Revealing Women's History:

Best Practices at Historic Sites, Featuring Five Case Studies

SEVERAL YEARS AGO, the National Collaborative for Women‘s History Sites (NCWHS), in partnership with the National Park Service Northeast Region, asked historic sites to nominate themselves as Best Practice Sites — those that exemplify ways to best preserve and interpret the past of half the human race: women and girls. Actually, every historic site is a women‘s history one, although too often people still don‘t recognize that. The NCWHS seeks to make visible the female part of humankind‘s history, or as historian Gerda Lerner once said, "the majority finds its past." We received numerous nominations and carefully read and evaluated every one of them. Working with a team of advisors, we winnowed the list to five, focusing in particular on those not seen primarily as "women‘s history sites." Experts visited each of the five, gathered information, evaluated each site using nine elements, and conducted extensive interviews with their staffs. Finally, we worked to identify practical "lessons" applicable elsewhere.

Select this link to read Revealing Women's History: Best Practices at Historic Sites. [PDF]

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By Pam Elam, M.A. and Mary Melcher, Ph.D.
NCWHS Board Members

Women’s heritage trails are being developed across the United States to share women’s history with the public. From Maine to Florida, Arizona to New Jersey, organizations in cities and states are creating maps that link historic sites to inform the public about women’s stories. They’re creating websites, walking and driving trails and publications about women’s lives and history. Statewide trails are in the works or completed in New Jersey, Florida, Connecticut, Indiana, Arizona, Maryland, and New York. Several city-wide trails also exist, in places like Boston, Manhattan, and Portland, Maine. These trails have a variety of structures, funding sources and methods of interpretation.

The  NCWHS Women's Heritage Trails Committee, composed of members from throughout the U.S., is meeting monthly by conference call to find ways to collaborate as we develop women's history trails in cities and states.

Women’s history is everywhere. We find, save and share the historic sites that focus on our history. No American History without Women's History: No America without Women

The National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites (NCWHS) was created in October 2001 by representatives of more than twenty historical sites linked to American women and some twenty others from organizations devoted to preserving women’s history.