Fort Collins Museum of Discovery, 2019 During my spring semester at Colorado State University, I had the privilege of working as an intern for the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery(FCMOD). I was tasked to work for the archive team and assist on projects that would prove crucial for the organization. At first I was a […]
American Battle and Monuments Commission, 2019 During the summer I was granted the opportunity to work as an intern at the American Battle and Monuments Commission (ABMC) located in Paris, France. The ABMC is a federal agency whose mission is to operate and maintain American military cemeteries and monuments overseas that honor those who died […]
During the American Civil War, huge metal monsters roamed the Mississippi River.
The Babylonians were astute observers and interpreters of the heavens, and it is largely thanks to them that our weeks are seven days long.
While the waters of Quitobaquito have attracted a wide array of peoples for more than 10,000 years, each wave of newcomers tends to erase the evidence of those who came before them.
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.
