Welcome

        My name is Helen. I am currently an MA student at Western University in London, Ontario studying Public History. This blog is intended to chronicle my studies and what I am working on in my classes (this blog is one of my assignments). My classmates and I have a number of interesting projects planned for this semester. One of them is to research and create some sort of project to educate the public about the Arva flour Mill (the exact nature of the project is TBD). This mill in Arva, just north of London, has been around since 1819. Intrigued, I started some initial research online, which did yield some information about the mill, including who owned it, which is useful since the mill seems to have been identified on that basis, at least in the sources I looked at.
        For those of you who are wondering what the difference between History and Public History is, the field of Public History focuses on teaching History to the public (hence the name), in contrast to the more academic orientation of conventional History MA programs. Having experienced more conventional History studies as an undergraduate student, I have found that they seem geared toward preparing their students to work in academia (as college professors) by focusing on reading, researching and writing academic works. This experience was valuable to me as it helped me gain skills researching and analyzing history that ultimately underpin my work in Public History. Though I personally prefer writing more concisely than is expected in academic works (though keeping things short can sometimes be a challenge as well), academic study is ultimately the source of many of the historical insights that public historians can share with a wider audience. I personally enjoy reading many academic works and primary sources. I think the two subsets of the historical field can work together. Academic historians can have a reputation of being somewhat isolated from the general public, so public historians can make their findings more accessible to a wider audience through museum exhibits, documentaries, social media, popular books and many other media. Public Historians often work in museums, heritage conservation (protecting historic buildings) and other publicly oriented history jobs.
        My personal career goal is to work as a History museum curator; I really enjoy learning about material culture. Though I am particularly interested in fashion history, I enjoy working with a variety of objects. I was drawn to curatorial work because I like the idea of creatively connecting objects into a broader narrative. Though the term narrative in the context of History may seem to have negative connotations, any good exhibit has a narrative, it tells a story. The narrative of a museum exhibit often doesn’t have to be sophisticated, as it is intended to be imparted to a wider audience by telling smaller stories about a variety of objects. For example, an exhibit about how fashion can be used as a political statement would include a variety of clothing and accessories and labels describing how they were used to impart political messages or how there were political implications in why their wearers chose them.