Professional Experience In Oral History

How can an individual’s experience at a local historical society influence their outlook on the career field of public history? When enrolling in HST 580 Professional Experience, I made the decision that I would complete my required 180 hours at my local historical society in Los Alamos, New Mexico. While completing my professional experience at the historical society, Heather McClenahan severed as my site mentor. Under Heather’s guidance, I began working on several projects that the society had been attempting to complete. These tasks included me assisting the society with their oral history project, training their tour guides for the opening of their new Cold War Museum, supporting their staff in cataloging the society’s archives, and interacting
The first interview I did was with an individual by the name of Roger Rassmunn who witnessed the actual testing of the first atomic explosion in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The interview with Roger taught me several key aspects of oral histories and the way that I should conduct them in the future. In this first interview, I learned that as a public historian it is our job to personally engage in a conversation and let the discussion easily flow allowing those interviewed to recount their experiences. After completing the interview with Roger, I quickly worked to set up my next interview. My second interview taught me that the historian must be ready to encounter individuals in society that present different attitudes and personalities. During my second interview with Stan Hall, I found that the historian working in this field must learn how to work with all members of the public despite the way that they treat the historian. While conducting my interview with Stan I found, despite the hostility that he presented, that it was best that I try my best to keep a positive feeling in the interview. After finishing, the interview with Stan my mentor informed me that after refusing the historical society’s request to make an oral history, I was finally able to get him to agree to do an interview. While, I
As their museum underwent renovations, they shared a workspace with the new Manhattan Project National Park. While sharing the workspace for the better half of the year, many of the visitors that came to Los Alamos passed the historical society’s tour guides for the park’s rangers. To prepare the historical society’s guides for the reopening of their museum, a training program went into effect to teach them how to interact with the public. As a part of this training, I presented a presentation on the definition of public history and the duties that define the historian in this career field. During the presentation, I addressed the different opinions on what defined public history and historians, public history’s past, and the issues that come while interacting with the public as a historian. After the talk, I received several questions from the tour guides on restoration, preserving the past, and ways to work with the members of the public. After concluding my presentation, I began analyzing several of the questions asked by the tour guides. While examining, the questions asked, one relating to the public history issue of restoration and preserving cultural landscapes stood out to me. The inquiry involved the idea that even if an artifact underwent restoration, does this rid the object of its historical value. Contemplating the question, I