Posts Tagged ‘National Park Service’
From the National Park Service:
Christine Arato has been named the Regional Historian of the Northeast Region by the National Park Service. Among her goals are forging collaborative partnerships with history practitioners throughout the region, to apply innovations in the field of digital humanities to the NER History Program’s mission and to establish a regional oral history program.
Arato began her position on April 21 at the Northeast Regional Office in Boston. Prior to her appointment she was the service-wide program coordinator for the Bicentennial of the War of 1812 Commemoration. She contributed a chapter to the book Born in the U.S.A.: Birth, Commemoration, and American Public Memory (2012, ed. Seth C. Bruggerman) which focused on issues of commemoration at the John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site.
Arato graduated with honors from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts in European History and an interdisciplinary Master degree in the history and anthropology of American religions. As a Student Conservation Association intern, she served as an interpreter at Theodore Roosevelt National Park and as a landscape historian with the Olmsted Center of Landscape Preservation. After Peace Corps service in Morocco, she joined the National Park Service, contributing to planning efforts for New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park and the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area.
In 2001, Christine accepted her first permanent appointment at John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site, where she was the supervisory park ranger. Beginning in 2009, she served as Senior Historian and National Historic Landmarks Program Manager for the NPS’ Southeast Region, and as the acting Chief Historian for that region. She also has held acting assignments in NPS’ Office of Legislative and Congressional Affairs and as the superintendent of Horseshoe Bend National Military Park, as well as a consultant to the World Bank. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Career Academy for Cultural Resources, the co-leader of the Academy’s Historians’ Initiative, and a founding member the Best Practices working group for the Call to Action’s History Lesson.
Proposed visitor center for the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park, designed by GWWO, Inc./Architects. Courtesy GWWO, Inc.
By Barbara Tagger
I was a conductor on the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say – I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger (Harriet Tubman, 1896).
On March 25, 2013, President Barack Obama established by proclamation the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument in Tubman’s native Dorchester County, Maryland. Encompassing some 25,000 acres of federal, state, and private lands, including large segments of the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, the Tubman memorial honors the life and legacy of one of the United States’ most outstanding human rights advocates and freedom fighters best known for her role as a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad. It is the 399th unit of the National Park Service (NPS), one of thirty-six focusing on African American themes and one of three recognizing African American women. Read more.
The Appalachian Trail near Fort Montgomery State Historical Park. (Photo courtesy of the author)
While the New York/New Jersey metropolitan region is well known for its overpopulation, sprawl and congestion, the region remarkably features spectacular state parks that provide outdoor enthusiasts an extensive trail network which traverses picturesque meadows, woodlands, and rugged terrain. Several of these parks also highlight some of the country’s important historical events that contributed to the creation of the United States. Sites such as Fort Montgomery, adjacent to Bear Mountain State Park in New York, brings history alive to the public as a comprehensive trail network meanders through the grounds of the old fort with strategically placed signage helping to explain the struggles and hardships endured by soldiers and civilians alike during the American Revolution. The significance of such public attractions underscores the vital link that exists between the outdoor experience and valuable historical sites insofar as promoting public health and enjoyment while encouraging awareness of past events. Read more.
From H-DC:
Encompassing a 500 mile land and water route, the Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail tells the story of the War of 1812 in the Chesapeake Bay region. Its purpose is to protect the sites that help contextualize the War of 1812 and the writing of the National Anthem. It is hoped the trail will help bring the history of the War of 1812 forward and connect it American culture today. Additionally, the trail will provide spaces for land and water based recreation.
In Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia, more than 25 visitor centers have Star-Spangled Banner orientation kiosks, with plans for additional locations through 2013. The Star-Spangled National Historic Trail was established by Congress in 2008 and is administered by the National Parks Service. It was made possible through the cooperation of multiple local, state, and federal agencies and regional non-profit partners in the Chesapeake Bay area.
The trail is well served by its accompanying website, starspangledtrail.net . An interactive map helps visitors plan their visit by allowing them to construct maps that include—or don’t— water trails, land trails, information centers, and historic places, parks and monuments. By clicking on specific locations visitors can discover more information and even add it to “My Adventure Planner,” a customizable guide that brings addresses, hours and fees together in to one easily printable screen.
From the National Park Service, March 6, 2012:
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced the designation of 13 new National Historic Landmarks in nine different states, including a site associated with the famed Apache scouts, the largest collection of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in the world, and an early 18th-century parish church.
Five of the thirteen sites are in the Mid-Atlantic Region:
• Among seacoast lighthouses still in existence, the Montauk Point Lighthouse (Long Island, New York) was the most important for the nation’s foreign trade during the first eight decades of the United States lighthouse service;
• Located in Midtown Manhattan, the Town Hall (New York City, New York) represents the history of American radio broadcasting during the golden age of network radio from the 1930s through the 1950s;
• The destroyer escort USS Slater (Albany, New York) is a rare and extraordinarily intact example of an important class of mass-produced warships designed for convoy protection during World War II;
• Constructed in 1888-89 by a wealthy Troy couple as a memorial to their only child, the Gardner Earl Memorial Chapel and Crematorium (Troy, New York) is the most architecturally sophisticated example of early public crematoria in the United States. The building is an example of Romanesque Revival architectural composition with a rich detailed interior design that reflect its memorial nature;
• Built in 1888-1889, the Braddock Carnegie Library (Braddock, Pennsylvania) is the oldest intact library building in the United States funded by Andrew Carnegie;
On Thursday, February 23 the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center (FWWIC) presents a special Black History Month event, African-Americans as Militiamen During the American War of Independence. Dr. Robert Selig, an historian who specializes on the American Revolutionary War, will speak about the conditions within which militia service developed.
Historian Joe Becton (audio) will present his research on the history of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment of the Continental Army. The 1st Rhode Island was known as the “Black Regiment.” The Rhode Island legislature, faced with dwindling recruitment numbers, extended enlistment (and freedom) to “able-bodied” slaves. In his research, Becton has identified 287 members of the unit.
The program will focus on Pennsylvania and Rhode Island in particular.
Additionally, Congressman Chaka Fattah, who serves as an Honorary Co-Chair on the FWWIC Advisory Council, will be recognized for his contributions to the creation of a new seven hundred mile National Historic Trail. In 2009, Congressman Fattah co-sponsored the legislation that created the trail, which runs from Boston, Massachusetts to Yorktown, Virginia.
Joseph DiBello, the National Park Service Superintendent for the Washington Rochambeau Revolutionary Route (W3R) National Historic Trail, will present the new brochures and maps at the FWWIC.
For more information, see the flyer below (a few clicks are necessary), or call 215-685-0723
(From nps.gov)
To mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the National Park Service free winter lecture series in 2012 will explore events and personalities that figured prominently in 1862, and also return to the popular “Perspectives on the Gettysburg Campaign and Battle.” Programs will explore the great battles and campaigns of 1862, such as Shiloh, Antietam, the Monitor and Merrimac and others, as well as people and events that shaped the war. Speakers will include as a special guest Dr. Allen Guelzo, the Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era at Gettysburg College, who will speak on the Emancipation Proclamation.
National Park Rangers will offer the programs on weekends beginning Saturday, January 7, and running through Sunday, March 11. They are free of charge and will be held at the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center, in one of the film theaters through February 26 and in the Ford Motor Company Fund Education Center on March 4, 10, and 11. Programs begin at 1:30 p.m. and last approximately one hour.
For more information and a schedule of programs go to Gettysburg National Military Park’s website at www.nps.gov/gett or call 717/ 334-1124 x 8023.
You can find the full schedule here (PDF).
On November 7, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis will designate Great Falls in Paterson, New Jersey as America’s 397th National Park. The city of Paterson has donated four tracts of land around the Great Falls for this purpose. The National Park Service will hold a series of public meetings this month to identify stakeholders and determine their vision for the park. The full press release is available by clicking here.
The process began in 2009, when President Obama signed legislation authorizing the NPS to establish a historic site in Paterson, NJ. The site is meant to celebrate Paterson as the nation’s first planned industrial city, and includes the ruins of a number of industrial ruins known as the Allied Textile Printing site. There is $450,000 in federal funds available to facilitate the planning process.
(www.northjersey.com)
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