• Image of the reconstructed stockade at Fort Vancouver and Pearson Air Museum looking northeast from the Land Bridge.

    Fort Vancouver

    National Historic Site OR,WA

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  • Information on Pearson Air Museum

    Information about Fort Vancouver National Historic Site assuming direct operational responsibility for Pearson Air Museum. More »

Course Focus & Project

Telling the Story of the Daily Life of the Nineteenth Century Army Fort's Soldiers, Women, and Children Through 25 Objects

This quarter, the 2013 Public History Field School project will be researching, designing, and writing content for a NPS digital publication that will highlight 25 material culture items in the park's Archives & Reference Collection (ARC) and use them to help readers:

  • Understand and connect on a personal level to the daily life of soldiers, civilians, and families at the nineteenth century Army post known as Fort Vancouver and Vancouver Barracks;
  • Understand the national significance of the site as a unit of the national park system;
  • Recognize the value of tangible items in historical archives, museum collections, and archaeology in understanding our collective past.

The 25 objects selected for inclusion in this publication will:

  • Reflect the scope of the park's collections ( including artifacts, photographs, documents, textiles, etc.);
  • Connect visitors to the park purpose and one or more of the park's interpretive themes;
  • Creatively illustrate the story of daily life at the Army's Fort Vancouver for its many inhabitants (soldiers, civilians, families), comparing and contrasting these with other locations (other regions, cities, and/or western posts) or narratives;
  • Help illustrate the site's national significance.
 

For more information, please click on one of the links below:

Course Focus & Project

Course Texts & Media

Course Schedule

Course Requirements & Grading

Course Main Page

Did You Know?

Black and white image of Dr. John McLoughlin

Did you know that John McLoughlin, Chief Factor at Fort Vancouver, is known as the “Father of Oregon” for his aid to American immigrants arriving over the Oregon Trail? His home in Oregon City, Oregon is a unit of the national park system administered by Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. More...