On December 12, 2013, 26 representatives from organizations as diverse as the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Whitesbog Preservation Trust came together for MARCH’s first ever Public History Boot Camp: New Views on Immigration and Diversity for History Organizations. Spurred by the dramatic demographic changes that the Philadelphia region is experiencing, the workshop gave attendees an intensive introduction to the immigration and migration history of the Philadelphia region and helped them think about how to tell more inclusive stories at their sites.
Held at the Camden County Historical Society, the workshop began with a talk by Dr. Domenic Vitiello, University of Pennsylvania, on the history of immigration and migration to the greater Philadelphia region from the 18th century to the present. Dr. Vitiello showed that diversity has always defined this region, though who made up that diversity has changed substantially. Today, Philadelphia is a re-emerging immigrant gateway. Following this overview, Dr. Andy Urban, Rutgers University, introduced attendees to essential concepts in public history and to see immigration as a push/pull dynamic, where the state both encourages and restricts the movement of people in specific historical moments. Following from his own research into Chinese immigration, Dr. Urban showed attendees a number of free or low-cost digital resources for researching immigration, including Ancestry.com.
Finally, Dr. Jim Turk, a nonprofit consultant, discussed the project 7 Steps to Freedom, a cell phone audio tour of sites related to the Underground Railroad in Salem County, NJ. Dr. Turk described how the project evolved out of a lack of understanding about the mostly rural county’s black history. He discussed bringing together community members with trained historians early on in the project in order to ensure that the final result was grounded in rigorous research and had the support of the community. Dr. Turk’s presentation sparked discussions of the importance of marketing and community involvement, which continued as people picked up the resource books they were given as part of their attendance. In addition to the workshop, two organizations will be able to bring a public historian to their site as a consultant to work on a specific project early in the new year. Finally, thanks to IMLS, two to three attendees will be able to attend the WebWise conference in Baltimore, MD in February at no cost.
Want more Boot Camp? Check out the storify of tweets during the event.
Powerpoint presentations from the workshop will be made available soon.
Have an idea for a future Boot Camp topic? Please email Mary Rizzo with your ideas at mary.rizzo@rutgers.edu.
Public History Boot Camp was made possible thanks to the 1772 Foundation.