Nearly done with my manuscript that has taken 6 years to research and write. You know what that means - I just learned about 350 pages of letters from my subject in an archive 350 miles away. Last minute roadtrip before submitting to a publisher!
Summer before I started grad school I was foldering and organizing coroner’s inquest records, opened an envelope containing a suicide note and a white powder spilled onto the table. In the 1920s a guy OD’d on morphine and the coroner kept one of the capsules which broke open.
I always tell students that what we’ve digitized is a snowflake on the tip of the tip of the iceberg. You’ve got to get to the archives and, maybe most importantly, talk to the archivist. We know how to find things!
About to start writing the last chapter of a biography, which means I have to kill the person I’ve just spent the last 5 years getting to know. Thrilled to be this far along in the project, but it’s sort of a bittersweet moment.
No idea how we snuck in this year, but our workshop for K-12 teachers about the 1892 Homestead Strike and Pittsburgh’s rise as an industrial power was approved for funding for its third cohort
If the sections of the bookstore are labeled like this you know it will be a good one
Doing yard work this morning in my Rage Against the Machine t-shirt, but now the machine is just my old weedwacker.
I grew up near the canal in Easton, PA and guarantee almost nobody there knows about this despite there being a canal museum in the city
If you’re in town on May 31 we’d love to see you at the Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books at the Carnegie Library where I’ll be moderating a panel on Pittsburgh history with Ed Simon and Jan Ellen Kurth at 11:30. Always a great time with plenty to see and do!
www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
Another move to control his legacy and influence the 250 in the hopes that it will shift public memory to his will. Our work as archivists and historians are more important now than ever
You could probably teach an entire class on Pennsylvania history based on each section of this gate at the state library
I was part of team that twice received a Landmarks in American History grant. Over 2 summers we hosted nearly 150 K-12 and museum educators from across the country to learn about how to include the 1892 Homestead Steel Strike and primary source literacy into their classes
So deindustrialization created the Rust Belt, what will be the equivalent term for those eds and meds communities that collapse thanks to the villainization of universities and medical research? Soiled Gown Towns?
Can we please stop acting like these nitwits are normal or relatable and hold them to a higher standard, or any standard at all really
(1/4) The Trump administration recently issued an executive order directing the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) acting director to take immediate steps to eliminate the agency to the maximum extent allowable by law...
#ncph #PublicHistory #PublicHistorians
Librarians, now is not the time to be quiet! #libsky #booksky #edusky
Well this isn’t going to go well
My colleagues are absolutely crushing it making sure that Pittsburgh’s jazz legacy will be preserved and remembered
Tonight is my rescheduled lecture at Pitt’s Heinz Chapel. I’ll be sharing some of the stories I uncovered while researching for my book about Western PA’s role at the 1893 Columbian Exposition
At the moment there’s no reason to think NARA is going to fare any better than the other government agencies. Trump’s crew is already endangering the present and future, now he’s coming to alter the past. Stay strong and vigilant friends and colleagues.
Weekend + writing project = spending a day off from my archives job doing research at a different archive. Gotta love what you do
This is a good time to remind people that there is no evidence that history educators are indoctrinating students. They are doing their job. 🗃️ www.historians.org/teaching-lea...
Due to the threat of inclement weather, my book talk at Heinz Chapel for this evening has been postponed. Please stay tuned for a new date for the talk in the coming weeks. I look forward to seeing you there!
In John White Alexander’s “The Apotheosis of Pittsburgh” a steel-clad knight represents the city’s rise to economic and cultural glory … and looks suspiciously like Andrew Carnegie. The mural is in the Carnegie Institute after all. 🗃️
I’ll second White’s “Republic for Which It Stands”. Thomas Schlereth’s “Victorian America” and Rebecca Edwards’ “New Spirits” are good too
If you’re in Pittsburgh on January 16 come check out my talk at Pitt’s incredible Heinz Chapel. I’ll be sure to include some info on how one of the chapel’s namesakes, HJ Heinz, fared at the Columbian Exposition
Kipp’s papers are in the archives at Pitt and are a treasure trove of activist history
In 1921 Marie Curie toured the US and delegations would gift her money needed to buy more uranium for her research. This is the thank you note she sent to the University of Pittsburgh for their contribution. She was also awarded an honorary degree. #history
