto apps. This
projects is meant to start students thinking about the myriad uses of digital technology for
public history. During the first class, Aug. 18, I’ll demonstrate some ways to begin sorting
through the mass of online projects already available. By Tues., Sept. 2 (the day after Labor
Day), send me an email proposing digital history project put together by a local or state
historical society or on-line historical exhibition that you will evaluate in terms of its goals,
format, and content. The McLean County Museum of History is not eligible. The Links page
on my own website contains many ideas of where to begin. Also, each issue of the Journal of
American History contains website reviews worth skimming through.
4. By 9/22, email or hand me the name of an historical site, museum, or exhibit that you
have visited or will visit. By 10/20, turn in an evaluation of the subject matter and
presentation. To the extent possible, apply ideas encountered in class about historical sites,
museums, and exhibits in analyzing your site or exhibition.
Participation: I don't give a letter grade for this, but I do reserve the right to adjust grades
up a notch for hard-working students with bordeline averages or down a notch for students
with an excessive number of unexcused absences or who come chronically unprepared or
contribute little to the class. Attending class well-prepared is matters a lot in a graduate seminar.
Define “excessive” absences as more than two—best to email or call if you need to miss
class. If a personal circumstance arises that will cause you to miss a number of classes,
contact me right away.
Missed tests, late papers, etc.: It is the student's responsibility to turn in work on
time and to arrange to make up missed exams. I reserve the right to mark off up to 10
points per day for late work on a case-by-case basis, according to my judgment of the
individual situation. Be forewarned: I'm much more likely to accept excused as valid if they
come to me before a due date.
Regarding plagiarism, you are expected to follow university guidelines on Academic
Integrity. All graduate students should understand what plagiarism is and why we consider it
a bad thing. The "Classes" page of my website has a link to an Indiana University definition
of it. Students found plagiarizing will receive a 0 on the assignment in question plus
additional penalities as may seem appropriate. I reserve the right to give a failing grade (point
value at my discretion) to any assignment if a student cannot, upon request, produce the
books and notes on which the assignment was based.
There is no extra credit in this course.
Any student needing to arrange a reasonable accommodation for a documented
disability should contact Disability Concerns at 350 Fell Hall, 309-438-5853, or visit the
website at disabilityconcerns.illinoistate.edu
Readings: The following required readings are available at Alamo II and the University
Bookstore. They will be available soon on reserve at Milner Library:
David Hamer, History in Urban Places
Andrew Hurley, Beyond Preservation
David Kyvig & Myron Marty, Nearby History, 3rd edition
Amy K. Levin, ed., Defining Memory
Ian Tyrrell, Historians in Public
Norman Tyler, et al., Historic Preservatione, 2nd ed.
Other course readings available as noted in the outline.
Class Outline:
As of this writing (Aug. 14), arrangements were still up in the air for one or two special
events. These activities may necessitate moving some readings around. I will circulate an
amended course outline as needed.
In October or November, I hope to arrange a Saturday excursion to the Chicago History
Museum. We will discuss the practicalities of this soon; the excursion will not be required.
8/18 – Introduction; the diversity and complexity of public history
8/25 – What are we doing and why?
Read: Tyrrell, Historians in Public, ch. 1-4, 7-end
Tentative: Skype conference with Ian Tyrrell
By 9/2: Send an email proposing a web evaluation topic
9/8 - Cedar Crest and White Place historic districts (tour starting at my house, details TBA)
9/15 – Local history methods
Read: Kyvig & Marty, Nearby History, ch. 1-10
Web evaluation project due and discussed
9/22 – Visit to the McLean County Museum of History (tentative)
Exhibition evaluation topic, on notecard or via email
9/29 – Local museums and the public’s history 1
Read: Levin, Defining Memory, ch. 1-8
10/6 – Visit to ISU University Archives
Possible research/exhibit project – one paragraph on notecard or via email
10/13 – Local museums & the public’s history 2
Read: Levin, Defining Memory, ch. 9-end
10/20 – Public art and public history
Read: Alan Lessoff, Where Texas Meets the Sea, ch. 4 (handout)
Robert Hodder, “Redefining a Southern City’s Heritage: Historic Preservation
Planning, Public Art, and Race in Richmond, Virginia,” Journal of Urban
Affairs 21 (Dec. 1999): 437-53
Michele Bogart, “The Politics of Display in Manhattan and Queens: Lessons
from the Monument Life Cycle,” Journal of Urban History 38 (May 2012): 50931
Articles available via Milner Library online journals or via America: History and Life.
Exhibition evaluation project due and discussed
10/27 – Historic districts and urban history
Read: Hamer, History in Urban Places
Discussions in class of possible project topics
11/3 – Historic preservation
Read: Tyler, Historic Preservation (if short of time, skip ch. 7-8)
Discussions in class of possible project topics
11/10 – Consultation week – individual meetings
Final project proposal with annotated bibliography (2 pages)
11/17 – Public history and the public
Read: Hurley, Beyond Preservation
11/24 – Thanksgiving break
12/1 – Project presentations
12/8 – Project due via email or by 7 p.m. at my office