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Bringing Campus and Community Together: Doing Public History at Longwood College
David Coles and Deborah Welch
Longwood College
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PUBLIC HISTORY encompasses many fields of study—historic preservation,
archival management, museum work, editing, archaeology, genealogy,
public administration of historic resources—and is one of the fastest
growing areas of departmental curriculum development on college
and university campuses. Programs in public history are designed
to produce graduates who wish to work in history-related occupations
outside of teaching. However, many students in history pursuing
secondary school teaching certification elect to undertake courses
in public history for the valuable hands-on learning experiences
they provide, ideas and techniques for them to use in their future
classrooms. The purpose of this essay is to describe our approach
to public history at Longwood College, and to offer some ideas and
materials to assist our colleagues at other institutions who may
wish to develop public history concentrations within the history
major, or simply use some of the pedagogy of public history to enhance
existing United States history courses. Most especially, we wish
to emphasize the ways in which public history can be used to reach
out to the community, to breach the traditional walls between "town
and gown" and bring all those interested in history together.
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Longwood College is one of the state
colleges of Virginia, located in an area commonly called the Southside,
referring to the region south of the James River. This location
is a couple of hours away from Washington, one hour from both Richmond
and Charlottesville, and is surrounded by historic sites from the
seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. Appomattox Courthouse National
Historical Park lies about twenty-five miles to the west of the
campus. Indeed, the last major battle of the Civil War was fought
at Saylor's Creek, just ten minutes east of our campus. During the
Appomattox Campaign, Lee's retreating army and Grant's pursuing
troops marched down our High Street, passing in front of the College
before the students were evacuated by advancing Union forces. The
Petersburg National Battlefield Park, another significant Civil
War site, lies about an hour to the East. Immediately adjacent to
the campus is the Robert R. Moton School, site of the 1951 walkout
of African-American students in protest of grossly inadequate facilities.
That unanimous student protest led ultimately to the court case,
Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, which
bundled with four others became part of the landmark 1954 Supreme
Court Brown v. the Board of Education decision, the beginning
of the end for segregation in public schools. |
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Obviously, our area, so rich in history,
plays a significant role in our public history program, offering
easily available resources to aid in course development. Most importantly,
these historic sites and nearby museums and libraries offer a large
array of internship opportunities so crucial to the development
of any public history program. Because public history is a hands-on
study, we require every public history major to undertake at least
one internship. Many opt to pursue two or more. In what follows
we will show the variety of internship experiences and community
service opportunities we have been able to offer, but we will also
suggest how other institutions can seek to create experiences of
this kind in their regions. |
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When we created our formal public
history program three years ago, we were able to build upon long-existing
studies in historic preservation. Since our program's inception,
we have placed undergraduate interns at the American Historical
Association, the Museum of the Confederacy, the Virginia Historical
Society, the Mariner's Museum, Montpelier (James Madison's home),
the Lyndhurst Mansion and Museum in New York, as well as with the
National Park Service (at the Petersburg, Fredericksburg, and Appomattox
Battlefields), the State Park Service (at the Saylor's Creek Battlefield),
and with local county recreation and preservation commissions. Our
students have undertaken photograph and document restoration at
the Village View Plantation Museum as well as archeological excavation
at Staunton River Battlefield State Park. Students have engaged
in volunteer work with the Albemarle Historical Society, the Virginia
Holocaust Museum and at the Richmond district court. We have also
used student interns to develop a wide variety of projects including
work at historic sites to develop national register nominations
and prepare web pages on those sites in order that their beauty
and significance may be shared by anyone with internet access worldwide.
To learn more about these sites, please visit our web page at web.lwc.edu/staff/dwelch/publichistory/lwchomepage.html. |
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We work hard to provide internships
not only because we believe they are a crucial element in first-hand
learning opportunities, but also because they often lead to job
placements for our graduates. At present, for example, we have graduates
working at the Virginia Historical Society, the Museum of the Confederacy,
the Library of Congress, and with the National Park Service. All
confirm that it was the internship experience they could show in
their employment applications which was critical in gaining their
positions. |
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Not all institutions are so fortuitously
located close to historic sites, professional associations and museums
as Longwood. Nonetheless, opportunities for internships can be created
almost everywhere by reaching out to local historical societies,
libraries, and individuals in the community. We have learned that
colleagues in other institutions have created internship opportunities
in their communities by simply starting with a phone call to their
local libraries and historical societies inquiring about internship
or docent opportunities for students. Most museums and historical
societies appreciate new volunteers to serve as tour guides and
educators. Moreover, students today can often bring skills in web
page creation valued by these museums and historical societies,
especially institutions in small communities where members may not
have the computer skills our current generation of college students
can offer. Our experience has shown that docents already in service
at museums and historical sites consistently demonstrate a willingness,
indeed an enthusiasm, for working with students and training a new
generation. The key here is to make that first phone call. Every
state has a state historical society, a useful first contact for
faculty seeking to create internship experiences for their students.
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One of the skills we teach our students,
for example, is how to complete national historic register nominations.
We have met many owners of historic homes who always wanted to pursue
this recognition for their properties but had no idea how to go
about it. By taking out teams of students to work on these homes
and other sites, we meet many wonderful people in our area and word
quickly spreads of our activities. Such news not only creates more
opportunities for student learning experiences but also enhances
the reputation of the College in the community. |
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Local historical societies are always
in need of volunteers. We have sent many of our students out to
participate in reenactments and other events. These occasions can
be great fun for everyone. Last Halloween, our students participated
in the Haunted Home tour sponsored by the nearby Chesterfield Historical
Society and at similar holiday events at Saylor's Creek. Dressing
up in colonial and Civil War costumes, our students made very convincing
"ghosts." On other occasions, our students have volunteered to act
as tour guides and demonstrators of historical crafts for school
children visiting historic sites throughout the state like the restored
Henrico village (first settled in 1611) and the Eppington Plantation.
These occasions provide the opportunity for local historical societies
as well as the community to participate more fully in the life of
the college and, sometimes, to see the students in a new light,
as energetic and enthusiastic young people "doing" history. |
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Another service our students and faculty
have found to bring college and community together is through the
creation of a rural genealogical service. Everybody is interested
in their roots. Our students have prepared a booklet available for
mailing to all those interested in tracing their family trees, and
they are willing to help members of the community in their search.
At present we also have students aiding the Robert R. Moton School
Board of Directors and the Longwood College Library's Special Collections
Department in transcribing tapes of oral interviews with students
who were part of the 1951 walkout. They are also undertaking new
oral history interviews with participants in that event. Two colleagues
in History recently received a grant from the Virginia Foundation
for the Humanities to further these efforts to work with the Moton
Museum. State humanities councils frequently serve as good potential
sources of funding for faculty seeking to serve both their students
and their communities through the implementation of public history
projects. |
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Terrific internship experiences can
be created for students right on campus. Three years ago, one of
our professors gathered a team of five students who researched and
published a book on the history of our community, Two Hundred
Years in the Heart of Virginia. At present, we have a large
group of students working on a history of the college that we hope
to publish in the near future. We have also been most fortunate
in that an historical group, The Jamestowne Society, brought us
yet another project, Mary Newton Stanard's The Story of Virginia's
First Century, a book first published in 1928. The Society sought
help in creating an annotated edition of this book which it hopes
to publish in time for the 400th anniversary of the founding
of Jamestown. This project has provided truly valuable research
experience as well as first hand learning in the basic techniques
and skills of historical editing for a number of interns who have
worked on it over the course of the last three years. |
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History departments hoping to the
development of a successful public history program should, in our
judgement, consider two factors. First, the department must commit
to hiring well-qualified and experienced faculty whenever new lines
become available. In the past three years, the Department at Longwood
has added new faculty who brought experience with professional associations,
state archives, museums, oral history, state historic preservation
offices, and editing. Not all were hired, of course, just for their
public history expertise. However, when replacing a retiring or
departing faculty member, departments can seek a candidate not only
qualified in whatever subject area needs to be covered, but one
who also brings some experience and willingness to participate in
the public history program. |
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The second crucial factor must be
a willingness to use the pedagogical techniques of public history
in the teaching of freshmen survey classes. Having a top-notch faculty
able to offer a number of advanced courses in archival administration,
historic preservation, museum studies, etc. is vital to a successful
program, of course, but a department runs the risk of losing many
able and talented students if it confines the sheer fun of "doing
history" to upper-level classes. It is important to find a way to
expose students early in their college studies to opportunities
of doing some sort of fieldwork. The point here is not to replace
but to enhance traditional means of teaching American history. For
lectures to be effective, they must first gain student interest
and nourish their enthusiasm for the subject. There are several
ways in which we have explored the concept of incorporating public
history into basic American history courses. First, and most obviously,
we seek volunteers among the survey class students to work with
local historical societies (either as re-enactors or tour guides).
To replace one book review assignment, for example, instructors
offer students the opportunity to participate in a local historical
reenactment, researching and writing an essay on that event. |
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We have found other "mini-internship"
activities that can be used successfully in the survey classes.
We have taken students to old homes around the county showing them
how to use computer techniques to rescue old photographs as well
as torn and crumpled documents. The students are fascinated and
the owners very grateful, especially for the photographs we are
able to restore. And, of course, instructing students in the latest
computer technology is an obligation now incumbent upon all of us,
but especially those of us who teach public history. We have put
entire American history undergraduates classes to work to create
a single national register nomination. In this case it was an upper
level class in United States Colonial history working on an early
18th century home site. Some of the students were assigned
to research; others to the necessary photography; some to writing.
These group projects enabled each student to pursue his or her special
area of interest or perceived ability. In another instance, working
with colleagues in archeology, we gave students the opportunity
to participate in a dig at sites of historic American Indian peoples'
settlements. We have students engaged in projects working with local
historical societies and museums, sometimes just a Saturday spent
working with a local group. They inevitably return excited and energized,
hungry for more of these experiences as well as the opportunity
to learn more about the history they have just encountered. |
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By incorporating some of these public
history pedagogical techniques into other American history classes,
but most especially reaching out to the freshmen to be found in
every survey course, we awaken students' curiosity about the past
and sometimes identify their hitherto unknown talent for doing history.
This leads, in some cases, to finding very capable students who
make the decision to major in history. All students will gain more
from classroom lectures if they have first been exposed, however
briefly, to ongoing field research. Using these techniques of public
history allows all of us to share our sense of commitment and fun
in the doing of history with our students. Our experience here has
shown that students respond with an energy and enthusiasm for the
past that is sometimes truly amazing. Moreover, these experiences
provide the opportunity for members of the community to share their
knowledge and memories with our students. So often, area residents,
especially our elderly neighbors, can be so very modest that they
honestly don't realize what a treasure trove of first-hand stories
about the past they can offer our students. By using public history
to take students into the community we create the opportunity for
everyone in the community to participate in educating our students.
Frequently, we have watched students, the same students who appear
listless and seemingly bored through class lectures, listen attentively
for hours to members of our community who so generously have shared
their time sitting and talking with students about their memories.
These kind people then thank us for making this opportunity available.
It is we who owe the debt of gratitude to them as well as to all
of the professional associations, historical societies, museums,
and government agencies who have made internship opportunities available
to our students. |
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The pursuit of projects such as those
just described, like all new curricular developments, require funding.
Faculty time to develop new ideas and projects as well as to work
with students participating in internships must be compensated.
At Longwood, we enjoy the strong support of an administration which
is demonstrated through their creation of "The Fund for Student
Research, Internships, and Public History." Monies from this fund
have been crucial in providing stipends to professors and students
engaged in joint research projects as well as in supplying needed
dollars to cover travel costs, equipment purchases, etc. Moreover,
the small grants made possible by this fund have been useful as
seed money to procure additional foundation or public funding. |
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In closing may we add that here at
Longwood, we have developed some materials—genealogy primers, student
internship contracts, suggestions for making community contacts,
course syllabi, etc.—which may be of some use to any faculty or
department expressing an interest. We are most happy to share these
with readers who would like to contact us. Again, we invite all
to visit our web page and share with us their ideas for doing public
history. |
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Comments regarding this article are welcomed by the authors:
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David Coles (dcoles@longwood.lwc.edu)
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Deborah Welch (dwelch@longwood.lwc.edu)
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