Most of my professional life has encompassed researching, preserving, and writing about CSU’s past.  I came Fort Collins in 1966 with a background in the history of higher education, and six years later, initiated a project that resulted in an institutional archive and a comprehensive study, Democracy’s College in the Centennial State (1977).  More than a dozen publications ensued, often in collaboration with graduate students; and in 1981, I began providing a historical essay for commencement ceremonies.  This scholarly activity involved individual program, college, outreach, and campus developments, which usually included chronological milestones.

In order to refute the admonition that “history is just one damn thing after another,” I typically organized CSU’s past into identifiable periods. The sesquicentennial anniversary provides a singular opportunity to highlight selected examples.

Morrison and Schendel experienced the war in very different ways. Morrison was an American nurse who tended to soldiers at the Battle of the Bulge while Schendel was forced into the Hitler Youth and endured Allied bombings. But they both endured the suffering of World War II.

What can a historian do in response to life-threatening flooding? Quite a lot it turns out. By documenting the communication, cooperation, and activity of natural disaster responders, historians capture the knowledge and information-sharing process that is so crucial to future response and recovery.

In the age of “fake news,” museum professionals and others in the public historical field, can, and must, set an example to be held accountable for the truth.

The 1968 Beer-In at CSU was about students rights on campus, more than about getting 3.2 beer at the Ramskeller.

A new documentary film by Dr. Thomas Cauvin, Theo’s Choice/Le Choix de Theo, takes viewers into French immersion classrooms of southwest Louisiana. The film explores the complex Cajun identity through the idea of choice – the choice to speak, learn, and sometimes even teach, the French language in modern Louisiana.

From Normany to Baja, our students and faculty traveled to interesting places and did some great things this summer.

On Thursday 1st March, twenty-five teachers attended the first of two collaboration days between CSU’s History department and Social Studies teachers from across the district. The individuals most responsible for establishing this fruitful link up were Kurt Knierim of Rocky Mountain High School, Dan Rypma from Fossil Ridge and CSU’s Tracy Brady. The morning started […]

CSU Senior, Quinn Malone shares his experience of studying WWII in Europe. An impulse decision proved a rewarding and memorable experience.

From Japanese American confinement camps to National Heritage Areas, Alex Hernandez brings communities together for historic preservation projects as an assistant program manager and historian for the National Park Service.