HISTORY
255 Grapevine Road ♦ Wenham, MA 01984 ♦ 9789272300
From Professor David Goss… Featuring Public History Greetings! As director of public history, I’d like to bring you uptodate on what’s happening here on the public history front.. First and foremost, Gordon has officially approved a public history minor and concentration! This represents a major step forward for the history department, and indicates that Gordon College is committed to training undergraduate students to enter ter
careers in the area of museum studies and s i l l public history. A c
Our new course Case Studies in Museum m M i
Administration has twenty students enrolled, J by two of whom are currently working as interns o at Boston area museums. Luke Suttmeier is a hot P curatorial assistant at the Salem Maritime National Historic Site, and Raffi Kiredjian has Pioneer Village in Salem, MA, where students serve as interns and employees, accepted an internship in the business office has a close relationship with Gordon College and the History Department. of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Students were addressed by Bruce WHAT’S NEW IN THE HISTORY DEPARTMENT Michaud, CEO and owner of the Salem Witch Museum, who shared his thoughts on marketing a public history site. The class ■ New Public History Minor and ■ HistoryinOrvieto: In Spring also interviewed almost twenty career Concentration: We are delighted to 2008 the History Department will professionals concerning the business of announce that the new concentration launch a track at Italy’s Gordonin operating museums, historic sites and public and minor in Public History and Orvieto program. Professors Tal and history attractions. Museum Studies has been approved! Agnes Howard will teach two Two history majors have distinguished Students will be able to take courses in courses: Women, Family and themselves this year in public history public history, historic interpretation, Religion in the Early Modern World, endeavors. Micah Grant is an archival intern and management; pursue internships, and Protestant and Catholic at the home of General George Patton, and explore the diverse career options Memories of the Reformation. cataloging collections of the general’s family in the field. Please contact Professor Professor Jennifer HeveloneHarper papers, correspondence and photographs. David Goss for more information. will join them in May to teach a Jerry Logan, 2007 recipient of the Loring course on Christianity in Late Fellowship, is investigating the New England ■ New Classics Minor: An exciting Antique and Medieval Italy. Students textile industry’s rise and decline in the 19th new option now available to history may take 16 credits of history that and 20th centuries. students is a minor in classics. This semester, enough to even fulfill a interdisciplinary program includes history minor! I am pleased to announce that my new courses in Latin, ancient history, book, The Salem Witchcraft Trials, will be classical literature, and philosophy. The published next year. It is a reference text minor will provide excellent background featuring an overview of the event and its for those preparing for graduate school context, as well as interpretive analysis and in ancient or medieval history, reproduced documents from the trials archaeology, Classics, theology, church themselves. history and philosophy. Latin will be It is an exciting time to be here! taught in the fall by History Adjunct Professor Ian Drummond. Please Best wishes, contact Professor Graeme Bird for David Goss more information. The view in Orvieto, Italy.
Spring 2007 GORDON COLLEGE | DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY 1 History in the News
ALUMNI NEWS
■ Laura Jakubowski Aponte ’80 graduated from Perkins School of Theology with a M.T.S. in 2005. She currently lives in Lancaster, PA where her husband Edwin David Aponte ’79 is VP for Academic Affairs and Dean of Lancaster Theological Seminary. ■ Andrew Shriver ’95 is serving in Afghanistan as chaplain in the 864th Combat Engineer Battalion. The battalion is building roads and runways. From left to right: Students explore treasures in Gordon’s Vining Collection: Lauren Nash and Michael Whitnah examine papyrus from Egypt; Luke Suttmeier, Allison Kuhns, and Nash ■ Matthew Oosting ’05 is teaching discover a 19th century Chinese tea set; Suttmeier looks at a mummy case from ancient Egypt. history at North Reading High School in North Reading, MA. On May 14, 2006 Matt and Hillary welcomed daughter A fond farewell to Dick Pierard Honors thesis students Evangeline Vera to the world. Congratulations to the Oosting family! In May Professor Dick Pierard and his Five senior history majors defended wife Charlene are moving to their honors theses on April 26th and Hendersonville, NC. Professor Pierard May 3rd. The honors program is Alumni in Public History: will stay busy this summer, participating available to select students by in the annual meeting of the Yale invitation. Students pursue their own ■ Kristen Weiss ’92 is the Site Edinburgh Group on missionary and historical research for two semesters Manager of Cogswell’s Grant, a historic Christian history, and teaching a under the supervision of a faculty house property in Essex, MA. graduate level course on church history member, culminating in a written and ■ Megan MacNeil ’00 is the Registrar in Bangalore, India. They offer a hearty oral defense of the honors thesis. This at The Stephen Phillips House, a small welcome to any history year’s students and topics are: historic house museum in Salem, MA. colleagues passing ■ Emily Brunell: Community and through the N. Carolina ■ Jeff Barraclough ’03 is the Director Economy on the Maine Frontier mountains, and we of the Lawrence L. Lee Scouting welcome them back to ■ David Jordan: The Meaning of AIDS Museum in Manchester, NH, where he the North Shore anytime! maintains a large collection of Boy ■ Daniel Johnson: The Silk Routes: Scout memorabilia. Setting Sail for the Mediterranean Connecting Two Empires ■ Lauren (Moore) James ’04 received This August Professors David Wick and ■ Sabrina Klay: Was Alexander the a Museum Studies certificate from Tufts David Sparks will head a team of Great Insecure? University and is currently the students traveling for an international ■ Edwin Bevens: Rethinking Calvin Membership Coordinator at the seminar to Greece, Turkey, and islands Coolidge and the Press Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA. in the Aegean. Students will explore the classical, Biblical, and modern history of ■ Kirsten Hassler: The United States, ■ Bethany Antos ’05 is the Assistant the United Nations, and the 1947 Vote Archivist at the Rockefeller Archive the area from an interdisciplinary to Partition Palestine (a joint Political Center in Sleepy Hollow, NY. approach including art, archaeology, religion, and culture. Studies/History honors thesis)
Working in Public History by Jeff Barraclough ’03 Director of the Lee Scouting Museum in Manchester, NH
Since childhood I have wanted to work in the field of history, but I did not necessarily want to teach in a classroom. Working in a museum gives me the opportunity to teach history in a non traditional setting using collections and exhibits as educational tools. Through Gordon College's history program, I received an education that trained me as both a historian and a museum professional. I gained experience in analyzing and interpreting history and learned effective museum policies The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, and onsite training through internships at Salem 1630 Pioneer Village and the House MA employs several Gordon grads. of the Seven Gables. This combined education of history and museum studies gave Photo by Jim McAllister me the training and experience necessary to begin my career in the museum field.
Spring 2007 GORDON COLLEGE | www.gordon.edu 2 Alumni in Public History
As a tour guide, I was responsible for remainder of the Phillips House taking visitors through the house and collection progress that much quicker bringing the story of the Phillips Family and (though interns are still welcome). their domestic staff to life. Putting together Although much has changed since I the story involved primary research, using first started at the Phillips House, I am the photographs, letters, bills and receipts still excited that my job is to preserve that the family left behind as well as the past so that future generations can researching secondary sources to give enjoy history brought to life by objects context to their story and fitting the family left behind. within the larger historical events of Salem Visit Historic New England’s Phillips and the United States. House on historic Chestnut Street and As the registrar, I am responsible for find out what life was like in the early maintaining the collections, keeping track 1900’s. The kitchen, pantries, and of loans and insurance policies, opening laundry tell of the bustling activities of and closing the house for the tourist the household staff, while the grand season, and a wide variety of other tasks public areas display handsome that range from the mundane (vacuuming furnishings from five generations of the and dusting) to the exotic (watching 16mm Phillips family. Opening June 1. Learn home movie film of the Phillips’ 1931 trip more at www.phillipsmuseum.org. The Stephen Phillips House from Capetown to Cairo). Who knew that I Historic New England is the public by Megan MacNeil ’00 would learn to drive stick on a 1929 Model identity for the Society for the A Ford or become extremely interested in Preservation of New England Imagine if five generations of your the life cycle and breeding habits of carpet Antiquities. They are the oldest, family never threw away any of their beetles? personal belongings. Imagine the vast largest, and most comprehensive collection of books, papers, clothing, Even though the inventory is complete, regional preservation organization in knickknacks and other miscellany that work at the Phillips House is ongoing. the country. Historic New England could fill about 12,000 square feet of Different types of collections are being offers a unique opportunity to space. When I first started working at the organized, numbered and photographed. experience the lives and stories of New Phillips House, a small historic house The women’s costume collection has just Englanders through their homes and museum in Salem, Massachusetts in recently been removed from steamer possessions. Learn more at January 2000, the firstever inventory of trunks and boxes and rehoused in acid www.historicnewengland.org. the collection was underway. This free tissue and textile boxes. The process involved making a list of every collection contains garments that range item contained within the 3story house from an elaborate beaded bodice and skirt and carriage house. Eighteen months, from the 1880’s to a silk drop front waist two hundred trunks, and 15,000 objects dress from the 1920’s. The 16mm film later the inventory was complete. The collection has also been gathered, simple task of helping to create the conserved and transferred to DVD, inventory and discovering the treasures allowing access to family footage from the left behind by one family is what sparked 1920’s to the 1940’s. The film footage my interest to learn more about the field of brings the family to life in a way that a still museum studies. photograph cannot. The personal and business papers of the early Phillips family When I attended Gordon as a history (17701909), Anna Wheatland Phillips major, no museum studies courses were (18701938), and Stephen Phillips (1907 offered, but the Tufts University Graduate 1971) have been gathered and organized and Professional Studies program offered so that they too, are accessible to staff and a museum studies certificate that was the researchers. perfect opportunity to learn more about the practical aspects of working in a museum. Until May 2006, this work was slowly The program offers classes in collections completed with a staff of 2 fulltime and 2 management, exhibition planning, parttime employees (and with the help of museum history and theory, as well as numerous interns). This past May, the collections care and preservation. I Phillips House became the 36th property learned that museum work can involve of Historic New England, a large historic jobs that are directly connected to the organization that has 35 other historic sites Alumni and Student News: public or consist of tasks that are done in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, completely behind the scenes. During my Connecticut, and Rhode Island. The We would love to hear from you! time at the Phillips House, I have done a additional staff will make the work of Please send contributions to: little bit of both. organizing and processing the [email protected].
Spring 2007 GORDON COLLEGE | www.gordon.edu 3 On a quest for knowledge?
Join us for…
History-in-Orvieto, Italy Spring 2008
Department of History 255 Grapevine Road Wenham, MA 01984
Spring 2007 GORDON COLLEGE | www.gordon.edu 4