Interests

My research seeks to understand how Americans have, over time, used objects to make sense of their pasts. I am particularly interested in the physicality of historical experience and our belief in the power of things to transport us through time.

Projects

Birth and Commemoration in American Public Memory (edited collection), forthcoming from University of Massachusetts Press, Public History in Historical Perspective series.

Here, George Washington was Born: Memory, Material Culture, and the Public History of a National Monument (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2008).
[view] [buy][review]

“Administrative History of the George Washington Birthplace National Monument,” (Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, 2006). [view]

Western Railway of Alabama Recording Project (Historic American Engineering Record, 1999). [view]

"Pennsylvania Boatbuilding: Charting a State Tradition," Pennsylvania History, a Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 69, no. 2 (Spring 1998). [view]

Media

“Classes explore city history beyond the Liberty Bell,” Temple University News Communications, 29 October 2009 [listen]

“Civil War collection may leave city,” WHYY Philadelphia, 28 July 2009 [listen]

"Betsy Ross reputation flagging in 21st century," WHYY Philadelphia, 27 April 2009 [listen]

"Celebrating Presidents Day Today: Historian Seth Bruggeman explores why we honor past presidents," Temple University News Communications, 9 February 2009 [read]

"What We Talk About When We Talk About the Past," Temple University News Communications Audiocast, 2 February 2009 [listen]

"Old Visitor Center is New Battle of Gettysburg," NPR Morning Edition, 7 October 2008 [listen]

"In Gettysburg a preservation battle looms over original home of cyclorama painting," WHYY Philadelphia, 26 September 2008 [listen]