And so it was ordered…

"One in three museums said they had deferred or delayed infrastructure improvements or construction. One in four canceled or reduced specialized programs for students, rural audiences, individuals with disabilities, elderly people, or veterans. One in 10 laid off staff members."

“Blogs are one of the great literary inventions of our time. Coming somewhere between an essay and a diary entry, they are a form of personal journalism that is intimate and immediate... but they also have… a rough-edged informality that breaks down barriers. They are engaging.”

BALTIMORE! A friend of mine who is an art conservator just got grant funding for a project on how to preserve queer stories and objects if anyone is interested please pass this flyer along

!! "This marks the first time that the Museum has resolved an ownership claim for works of art that were wrongfully taken under the conditions of slavery in the 19th-century U.S."

@5easypieces.bsky.social is writing again! This brings me such joy.

@tressiemcphd.bsky.social You were fantastic today. Thank you for such a strong defense of libraries and museums and the deep social infrastructures of care they support.

One amazing speaker after another! Let's talk abt libraries and public spaces, shall we? We just heard from the magnificent @tressiemcphd.bsky.social here at the Teach-In in Defense of History and Museums. When a talk begins with a quote from Prince 💜 ... you know it's gonna be lit! #publicspaces

I’m on the train down to the History and Museum teach-in. Very excited to listen, learn, share, and build community and connection. If you’re in DC, hopefully I’ll see you there!

“UC Berkeley… has had enormous power in shaping the social and physical environment of its surrounding community. Because this university sits at the nexus of public good, profit, and plunder, our project is history not only *for* the public but also *of* the public.”

I’m excited to be joining the line-up for this Sunday’s teach in in defense of history and museums. There is much to learn and do, but we’ll do all of it better together. Hopefully I’ll see you there. linktr.ee/historyteachin

Has there even been a more apt visual metaphor?!

DC friends!! Join us on this Sunday on the National Mall for a teach-in in defense of history and museums, ft. an all-star line-up! We’ll be there from sun-up to sun-down. More info here: linktr.ee/historyteachin

“This administration can erase African American history from websites; order exhibits removed from Smithsonian museums and National Park Service sites; and even order a Confederate monument returned to Arlington National Cemetery…”

Feeling very proud of my Wikipedian-in-Residence colleagues who tackled an armed suicidal man. Andrew Lih, Wikimedia Laureate 2022, prised a loaded gun from his hand. Richard and Andrew are bookish computer guys who work in libraries. That takes some guts.

Chris Van Hollen for Senate Minority Leader. We need someone at the helm who understands the fight we're in and is willing to fight it. As far as I've seen, no one in the Senate Dem caucus is speaking with more clarity or conviction.

This sounds like an amazing book, but “Due to new U.S. customs regulations, we are unable to accept orders from the United States." We are kept further from new knowledge again.

“But the data out of Montgomery County, Maryland makes one thing unmistakably clear: this crusade is not a mass movement. It’s the obsession of a vanishingly small minority…”

"Mapping the Black Digital and Public Humanities" invites Black Digital and Public Humanities project directors to submit their projects to an interactive map and searchable database of 650+ international #Black #DigitalHumanities and #PublicHumanities projects. networks.h-net.org/group/announ...

100%

This sounds so good.

This sounds so good.

I miss a world where we wrote and engaged with each other about DH in small bites. @dhnow.bsky.social helped create that community and I'm glad it's back. digitalscholar.org/dhnow-and-co...

Good.

This is excellent.

Woke up to discover that the roads were blocked on all sides by the Maryland Cycling Classic, then proceeded to have an absorbing, if unexpected, day watching some great cycling—dashing from the TV to the street when the riders passed by. It was a much needed distraction and a lovely day.

All right, putting it out into the world… if anyone back in Australia has hot tips on a job for a museum studies professor who loves teaching and public programs and has leadership and strategic thinking skills, I’d love to hear them. Holding on here, but longing to be back in Oz.

I saw three of these on my walk to work…

Watching how Mayor Jacobs and Gov. Pritzker are having to explain why they oppose Trump’s military occupation is infuriating. Those of us who live in Baltimore, Chicago, and other cities cited by Trump are not a backdrop for a strongman’s show of power. open.substack.com/pub/sherrily...

Oh no!!

"None of us can imagine what it is like to be subjected to the unremitting physical, psychological, and social violence of chattel slavery. But museums such as the NMAAHC bring us closer ... by sharing 1st person accounts of those who lived through that terrible violence."

It feels kinda weird to share a piece that I’m also quoted in, but this from Beth English is great: “What we’re really seeing in those exhibits is a museum system growing in honesty and complexity, as historians explore new sources and approaches that expand and enrich our understanding of history”

"The Smithsonian will always be shaped by scholarship and guided by our core values. While our collections may evolve to reflect new discoveries and insights, the intellectual honesty and the integrity of our research and collections will not change.” Great quote from Lonnie Bunch, SI Secretary.

With the representation of Black history under attack, I keep thinking about the extraordinary Great Blacks in Wax museum here in Baltimore, which tells “the rich and often-overlooked contributions of people of African descent with uncompromising truth.” It is absolutely worth visiting.

“Our susceptibility to unwittingly adopting LLM vocabulary will likely only increase as the circle of AI text, human text we don’t know is AI, and actual human speech spins faster and faster.”

“Museums do not create division by presenting facts; they build understanding. They create space for dialogue, healing, and recognition.” An excellent defense of Black history in museums by Vedet Coleman-Robinson in @hyperallergic.com today. hyperallergic.com/1035834/firs...

Job posting: The Smithsonian's Archives of American Art is hiring a head of digital operations and strategy. Closing date: 09-03-25; Salary $142,488 to - $185,234/yr (GS14); On-site, Washington, DC

is there a list of data center resistance movements already? and/or would this list be helpful to compile, esp to share resources (like language, flyer materials) that folks in different cities have used to fight the opening of new data centers (or try to close existing data centers)?

Speaking of this, I wonder if I need to update the screen readers I’ve been recommending (based on what students liked using in previous years). Does anyone have good preferred screen readers that work well for online news articles and/or PDFs?

Unbreaking is doing great work at documenting what is happening now. Really thoughtful, meaningful work.

You can't teach U.S. history without "divisive" narratives. Slavery wasn't "unifying." The Japanese incarceration wasn't "unifying." The anti-immigrant Operation Wetback (real name) wasn't "unifying." It's history's job to tell the truth, not cover up past racism to pave the way for future racism.

This article identifies how people who seemingly would oppose authoritarianism are supporting it, acknowledges that throughout history various communities have fought back using a variety of tactics, and provides ideas of what we can and should do now. Very useful.

Much excitement to return to the classroom across the road from the White House in a couple of weeks!

I am in this Skeet.

There’s lots of useful stuff here.

“Scrolling social media means slogging through a morass of claims and accusations rhetoric that may or may not be reliable and may or may not be true, with occasional appearances (if you so choose) by archaic institutions that actually worry about things like probability and accuracy.”

Does anyone have a gift link to this that they could share with me?

We know that many history organizations and individuals are facing uncertainty in their budgets. That's why we are extending the early bird registration deadline for this year's Annual Conference. Don't delay—the new deadline is August 1. Learn more and register at tinyurl.com/AASLH2025.

The stat I want is how many of the musicians got their start on Neighbours. #Hottest100

My third vote to make it in. Such an amazing song. #Hottest100