Curating the American Past

A Memoir of a Quarter Century at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History

Pete Daniel

• Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9781682261972
• eBook ISBN:
  9781610757645
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Museum Studies
• Index: Business

"As is well known, Pete is an outstanding storyteller, and this book is no exception."
—Claire Strom, Journal of Southern History

In addition to chronicling significant exhibit work at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Curating the American Past, captures the excitement inherent in researching and writing history and Pete Daniel's efforts to prevent diluted celebratory stories from replacing the red meat of the American past.

In Curating the American Past, Pete Daniel reveals how curators collect objects, plan exhibits, and bring alive the country's complex and exciting history. In vivid detail, Daniel recounts the exhilaration of innovative research, the joys of collaboration, and the rewards of mentoring new generations of historians. In a career distinguished by prize-winning publications and pathbreaking exhibitions, Daniel also confronted the challenges of serving as a public historian tasked with protecting a definitive American museum from the erosion of scholarly standards. Curating the American Past offers a wealth of museum wisdom, illuminating the crucial role that dedicated historians and curators serve within our most important repositories of cultural memory.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Historian/Curator
• 2. Boundaries
• 3. An Exemplary Division
• 4. Lectures
• 5. Science and Conflict
• 6. Denying History
• 7. Research Road
• 8. Rock ’n’ Soul
• 9. Defending Exhibit Standards
• 10. Entropy
• 11. The Wages of Mediocrity
• 12. Dismissive Indifference
• 13. Not Fade Away
• Notes
• Index