PART 3
The Endangered and Fragmented State of History in the NPS: Findings and Recommendations With so many examples of lively, vibrant, and innovative history practice at the NPS, it seemed reasonable to expect that our survey respondents would have been upbeat about the prospects for history in the agency. Yet when asked to characterize the “state of history” in two or three sentences, all but a handful among the discursive comments paint a bleak picture. They describe NPS history as “an afterthought” relegated to “small cubicles and minor sideshows” and therefore either “stagnant and irrelevant to today’s generation and issues” or “moribund, old-fashioned, and largely irrelevant, with a couple of spots of fearlessness and innovation.”1 It is “erratic,” one respondent says, “outstanding in some places, awful in others.”2 “Underfunded, undervalued, underutilized and misunderstood,” summarizes another, while several express a sense of decline: history in the Park Service, respondents asserted, is “deteriorating”; “losing ground”; and “threatened.”3 As our “lamps on the path” abundantly demonstrate, there have certainly been many attempts by chief historians, regional directors, and many individual superintendents and their staff members to strengthen history. However, we believe that much of the energy that has led to innovative approaches to research, analysis, and dissemination of historical work like those featured above has arisen locally and flowed from the creativity and initiative of particular individuals rather than from system-wide encouragement and inspiration. In the words of one respondent, history is “lost in the wilderness…we have lost our way… . If it weren’t for the incredible dedication of some employees who want to do the right thing for the Service, we’d be in even worse shape than we are now.”4 As one of our consultants observed, “Where the agency is strong they are just lucky. Individuals… have taken it on themselves to take up the slack.”5 In many places, the robust history we all want to see has taken hold—as the examples gathered in part 2 illustrate—but is not flowering on the whole, and people have a negative sense of its current state and prospects. What is holding the agency back? Our research has revealed several, often intertwined, areas of concern that we outline in the list of findings below. For each finding, we make specific recommendations ranked by priority for putting history back to work in the National Park Service and enabling it to realize its full potential as the steward of the nation’s heritage.
1 Respondents 10337, 11808, 10137, and 10713. 2 Respondent 10584. 3 Respondents 11558, 11156, 11256, and 11325. 4 Respondent 10321. 5 Ethan Carr, personal narrative for State of History team, 2010.
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