State Historian Update (April 2010)
The first couple months of 2010 have been busy ones for all of us.   I know this, because I have been reviewing the many interesting, good, and very diverse reports that so many of you have been sending.  Some of you are focusing on your research and writing, while others work on historic preservation projects or exhibits and public programs.  Still others are doing wonderful work with your local schools, and some of you are organizing and maintaining your archives and records and making them increasingly available to your local officials to develop better public policies.  Personally, I like the diversity and the personal touches that each of you brings to your work.  A few people have asked me about the form that my predecessor, Joe Meany, used to ask you to use when filing your reports.  As I’ve told some of you, you can continue to use the forms if you are comfortable with them, but I actually prefer to hear you describe your work in your own words.  I’ve learned in my two years on the job here that one size definitely does not fit all.

One thing I do encourage is the kind of cooperation you do with other local historians and with historical and educational organizations, community groups, and others.  I am particularly impressed by those of you who work with local colleges, universities, and community colleges—whether to do research, develop programs, or to make use of all those interns and volunteers who may be available to you.  In difficult economic times like these, we would do well to remember that we are all in this together and that we all benefit by cooperating rather than competing or struggling over control.

I want to congratulate APHNYS, meanwhile, on the grant it was recently awarded by the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area.  This is a significant step forward in helping local historians develop their leadership roles in the coordinated management of historical markers in New York State.

And finally, let me say that my “other” job as Chief Curator of the New York State Museum has been keeping me especially busy over the course of the past few months.  Although our plans to renew our permanent galleries are temporarily on hold, we have opened and closed 1609 (our very ambitious Quadricentennial exhibition), This Great Nation Will Endure: Photographs of the Great Depression (in partnership with the FDR Presidential Library and Museum), and Through the Eyes of Others: Africans Americans and Identity in American Art (in partnership with the Fenimore House).  At the same time, we have opened a number of other impressive history-related exhibitions: Seeing Ourselves: Masterpieces of American Photography (in partnership with the George Eastman House), Women Who Rocked the Vote (in honor of Women’s History Month), A Great Day for Elmira (in partnership with the Chemung County Historical Society), and an exhibition on abolitionist John Brown in one of our permanent galleries.  We are currently developing Citizen Soldier: New York’s National Guard in the American Century and Beyond (in cooperation with the New York State Military Museum) and More Than Just Another Pretty Place (an exhibition on the New York landscape).  We expect to open both later this year.

I enjoyed seeing some of you in Port Byron for the recent commemoration of the town’s interesting connection to Abraham Lincoln and in Troy at the very well attended conference sponsored by the Underground Railroad History Project of the Capitol Region.  And I hope to see many more of you at the upcoming APHNYS conference in Buffalo on April 18-20, the New York State History Day finals in Cooperstown on April 30, the Cato Freedom Conference in Oneonta on May 1, and the Conference on New York State History on June 3-5 in Ithaca.

Announcement of Appointment of the NYS Historian (2/5/08)  
Robert Weible is happy to be returning to New York as State Historian and Chief History Curator of the New York State Museum.  His family has roots in New York City, and Weible himself was born in Queens.  He grew up on Long Island (in Seaford) and returns often to visit family and friends who still live there.

Weible has worked for the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission since 1989, first as Chief of its Division of History, then as Acting Director of the State Archives, and finally as Director of Public History.  In each case, he says that he has always regarded himself as a public historian and has worked, not just with professionals in the academy, museums, and elsewhere, but with community groups across the state.  The point, he says, is for people to learn from each other and make history a more meaningful part of their lives—and in Pennsylvania, he has done just that.  He turned the state’s historical marker program from a state-run bureaucratic operation to a more modern one, for example, by enlisting public involvement and independent professional support and by teaming with a local public television affiliate and others to produce the award-winning web site www.explorepahistory.com (see “The Case of Historical Markers in the 21^st Century” in the Winter 2006 edition of History News).  

Partnerships have, in fact, been the key to nearly everything he has done in Pennsylvania—from working with universities, county and local historical societies, and community groups to organize the state’s annual Conference on Black History; to coordinating a statewide program on Pennsylvania’s Native American heritage in cooperation with professional and amateur archaeologists; to developing an exhibit on the state’s steel industry that traveled to museums across Pennsylvania.  During his years in the state, Weible worked closely with Pennsylvania’s professional organizations, including the Pennsylvania Historical Association and the Pennsylvania Federation of Museums and Historical Organizations (to which he served as the state’s official liaison).

In the 1980s, Weible came to appreciate the value of partnerships—and the power of history—while serving with the National Park Service as the first historian at Lowell National Historical Park in Massachusetts.  Unlike more traditional parks, Lowell’s development depended on cooperation between the Park Service and state and local governments, professional associations, and community and private sector groups.  And as a result, Lowell not only produced a more accurate and accessible history, but it helped revitalize the city’s economy.   Lowell has since become a model for the development of other national parks and many state and federal heritage projects.

Weible served as President of the National Council on Public History in 2005-06.  He has also been elected or appointed to office in the Organization of American Historians, the Pennsylvania Historical Association, and the Mid-Atlantic American Studies Association.  He has edited five books and published articles and reviews in numerous publications, including The Public Historian, History News, Pennsylvania History, and the Journal of American History.  He has a B.A. degree from Penn State University and an M.A. from the University of Rhode Island.  He and his wife Brigitte, a family and children’s therapist, have two children: a son working in private business in Pennsylvania and a daughter attending graduate school at Binghamton University.       

The Association of Public Historians of New York State is very pleased with Mr. Weible’s appointment. APHNYS President Carol McKenna states: “On behalf of the Board and members of the Association of Public Historians of New York State, I want to extend a warm welcome to Robert Weible, our new State Historian.  We look forward to a mutually beneficial relationship with Mr. Weible going forward.”