Welcome to Historical Interpretations
The site is continually evolving with course corrections as I complete additional postgraduate work and progress professionally. I have several fields of interest in history and public history, documentary editing, bibliographic studies, paper conservation, and exhibit development.
2025 has been, and will continue to be, a busy year, now in May, with two classes left in the academics phase of my Ph.D. program before beginning the comprehensives phase in the spring of 2026. The dissertation phase should begin in the fall of 2026 with the defense and completion sometime in 2027. Dissertation research will get a dedicated page once the topic has been approved.
Research & Writing
Academically, having completed graduate degrees in history and public history, the next step, the doctorate, became inevitable in 2025, beginning with the spring semester. Over the 2024-25 winter break, I began laying the preliminary groundwork for dissertation research that should begin passively this summer and actively next fall. Presuming a successful defense, post-doctoral research projects will start in earnest in the winter of 2027. The Research and Projects page provides more information on current and future research.
The previously mentioned fields have a tendency to intersect. My research interests will inevitably present opportunities to produce a range of historical products. They will also likely present opportunities to develop adjacent projects and products as well as touch on other areas of interest. Two areas that will be engaged with are archaeology and GIS data collection and processing. There are several potential projects that will involve archaeological surveys using aerial platforms and ground penetrating radar (GPR). As an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) pilot, I am looking forward to expanding my skill sets in these areas and pursuing additional opportunities.
Documentary Editing & Transcription
Looking for primary sources in any research project is a foundational exercise. After sifting through archival materials, it can be surprising how much material can be located that has not been published, or even made available outside of the physical collection. While not every scrap of paper in a collection may justify a scholarly edition, most documents or collections of related documents do have a place in the published, or at least accessible, historical record. I am looking forward to several projects that will include transcription and, in some cases, scholarly editions.
Bibliography & Paper Conservation
My exposure to general collections conservation goes back over 45 years. I have had opportunities to return many books to service during that time. In recent years, I have had opportunities to delve more into the realm of special collections conservation. There are several bibliographic fields, some of them being of little relevance to late-18th-century through early-20th-century research, such as paleography and codicology, however, I still find myself drawn to the broader field. My proclivity for rabbit holes also brings my interest to the printing side of bibliographic studies.
Continuing academic studies in these fields and practical lab work will be a continuing theme moving forward. I have several items in my personal collection that are in need of attention, some in the general collections category and some in special collections. I am gathering tools and materials for a small hybrid lab to further these studies and practices.
Exhibits
Exhibit design, planning, and execution is where a lifetime of making1 finds its place alongside academic interpretation. A graduate degree in public history is a study of a broad range of topics, it is more in-depth than an overview, but it is broad and based in the theoretical. Museology itself is only a part of the graduate program. My interest and advantage in this field is the broad range of building and mechanical skills developed over five decades of making. The analytical and problem-solving skills of an aircraft mechanic, woodworker, and electronics hobbyist have provided the skills and tools to take an academic interpretation of place, time, and person, and bring them to visual and interactive spaces.
- For those not familiar with the making community, according to Merriam-Webster, making is “the act or process of forming, causing, doing, or coming into being.” In the context of the maker community, it is taking something envisioned in one’s mind and bringing it into existence. Making can be anything, music, computer code, costumes, props, woodworking, 3D modeling & printing, electronics, robotics, art in all its forms, through any medium or process. Makers tend to have an eclectic range of skills and often apply these skills in unique combinations and ways, at times giving rise to new making fields, as exemplified by the field of foamsmithing, a collection of widely utilized skills and techniques often used in making costumes and props from foam, usually EVA foam. Making skills are frequently accompanied by an ethos of creativity, problem-solving, open source, and community development. Makers often utilize their skills in their participation in other communities, such as Steampunk, live steam engineering, the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), cosplay, and period reenactment communities. ↩︎