In collaboration with archaeologists in the UMass Department of Anthropology, the UMass Special Collections and University Archives, and the Center for Computer-Based Instructional Technology, the Public History program has been contributing to the preservation and interpretation of the artifactual and archival record of one of the twentieth-century’s leading figures.  Students and faculty, working closely with community partners in Great Barrington and Berkshire County, have helped to research, interpret and make accessible the homesite itself, and to interpret the site via a web exhibit.  For more material on DuBois and his legacy, see DuBois Central.

For several years, the Public History program, often together with the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning, has been involved in collaborative projects with the Hadley Historical Commission and the Hadley Historical Society, all aimed to document and preserve rural landscapes currently threatened by commercial development.  A March 2003 Public Service Endowment Grant enabled students and faculty from both programs to conduct an assessment of the seventeenth-century common as associated Great Meadow, among the last extant examples of open field agriculture in all New England.  In 2007-08, the Program again collaborated with the HHC, as students in the Introduction to Public History seminar undertook a survey of Hadley’s barns and outbuildings as part of their field service work; the resulting website presented images and map locations for close to one hundred barns in the community’s least-documented neighborhood.  The program continued to collaborate with the commission as the later conducts a formal survey, funded by the Community Preservation Act, of all barns in the community, in preparation for the town’s 350th celebration this past summer.

Adjunct research associates and public enthnographers Cathy Stanton and Jane Becker, with support from the UMass Public History Program, recently undertook a study of Polish Americans in Salem and the surrounding area, particularly those present-day community members who are traditionally associated and feel a sense of connection with St. Joseph Hall, a former Polish social and fraternal hall now owned by the National Park Service/Salem Maritime National Historic Site. Stanton and Becker, with some assistance from students in the Public History program, assessed the archival record assocted with the hall, and conducted fieldwork pertaining to Salem’s Polish American’ sense of themselves as a distinct community, and their connection to St. Joseph’s hall. 

In 2004, Route 47 in Hadley was designated part of the Connecticut River Scenic Farm Byway. The overall purpose of the scenic byway designation is to recognize the unique scenic, cultural and recreational resources along the byway. Specific purposes include the preservation of the rural scenic character of the corridor, improvement of highway safety features, expansion of economic opportunities for farm related business and development of a balanced tourism program. Because Route 47 is so popular for area cyclists, the road presents an opportunity to develop interpretive materials that could make the rural landscapes along this well-traveled road more legible and interesting for visitors to the area. Students in the Public History Program recently drafted a script for a downloadable audio tour that interpreted Hadley's historic resources for cyclists.

The Disability History Museum is an on-line resource that aims to promote understanding about the historical experience of people with disabilities by recovering, chronicling, and interpreting their stories. Their goal is to help foster a deeper understanding of disability and to dispel lingering myths, assumptions, and stereotypes by examining these cultural legacies. The Museum's website is home to a searchable theme-based digital collection of documents and images related to disability history in the United States; these artifacts are drawn from public and private collections around the country, and exist as primary source materials in the site's Library, and may be interpreted in on-line Museum exhibitions and Education resources. Students in the Public History Program recently partnered with the Museum to bring the material culture of disability present in local museums and historic sites to the collection. Inventorying these materials assisted the DHM as it sought to gather materials of use to researcher, as finding the objects currently housed in area collections laid groundwork for future collaborative efforts among Pioneer Valley museums.