Doing History

Lonnie Bunch, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and Founding Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, takes us on a behind-the-scenes tour of how historians do history for the public. During our exploration, Lonnie reveals why it's important for historians to reach multiple audiences with their work and how museums allow them to reach those audiences; The importance of humanizing history; And, how history and the historian's process helped Lonnie and his colleagues build the National Museum of African American History and Culture and interpret the history within it.

Throughout the How Historians Work series we’ve explored how historians find and research historical topics, how they identify and read historical sources for information, and how they publish their findings so others can know what they know about the past. But not all historians work to publish their findings about history in books and articles. […]

History has a history and genealogy has a history. And the histories of both affect how and why we study the past and how we understand and view it. Today, we explore why it's important for us to understand that the practices and processes of history and genealogy have histories by exploring what the history of genealogy reveals about the early American past. Our guide for this exploration is Karin Wulf, a Professor of History at William & Mary and the Executive Director of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.

History has a history and genealogy has a history. And the histories of both affect how and why we study the past and how we understand and view it. Today, we explore why it’s important for us to understand that the practices and processes of history and genealogy have histories by exploring what the history […]

History tells us who we are and how we came to be who we are. Like history, genealogy studies people. It's a field of study that can tell us who we are in a more exact sense by showing us how our ancestral lines connect from one generation to the next. In this episode of the “Doing History: How Historians Work” seres, we investigate the world of genealogical research with Joshua Taylor, President of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society and a professional genealogist.

History tells us who we are and how we came to be who we are. Like history, genealogy studies people. It’s a field of study that can tell us who we are in a more exact sense by showing us how our ancestral lines connect from one generation to the next. In this episode of […]

What do historians do with their research once they finish writing about it? How do historians publish the books and articles we love to read? This episode of our Doing History: How Historians Work series, takes us behind-the-scenes of how historians publish their writing about history. Our guide through the world of history publications is Joshua Piker, a Professor of History at William & Mary, and the Editor of the William and Mary Quarterly, the leading journal of early American history and culture.

What do historians do with their research once they finish writing about it? How do historians publish the books and articles we love to read? This episode of our Doing History: How Historians Work series, takes us behind-the-scenes of how historians publish their writing about history. Our guide through the world of history publications is […]

How do historians write about the people, places, and events they've studied in historical sources? We continue our Doing History: How Historians Work series by investigating how historians write about history. Our guide for this investigation is John Demos, the Samuel Knight Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University and an award-winning historian.

What do historians do with all of the information they collect when they research? How do they access their research in a way that allows them to find the information they need to write the books and articles we enjoy reading? Billy Smith, a Professor of History at Montana State University, joins us as part of our “Doing History: How Historians Work” series to lead us on an exploration of how historians organize and access their research.

What do historians do with all of the information they collect when they research? How do they access their research in a way that allows them to find the information they need to write the books and articles we enjoy reading? Billy Smith, a Professor of History at Montana State University, joins us as part […]

Not everyone has the means, time, or freedom to travel to archives. So how do historians conduct the research they need to do when they are limited to online resources?  To answer this timely question, we turn to Sharon Block, a Professor of History at the University of California-Irvine. She has made use of computers and digital resources to do history for years, which is why she serves as our guide for how to research history online.

How do historians conduct research online? This is your second-most asked question after how did everyday people live their day-to-day lives in early America. As the Doing History series explores how historians work, it offers the perfect opportunity to answer your question. Sharon Block, a Professor of History at the University of California-Irvine, has made […]

Historians rely on secondary historical sources almost as much as they rely on primary historical sources. But what are secondary historical sources and how do they help historians know what they know about the past? Michael McDonnell, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Sydney, guides us through how he used secondary historical […]

Historians rely on secondary historical sources almost as much as they rely on primary historical sources. But what are secondary historical sources and how do they help historians know what they know about the past? Michael McDonnell, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Sydney, guides us through how he used secondary historical sources to investigate the pivotal role Native Americans played in the history of the Great Lakes region and early North America.

What do historians do with historical sources when they find them? How do they read them for information about the past? Today, Zara Anishanslin, an Assistant Professor of History at CUNY’s College of Staten Island, leads us on an exploration of how historians read historical sources by taking us through the documents and objects left […]

In this episode, we continue our behind-the-scenes tour of how historians work with Zara Anishanslin, an Assistant Professor of History at CUNY's College of Staten Island and author of Portrait of a Woman in Silk: Hidden Histories of the British Atlantic World. During our investigation of how historians read historical sources, Zara reveals what historians mean when they talk about primary and secondary historical sources; How historians read and interpret primary historical sources; And details about the lives of four, everyday people who lived during the 18th century: Anne Shippen Willing, Robert Feke, Anna Maria Garthwaite, and Luke Sweetland.

Historians research the past through historical sources. But what are the materials that tell historians about past peoples, places, and events? Today, James Horn, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation, helps us investigate historical sources by taking us on an exploration of historic Jamestown and the types of sources that inform what we know about it.

Historians research the past through historical sources. But what are the materials that tell historians about past peoples, places, and events? Today, James Horn, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation, helps us investigate historical sources by taking us on an exploration of historic Jamestown and the types of sources that inform what we know about it.

Historians research history in archives. But how do you gain access to one? And how do you use an archive once you find that it likely contains the information you seek? In this fourth episode of our “Doing History: How Historians Work” series, we investigate how archives work with Peter Drummey, an archivist and the Stephen T. Riley Librarian at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

How did enslaved African and African American women experience slavery? What were their daily lives like? And how do historians know as much as they do about enslaved women? Today, we explore the answers to these questions with Jennifer L. Morgan, a Professor of History and Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University and our guide for an investigation into how historians research history.

How did average, poor, and enslaved men and women live their day-to-day lives in the early United States? Today, we explore the answers to that question with Simon P. Newman, a Professor of History at the University of Glasgow and our guide for an investigation into how historians choose their research topics.

History is about people, but what do we know about the people behind history's scenes? Who are the people who tell us what we know about our past? How do they come to know what they know? Today, we begin our “Doing History” series with an episode about historians and why they do the work that they do featuring Rebecca Onion, History Writer at Slate.com and visiting scholar at Ohio State University, Alan Taylor, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and Thomas Jefferson Chair of American History at the University of Virginia, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and 300th Anniversary University Professor of History at Harvard University, and Caroline Winterer, Director of the Stanford University Humanities Center and co-author of the Mapping the Republic of Letters Project. Doing History Series This episode is part of the "Doing History: How Historians Work" series.  “Doing History” episodes will introduce you to historians who will tell you what they know about the past and reveal how they came to their knowledge. This series originally aired on Ben Franklin's World with host Liz Covart. Both shows are produced by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.