Aerospace History Fellowship: American Historical Association and NASA

The American Historical Association (AHA) annually sponsors at least one Fellow for one academic year to undertake research related to aerospace history.

This fellowship is supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It will provide a Fellow with an opportunity to engage in significant and sustained advanced research in all aspects of the history of aerospace from the earliest human interest in flight to the present, including cultural and intellectual history, economic history, history of law and public policy, and the history of science, engineering, and management.

Here is a link to a list of past fellowship award recipients, the term of their fellowships and research topics.

The History Education Council of Hawaii highly recommends that Hawaii historians and educators with an interest in aerospace history apply.

It should be remembered that Ellison Onizuka, who died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, was from Kealakekua, Kona, Hawaii.

For more information including eligibility, residency requirements, application procedures and stipends click this link to the AHA web page.

Applications and letters of recommendation must be postmarked by March 5, 2010.

Submit to:
Fellowship in Aerospace History
American Historical Association
400 A Street, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003

International Conference: Museums and the Web 2010

Museums and the Web 2010 is an annual international conference for culture and heritage online. The 2010 conference is scheduled for April 13-17 and will be held in Denver, Colorado USA.

Early registration (and lower rates) ends tomorrow, December 18. Go to this link for early registration.

It is not too late to participate in the conference. The deadline for demonstration proposals is December 31, 2009. Go to this link for more information including an online proposal form.

The full preliminary program, featuring contributions from more than 180 people in 17 countries is at this link.

Scholarships for professionals are also available. Go to this link to learn more.

Virtual Museum: Mission Houses Museum, Honolulu

Honolulu's Mission Houses Museum features a "virtual exhibit" comprised of objects derived from its collections and exhibitions.

Mission Houses Museum connects the story of the American Protestant missionaries and their descendants to the history and culture of Hawai'i, in order to give present generations of residents and visitors a deeper understanding of, and appreciation for, Hawai'i's rich and complex history.

Categories include Daguerreotypes; Playthings: Toys & Games; Fundamental Fibers; Decorative Arts; and the Printing Office.

Generations Defined

Generations Defined

Traditionalists: Born 1925-1945

Generational personality: Hardworking, stable; reluctant to buck the system.

Baby Boomers: Born 1946-1964

Generational personality: Driven, team players; judgmental of those who see things differently.

Generation X: Born 1965-1980

Generational personality: Adaptable, technoliterate; poor people skills, cynical.

Millenial Generation/GenerationY: Born 1980-2000

Generational personality: Optimistic, tenacious; need supervision and structure.

Source: When Generations Collide. Lancaster LC, Stillman D. Collins Business, 2005.

History's Habits of the Mind (Bradley Commission)

History's Habits of the Mind

The perspectives and modes of thoughtful judgment derived from the study of history are many, and they ought to be its principal aim. Courses in history, geography, and government should be designed to take students well beyond formal skills of critical thinking, to help them through their own learning to:

1. understand the significance of the past to their own lives, both private and public, and to their society.
2. distinguish between the important and the inconsequential, to develop the "discriminating memory" needed for a discerning judgment in public and personal life.
3. perceive past events and issues as they were experienced by people at the time, to develop historical empathy as opposed to present-mindedness.
4. acquire at one and the same time a comprehension of diverse cultures and of shared humanity.
5. understand how things happen and how things change, how human intentions matter, but also how their consequences are shaped by the means of carrying them out, in a tangle of purpose and process.
6. comprehend the interplay of change and continuity, and avoid assuming that either is somehow more natural, or more to be expected, than the other.
7. prepare to live with uncertainties and exasperating, even perilous, unfinished business, realizing that not all problems have solutions.
8. grasp the complexity of historical causation, respect particularity, and avoid excessively abstract generalizations.
9. appreciate the often tentative nature of judgments about the past, and thereby avoid the temptation to seize upon particular "lessons" or history as cures for present ills.
10. recognize the importance of individuals who have made a difference in history, and the significance of personal character for both good and ill.
11. appreciate the force of the nonrational, the irrational, the accidental, in history and human affairs.
12. understand the relationship between geography and history as a matrix of time and place, and as context for events.
13. read widely and critically in order to recognize the difference between fact and conjecture, between evidence and assertion, and thereby to frame useful questions.

Habits of Mind taken from:

Bradley Commission on History in Schools. Building a History Curriculum: Guidelines for Teaching History in Schools. Westlake, OH: National Council for History Education, 1995. p. 9.

History's Vital Themes and Narratives (Bradley Commission)

History's Vital Themes and Narratives
In the search for historical understanding of ourselves and others, certain themes emerge as vital, whether the subject be world history, the history of Western civilization, or the history of the United States.

Civilization, cultural diffusion, and innovation
The evolution of human skills and the means of exerting power over nature and people. The rise, interaction, and decline of successive centers of such skills and power. The cultural flowering of major civilizations in the arts, literature, and thought. The role of social, religious, and political patronage of the arts and learning. The importance of the city in different eras and places.

Human interaction with the environment
The relationships among geography, technology, and culture, and their effects on economic, social, and political developments. The choices made possible by climate, resources, and location, and the effect of culture and human values on such choices. The gains and losses of technological change. The central role of agriculture. The effect of disease, and disease-fighting, on plants, animals, and human beings.

Values, beliefs, political ideas, and institutions
The origins and spread of influential religions and ideologies. The evolution of political and social institutions, at various stages of industrial and commercial development. The interplay among ideas, material conditions, moral values, and leadership, especially in the evolution of democratic societies. The tensions between the aspirations for freedom and security, for liberty and equality, for distinction and commonality, in human affairs.

Conflict and cooperation
The many and various causes of war, and of approaches to peacemaking and war prevention. Relations between domestic affairs and ways of dealing with the outside world. Contrasts between international conflict and cooperation, between isolation and interdependence. The consequences of war and peace for societies and their cultures.

Comparative history of major developments
The characteristics of revolutionary, reactionary, and reform periods across time and place. Imperialism, ancient and modern. Comparative instances of slavery and emancipation, feudalism and centralization, human successes and failures, of wisdom and folly. Comparative elites and aristocracies; the role of family, wealth, and merit.

Patterns of social and political interaction
The changing patterns of class, ethnic, racial, and gender structures and relations. Immigration, migration, and social mobility. The effects of schooling. The new prominence of women, minorities, and the common people in the study of history, and their relation to political power and influential elites. The characterisitics of multicultural societies; forces for unity and disunity.

Vital Themes and Narratives taken from:

The Bradley Commission. Building a History Curriculum: Guidelines for Teaching History in Schools. Westlake, OH: National Council for History Education, 1995. pp. 10-11.

Remembering Pearl Harbor 68 Years Later

It was 68 years ago today that military forces of Japan's militarist dictatorship bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, igniting American involvement in World War II.

In today's Honolulu Advertiser a news story features ceremonies held at Ewa Field. It was here, and not Pearl Harbor itself, where American forces first defended the nation against the attack. Click here for a link to the story. The story mentions:

About 200 people gathered yesterday at a cracked, potholed, weedy strip of concrete at 'Ewa Field, where part of the opening salvo in that long, brutal fight was fired.

'Ewa Field has a history that time has obscured. When the carrier-launched warplanes of the Japanese Empire roared in to attack Pearl Harbor, they also hit the Marine Corps Air Station in 'Ewa, where several hundred Marines were stationed and nearly 50 aircraft were on the ground at 'Ewa Field. Four Marines and two civilians at nearby 'Ewa Plantation were killed, one of them a 6-year-old girl.

In two strafing waves and other sporadic attacks, Japanese planes destroyed or damaged most of the aircraft on the tarmac. None got into the air. Machine gun and 20mm strafing gouges and burn marks can still be seen on the concrete area where the planes were tied down.

'Ewa Beach historian John Bond, who is spearheading efforts to preserve the battle site, said the attack at 'Ewa Field may have preceded the Pearl Harbor bombing by a few minutes. So it is possible that the first U.S. shots fired at Japanese forces in World War II were at 'Ewa Field.

HawaiiNewsNow.com features a story about John Bond's leadership and efforts to save Ewa Field from demolition and development. Click here for a link to that story.

Historic Hawaii Foundation has also listed Ewa Field as one of Hawaii's nine most endangered historical sites. Click here for a link to Honolulu Magazine.

For teachers there are a number of resources online. Scholastic's 'My Pearl Harbor' is here.

The National Endowment for the Humanities is sponsoring Landmarks in American History and Workshop for Community College Faculty, focusing on Pacific War sites in the Honolulu area, particularly Pearl Harbor. Click here for more information on the 2010 workshops.