Department of History faculty member Andrea Burns has been awarded the 2015 National Council on Public History Book Award for her work, From Storefront to Monument: Tracing the Public History of the Black Museum Movement. The NCPH Book Award recognizes outstanding scholarship that addresses the theory and/or practice of public history or that includes the products of public history work. Public history gathers, preserves, protects and makes publicly accessible the collective consciousness of nations, communities and individuals.
From Storefront to Monument: Tracing the Public History of the Black Museum Movement was inspired by Burns’ fascination with the intersection of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, and the establishment of African American museums during the 1960s and 1970s. Although African American museums have existed since the 19th century, Burns’ research detected a distinct change in the types of exhibits and programs they produced during the 1960s. This change, and its repercussions, are the focus of Burns’ book.
“It is an enormous privilege to be recognized by one’s peers,” says Burns. “I hope that my book contributes, at least in a small way, to the ongoing conversation public historians are having about the necessity of studying, preserving, and interpreting African American history.”
To learn more about the Department of History, please visit its website.