In recent years, preservation agencies at the federal, state, and locals levels have advanced more inclusive approaches to historic preservation by commissioning theme studies, surveys, and nominations to registers of historic places that address previously neglected aspects of US heritage. Much of the work done under the broad umbrella of inclusive histories has been focused on communities defined by a single aspect of identity. This essay raises questions about the effectiveness of single-community studies in addressing previously overlooked aspects of history at the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, and more. We encourage preservation professionals to take seriously the concept of intersectionality, which acknowledges the multivalent quality of lived experience, addresses the complexity of identity, and recognizes the multiplicity of communities with a stake in the preservation and interpretation of any given historic property. This essay argues for the strategic importance of learning from recent studies of LGBTQ resources to refine intersectional approaches to preservation planning, while identifying hidden barriers to inclusion and cultural equity in programs and projects that use a single lens to identify cultural resources associated with underrepresented groups.

This article chronicles the twenty-six-year history of the Saint Louis Art Museum Romare Bearden Graduate Museum Fellowship, which was created to increase the number of professional staff from underrepresented backgrounds working in museums. It provides an overview of early supporters/founders of the program and details the trajectory of a generation of Bearden Fellows, most of whom are now professionally engaged in museums and arts-related careers. This case study also examines the benefits of staff diversity to the inclusive culture sought by museums as they cultivate new audiences and search for innovative strategies to maintain their relevance and community relationships. It calls upon museums to view diversity as an evolutionary conversation by examining the motivations and objectives that constitute the contemporary “diversity and inclusion” discourse.

For the past few decades there have been repeated calls from within and without the National Park Service for more inclusive interpretation in the park system. Concurrently there has been great concern about the lack of diversity among visitors to Park Service units. The 2009 Comprehensive Survey of the American Public , repeatedly cited in the popular press, reported that recent visitors to a Park Service unit were “disproportionately” “white, non-Hispanic.” This paper looks to problematize this survey and its conclusions that concern for the environment is predominantly white, that attendance at NPS sites is tantamount to national belonging, and that future support for NPS is threatened as the United States becomes majority nonwhite. The paper also looks to question the link between the racial and ethnic identity of visitors and “relevant” interpretation.

Changing sociocultural and historiographic contexts require new approaches to interpretation and presentation at National Park Service–administered sites. Through the study of two NPS parks in Washington State (San Juan Island National Historical Park and Whitman Mission National Historic Site), this article explores the agency’s interpretive programs and practices in relation to founding mandates and contemporary relevance. As demonstrated by these case studies, efforts to expand programming and presentations within the NPS system are ongoing but at present insufficient in light of current changes in demographics and visitation. Ultimately, for the NPS to remain relevant in the twenty-first century it must respect founding mandates but diversify interpretation of its parks’ contested histories, thereby enhancing its contemporary relevance and better engaging today’s audiences.

St. George's, Bermuda received World Heritage status in 2000, and today many of the island's majority Black population still don't know what that means. Is it because we aren't educating or marketing this ““achievement”” or do the peripheral voices and marginal communities view the designation as unimportant or an imposition? This case study examines the importance of examining the disparity in how we, and our public, interpret and value history. My job is to examine these acts of inclusion/exclusion and shift the balance with programs like ““Bringing History to Life,”” a student summer workshop series that uses different mediums to interrogate history.

A dozen-year-old not-for-profit, the Boston History and Innovation Collaborative, emerged in the late 1990s to experiment with making historic themes other than the ““cradle of the American Revolution”” popular to visitors and residents to the region. It developed heritage tourism tours along four historical themes——maritime, literary, family history/genealogy, and innovation. With the innovation theme and its connection to diversity, the Collaborative over the past six years has taken an unusual trajectory as a public history organization. The article looks at the impact the Collaborative has had on the image of Greater Boston.