New Report on Declining Historic Site Visits

Bad news is never welcome. Opening my inbox to read about a new report from the American Academy of Arts & Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (HI) project on declining visitation to historic sites was indeed disappointing, but not unexpected. The report, citing visitation from 1979 to 2012, found that “with each birth cohort Americans of all […]

Commerce + Interpretation: A Shared-Use Study from the National Trust

At the 2015 AASLH Annual Conference in Louisville, a panel discussed the opportunities and challenges of including for-profit operations at historic sites. While public-private partnerships have been successful at numerous locations around the country, the National Trust is providing a transparent look into the process for managing a historic site with a section operated by […]

The Importance of Well-defined Outcomes

Too often plans include lofty goals and compelling visions, yet lack well-defined outcomes. Understanding what success looks like helps bring about consensus, inform the appropriate business/ implementation model and also instruct the best way to measure impact. A session at the 2015 AASLH Annual Conference in Louisville featured the Golden Historical Society and the planning […]