History Camp Boston–Cambridge 2014
History Camp Cambridge (the world’s first History Camp) was held on March 8, 2014 at the IBM Innovation Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Sessions
365 Days of Cool Adventures in Boston for History-Lovers
Sara Hamlen
A participatory adventure to kick of History Camp and rev up your creativity.
Account Books Reveal the Darndest Things: Accessing a Ubiquitous and Opaque Source to Reveal Untold Stories about the American Revolution
Dr. Sam Forman, author of Dr. Joseph Warren: The Boston Tea Party, Bunker Hill, and the Birth of American Liberty (Pelican Publishing)
Becoming a Historian: How to Apply to and What to Expect in Graduate School
Liz Covart, Uncommonplace Book
An overview of how to apply and what to expect in a history Ph.D. program. Talk will offer suggestions about how to research professors and programs, what you should know about funding, the kind of work you can expect as a graduate student, and a discussion of job prospects.
Bring History to the Classroom: Marketing your Historical Society or Museum to Teachers
Colleen Janz, the Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum
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Many museums, historic sites and historical societies are missing great opportunities for exposure and patrons by not marketing to schools in a more effective manner. Many schools are facing tough choices with smaller budgets and needs with Common Core, while some institutions cannot fit entire grades within their space, this program will walk you through overcoming these obstacles and give the teachers in the crowd an opportunity to learn how to connect with the valuable historic resources around them.
Bromances and Frenemies of the Founding Fathers: Who Loved Each Other, Who Hated Each Other, and Why
Christina Frei, Author of five Rockstars of the American Revolution
No, the Founding Fathers didn’t stand around admiring each other all day. Some of the Founding Fathers truly loathed each other. Others got on famously. This will be an educational gossip session, where we’ll look at why Jefferson and Adams didn’t speak to each other for 12 years (and why they started again), the on-again off-again quality of Washington and Adams’ partnership, why Washington and Hamilton’s partnership was so impactful, and the nuts and bolts of the Hamilton/Jefferson feud. There will be no talk of Aaron Burr or any duels, because Burr really doesn’t qualify as a Founding Father, no matter what he might have done to Alexander Hamilton.
Crowdsourcing Possibilities Relating to a Collection of Revolutionary-era Newspapers: Help us Gauge Interest in Annotating the Annotated Newspapers of Harbottle Dorr
Nancy Heywood and Kathleen Barker, Massachusetts Historical Society. http://www.masshist.org/dorr
The Massachusetts Historical Society recently digitized a complete four volume set of Revolutionary-era Boston newspapers and pamphlets collected, annotated, and indexed by Harbottle Dorr, Jr., a shopkeeper in Boston. Although the website (www.masshist.org/dorr) includes various pathways to the collection of 805 newspapers, 15 pamphlets, and 133 index pages, there are many potential enhancements. After an introduction to the digital collection, the presenters will lead a discussion of various add-ons, some of them potentially could be configured as crowdsourcing activities–tagging and/or transcribing. But which crowdsourcing activity would be most appealing to history enthusiasts? Please attend this session and share your opinion!
Free Advertising: Popular Magazines and World War II Bond Drives
Matt Wilding, former Freedom Trail Foundation guide and currently content director
Even before America’s entry into World War II, the US Treasury reorganized the nation’s savings bond program in an effort to raise money for defense and to give citizens a stake in their country. While the Treasury Department, Office of War Information, and other government agencies worked together to develop marketing strategies for the bond program, private advertisers and editorial boards of magazines began promoting the bond program for free but on their own terms. This presentation will consider the ways in which war bond sales were encouraged in popular American magazines, particularly in regard to ads’ messaging as they relate to concurrent government campaigns throughout the war.
From ‘Folly’ to Great Idea: The History of the Erie Canal and How it Transformed America,
Liz Covart, author of Uncommonplace Book (blog), is working on a book and is a contributor to two journals.
Book A whirlwind overview of the history of the Erie Canal. Talk will cover the origins of canals in New York State, the construction of the Grand Canal between 1817 and 1825, and how the Erie Canal encouraged the Transportation and Industrial Revolutions during the 19th century.
How Google Books Changed My Life, and You Can, Too!
J. L. Bell, author of Boston 1775 (blog) and commissioned research, contributor to books from mainstream and academic publishers
Google Books is full of millions of books, and millions of quirks. Nevertheless, it’s a powerful tool for unearthing overlooked sources, identifying the birthplaces of myths and misunderstandings, and tracing quotations and anecdotes back to their origins. Using case studies from Revolutionary America, this workshop will run through some tips for making Google Books work for you.
How mixing social media & history can create an online audience for your institution, organization or historical work
Thomas Ketchell, co-founder of Hstry
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This session will explore various case studies on how museums and cultural heritage sites have used the power of social media to drive traffic from digital to physical. Thomas will also share his experiences of creating a compelling historical story for 21st century audiences.
How the Patriots Almost Lost the Battle of Saratoga: Yankee-Yorker Jealousy in the Commissary Department
Liz Covart, author of Uncommonplace Book (blog), is working on a book and is a contributor to two journals.
Historians refer to Saratoga as the turning point of the American War for Independence. However, the Patriots almost lost this important battle. This talk will discuss how regional jealousies between New Englanders and New Yorkers contributed to the Patriots’ loss of Canada and to their slow response to Burgoyne’s march to Albany.
Institutional Memory: Using Oral History to Capture an Organization’s History and Culture
Erik Bauer (@hipster818), archivist, Peabody Institute Library
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Organizations are like living organisms, they have a identity, a culture and a history. This session will cover how to conduct an oral history project for an organization from identifying potential interviewees, creation of deed of gift to transcription and preservation. Examples will be provided and how to learn about an organizations culture and intuitional memory.
John Singleton Copley in America: What is Real and What Imagined in the Iconic Portraits of Patriots and Tories?
Dr. Sam Forman, author of Dr. Joseph Warren: The Boston Tea Party, Bunker Hill, and the Birth of American Liberty (Pelican Publishing)
A profusely illustrated lecture.
Lace in the 18th Century
Sue Felshin
Learn to identify the features of 18th century lace and how lace was used. Learn how to select modern sources. You’ll find
extensive notes and details on the talk here.
Making Your History Museum a Magnet for Groups
Adam Hasler, EdTrips
NodeXL Workshop: Using Social Network Analysis in History
Matthew Williamson (@dhperson)
Demonstration of NodeXL and a discussion on how to use network analysis tools in everyday research. If you would like to download the software follow this link: http://nodexl.codeplex.com/
Political Music Through the Years: Presentation and Singalong
Charlie Bahne, the author of The Complete Guide to Boston’s Freedom Trail, and others; Veronica Barron, Matthew Erlich, and Tegan Kehoe
Take a quick tour of political music from different eras—a sampler, or a mixtape, if you will—and sing along! Come ready to join in song or listen. Music from the American Revolution to the Spanish Civil War and 1940s Boston.
Provenance: Objects As A Source of History
Alli Rico (@alli_rico), grad student, Harvard Museum Studies program; volunteer, Waterworks Museum and Adriene Katz (@appleandthebee)
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Learn what provenance is, and how objects can be used as sources of history. Alli will go over the general concept and provide an example of how to start your provenance research. Adriene will follow up with a talk on the houses at the Shelburne Museum and how even houses can be used as sources of history.
Slavery and the Marlborough Town Common: Not just the John Brown Bell
Paul Brodeur
The Boston Bankruptcy That Led to the American Revolution
J. L. Bell, author of Boston 1775 (blog) and commissioned research, contributor to books from mainstream and academic publishers
In early 1765, Boston’s business world was rocked with the news that Nathaniel Wheelwright could not pay all his debts. His promissory notes had been treated as virtual currency in the colony, and over the next several months many more people, from a Boston selectman to the mother of Dr. Joseph Warren, were forced into bankruptcy. This talk looks at the roots of that crisis in British imperial policy and family dynamics, and at its ripple effects in the Revolutionary period.
The Folklorist: An Emmy Award-winning TV program devoted to iconic, yet relatively obscure moments in history
John Horrigan
The Peculiar History of Democracy in Rhode Island: 1636–2004
Mark Kenneth Gardner (@HistoryGardner), archivist, Western Rhode Island Civic Historical Society; History Teacher, Chariho Regional High School
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All politics is local quipped Speaker of the House Tip O’Neil; Rhode Island being the consummate exception that proves the rule. Democratic almost to the point of anarchy in the 17th century, Rhode Island was roundly condemned as far too democratic in colonial times. One of the original innovators of two-party politics before the Revolution, as a state the once-liberal Rhode Island evolved into one of the most restrictive franchises by the 1840s, leading frustrated residents to invoke the right of rebellion in the Dorr War. Democracy and two-party politics there have only gone downhill since then…
The Second New England: New York and the post-Revolution New England Migration, 1783–1830
Liz Covart, author of Uncommonplace Book (blog), is working on a book and is a contributor to two journals.
After the War for Independence, 700,000 New Englanders migrated to New York State. After over a century and a half of farming, New England farms had become small and infertile. New Englanders longed for larger, more fertile farms so they migrated to New York to settle on the lush land they saw while fighting the war. This talk will discuss the post-Revolution New England migration, how it occurred, its impact on New York State, and its contribution to the development of nineteenth-century American life and culture.
The Temperance Movement: A Doorway to Suffrage
Colleen Janz, the Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum
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This session will walk you through how women developed their political voice from their involvement in the Temperance Movement through the necessity of the Suffrage Movement; how women saw their role in politics; the strength and the weaknesses both accomplished.
Tools to Help Your History Organization Reach More People In-Person and Online
Lee Wright, The History List
Free tools for social media, tools for publishing and managing event information on your site and others, as well as free places to publish your content so that more people find out about your institution.
Panel sessions
Becoming a published author: Panel discussion with authors and publishers on different mediums and models
Moderator: Lee Wright, The History List.
J. L. Bell, author of Boston 1775 (blog) and commissioned research, contributor to books from mainstream and academic publishers
Dr. Sam Forman, author of Dr. Joseph Warren: The Boston Tea Party, Bunker Hill, and the Birth of American Liberty (Pelican Publishing)
Liz Covart, author of Uncommonplace Book (blog), is working on a book and is a contributor to two journals.
Leah Thompson, marketing manager for history books at Wiley Blackwell; MA in publishing from Emerson College
Steve Gladstone, self-publisher, author of books and mobile apps.
Charlie Bahne, the author of The Complete Guide to Boston’s Freedom Trail, and others.
Employment options for history lovers: A panel discussion
Moderator: Lee Wright, The History List.
Panel:
Erik Bauer (@hipster818), archivist, Peabody Institute Library
Alli Rico (@alli_rico), grad student, Harvard Museum Studies program; volunteer, Waterworks Museum
Mark Kenneth Gardner (@HistoryGardner), archivist, Western Rhode Island Civic Historical Society; History Teacher, Chariho Regional High School
Thomas Ketchell, co-founder of education organization Hstry, with a BA in History
Matt Wilding, former Freedom Trail Foundation guide and currently content director
J. Lincoln Hallowell, park ranger, Gateway National Recreation Area