On October 29, 2021 I gave the presentation below, “Black Lives, Whitened Stories: A Journey Through Three North Carolina National Parks,” as my presidential address for the Historical Society of North Carolina. The talk focuses on my recent work (2015-21) on Black history, whiteness, and race on the Blue Ridge Parkway, Carl Sandburg Home…
This Adobe Spark presentation includes the images that accompany a talk I have given a couple of times titled “The Transparent Box: The National Park Service and Public History.”
Originally published in the Raleigh (NC) News & Observer Sunday, October 20, 2013 Point of View National parks need funding help By Anne Mitchell Whisnant As a historian of the national parks, I followed with interest stories of how the government shutdown – thankfully concluded now – played out in the parks. From…
Anne Mitchell Whisnant David E. Whisnant Originally published in The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) March 30, 2007 CHAPEL HILL–‘Let’s close the National Parks,” Bernard DeVoto wrote in Harper’s in 1953. Detailing the decay of a park system in crisis as visitation skyrocketed but budgets lagged in the post-World War II years, DeVoto shocked…