Impacting the Practice of Public History

AASLH offers programs that support our members’ practice of history. Whether you’re looking to learn a new skill or fundamentally transform your organization, AASLH has programs to help you interpret history and make the past more meaningful. Our programs can help you learn new approaches and engage with new ideas. Browse the list below to see which programs can help you and/or your history organization.

Public History Research Lab

Research on the state of our field is a critical component of AASLH’s work. By exploring questions about historical organizations, history practitioners, and the ways public audiences engage with history, AASLH strives to equip history professionals, museum leaders, scholars, advocates, and others with data and insights they can use to fulfill their missions and more effectively champion the cause of history.

250th Anniversary

The United States will commemorate its 250th (or “Semiquincentennial”) anniversary in 2026. AASLH is providing key leadership for the history community as we all prepare for this once-in-a-generation opportunity. We are monitoring national, regional, and state commemoration plans as they develop, developing resources, programs, and field-wide goals to help guide commemoration efforts, and connecting stakeholders from across the field through our national coordinating committee.

Awards

For over seventy years, AASLH has given Leadership in History Awards to establish and encourage standards of excellence in the collection, preservation, and interpretation of state and local history in order to make the past more meaningful to all people.