Public History

The NPS Thematic Framework

Laura Feller and Page Putnam Miller, January 2000

I. Peopling Places

  1. family and the life cycle
  2. health, nutrition, and disease
  3. migration from outside and within
  4. community and neighborhood
  5. ethnic homelands
  6. encounters, conflicts, and colonization

II.  Creating Social Institutions and Movements

  1. clubs and organizations
  2. reform movements
  3. religious institutions
  4. recreational activities

III. Expressing Cultural Values

  1. education and intellectual currents
  2. visual and performing arts
  3. literature
  4. mass media
  5. architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design
  6. popular and traditional culture

IV. Shaping the Political Landscape

  1. parties, protests, and movements
  2. governmental institutions
  3. military institutions and activities
  4. political ideas, cultures, and theories

V.  Developing the American Economy

  1. extraction and production
  2. distribution and consumption
  3. transportation and communication
  4. workers and work culture
  5. labor organizations and protests
  6. exchange and trade
  7. governmental policies and practices
  8. economic theory

VI.  Expanding Science and Technology

  1. experimentation and invention
  2. technological applications
  3. scientific thought and theory
  4. effects on lifestyle and health

VII. Transforming the Environment

  1. manipulating the environment and its resources
  2. adverse consequences and stresses on the environment
  3. protecting and preserving the environment

VIII.  Changing Role of the U.S. in the World Community

  1. international relations
  2. commerce
  3. expansionism and imperialism
  4. immigration and emigration policies

Back to the article by Laura Feller and Page Putnam Miller