Every year, students enrolled in Public History Theory and Methods (HIS 5067) engage in a semester long research project about a certain building or landmark on FSU's campus. Located in the middle of Tallahassee, the university's campus sees regular changes as buildings are demolished, rebuilt, and otherwise re-purposed.
Students collaborate to perform original research in university, city, and state archives to learn the history of the location. This work includes everything from finding city plat maps or images of the structure to seeking out FSU alumni who remember that part of campus and recording their oral histories. Throughout the project, the class translates their education into experience; navigating some of the many different ways of doing history. The student's efforts culminate in a pop up exhibit detailing the history of the site in an outdoor format for the people of the university. Recent projects include the Unitarian Fellowship Building and the site of Tallahassee and Leon County's Lincoln Academy, an African American schoolhouse established during Reconstruction. The Fellowship building is the current home of the university's groundskeeping offices, while the Lincoln Academy lot is now occupied by the FSU College of Music. We invite you to browse the image galleries from all of these projects on their separate pages. |