Cultural and Historical Connections
How does the CA-CESU use science to acknowledge, promote, and support traditional practices and our nation’s heritage? Integrative conservation efforts that incorporate both scientific and cultural/historic viewpoints can inspire a more holistic approach to conserving natural and culturally significant resources. Incorporating these practices into our science efforts showcases how scientific knowledge can be coupled with the value of culture to steward natural ecosystems and cultural resources. Learn more about projects that are creating cultural and historical connections below.
Adobe Preservation and Rehabilitation in Death Valley National Park
Years Active: 2021-2026
PI: John Barrow (Cornerstone)
Students, volunteers, and interns work side-by-side with experienced historic preservation professionals to gain hands-on experience in the practice of historic preservation through the assessment, preservation, and reconstruction of historic adobe structures and buildings in Death Valley National Park. Participants were taught techniques to assess adobe conditions, manufacture and install new adobe bricks, and execute an actual preservation project on a historic resource. This work helps raise awareness about locally-sourced, natural building materials and demonstrates techniques which promote earth as a building material for future generations. This work also helps support ongoing training of NPS staff in specialized historic preservation techniques and materials.
Identification of Unique Resource Types at Amache
Years Active: 2021-2022
PI: Dana Shew (Sonoma State University)
This project seeks to create a resource study of Amache, a concentration camp for Japanese Americans following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Through a comparative analysis format, the final report lends greater insight and contextualization of Amache history. Literature and other key sources of information were drawn upon to summarize existing Amache history. Resource types represented by Amache were identified and a NPS public input campaign with over 5,000 comments helped contextualize the public's input. Having a deeper understanding of Amache history allows for identification of historical themes that aid in park engagement. Audiences who visit the site of Amache have a more powerful and visceral experience and understanding of the site. This encourages the public to become active stewards of the Amache site and history.
Supporting the Inclusion of Women's Stories in Park Education and Media
Years Active: 2020-2022
PI: Ellen Hartigan-O'Connor (University of California, Davis)
To commemorate the 19th Amendment and women involved in National Park history, this cooperative agreement seeks to generate accessible, professional-quality content to be used in park and regional commemorative activities, interpretation, and education programs. The completion of a peer-reviewed essay establishes a thematic framework for identifying and interpreting women's contributions to the history of the Regions. Biographical sketches of notable women associated with Regions' park supplement the thematic essay. Access to professional-quality research and interpretive content helps achieve greater relevance, reach new audiences, and enrich activities commemorating the 29th Amendment. This project is also a starting point for future research, documentation and interpretation of themes in women's history.
Cesar Chavez National Monument Museum and Archive
Years Active: 2021-2024
PI: Anne Gilliland (University of California, Los Angeles)
Cesar E. Chavez National Monument has a significant collection of artifacts and archives with direct connections to the life, work, and family of the foremost Latino American leader of the Twentieth Century. This project recruits two students from the UCLA graduate program in Archival Studies to assist the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks museum staff with processing and cataloging of archival materials.
Approximately 2,000 museum documents and artifacts from Cesar E. Chavez National Monument will be processed and cataloged into the Interior Collections Management System. Resulting catalog records will in turn be made available to the public through the NPS web catalog. Additionally, the interns will create digital copies of objects on exhibit to replace fragile originals that need to be placed in secure storage.
Cesar E. Chavez was one of the foremost Latino American leaders of the Twentieth Century. This project will improve accessibility to the collections and their intellectual content for both park staff and outside researchers by producing a searchable database and the ability to find paper finding aids. The public will also benefit from the physical preservation of a portion of historically significant archival resources within the NPS.
Preserving the Historic Records of Parks
Years Active: 2021-2025
PI: Emily Lin (University of California, Merced)
Students from UC Merced will assist Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park museum staff with digitizing and publishing archival information. This is part of a larger effort to make available the majority of the parks' archival holdings. The preservation of these archival holdings will be aid in future research endeavors.
Over the course of the project, documents will be digitized, converted to machine-readable formats, and uploaded onto NPS and UC web-platforms. This project will also include the survey of collections, preparation of inventories, appraisal of documents, archival re-housing and preservation work, preparation of descriptive narrative, and more.
WWII Home Front Oral History Digitization, Transcription and Enhanced Access
Years Active: 2022-2024
PI: Paul Burnett (University of California, Berkeley)
Starting in 2001, the National Park Service (Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park) began collaboration with the Oral History Center of the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley to collect oral histories of the WWII home front. The WWII Home Front Oral History Collection now includes over 250 individual interviews consisting of over 500 hours of material. Included in the Rosie the Riveter museum collection are 140 additional audio and video-recorded oral history interviews conducted in the late 1990s-2000s by former Richmond City Council committee chairperson, Donna Powers and the Rosie the Riveter Committee as well as by students, media outlets and individuals. In a continued effort to make these additional WWII home front oral histories accessible, this project will allow for conversion of the outdated recorded formats to digital files as well as produce written transcripts of the content and include a portion of the recordings on the searchable UC Berkeley web portal.
Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail: Public History Project
Years Active: 2021-2024
PI: Eddie Madril (San Francisco State University)
Through the partnership between the American Indian Studies Department at SFSU and the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail, a public history program and materials will be created to engage audiences from diverse angles. This project will focus on the section of the Anza Trail between Monterey, CA and San Francisco, CA which is the ancestral homeland of the Ohlone people. Ultimately, an inclusive, relevant and accessible public history product such as interpretive writing, oral histories, and documentary short films will be produced.
SFSU and the NPS will train students in methods to communicate the history of the Anza expedition and the 1776 time period in which the expedition took place. This training will include a summer field project with public history training and community outreach components. From this, public history products were produced which will be shared with Bay Area communities such as under-resourced groups and youth communities. These public history products will go one to serve under-resourced communities as well as serve as foundational work for approaching the commemorative events of America 250.