The Active Historian

Hey, friend! Welcome back to another post! Today, I want to talk about what exactly a historian does. Historians study the past, right?

What I love about history though is it’s an evolving field with opportunities to do lots of different things. You can work with artifacts, research, write books, work in historic preservation, consult on projects, and so much more!

For example, I’m a historian who works in social media marketing. In my job, I do research with primary and secondary sources, go through photos/documents in the digital archives, and talk with curatorial staff. Every day looks different for me and I absolutely love that.

Above all, historians are storytellers who keep the past alive! That is the biggest honor in my opinion – being trusted to tell the stories to the next generation to ensure we always remember where we came from. Western stories are my personal favorite to tell!

What do historians study?

Historians study the past – from ancient to contemporary times and everything in between. Literally. We ask questions that help us understand how things worked in the past!

Historians study all aspects of society. There are different subfields across the disciplines – think topics like political history, social history, economic history, or environmental history.

What do historians study to learn about the past?

Historians look at many different sources to learn about the past. Here’s a list of a few things historians might look at to answer their questions:

• Primary sources (letters, documents, photos, oral histories, etc.)
• Secondary sources (books or articles written about a subject)
• Photographs
• Oral Histories
• Film
• Diaries
• Letters
• Newspapers
• Census Records

*This isn’t a complete list – just a few examples of things I look at most frequently.

What do historians ask?

Historians ask a lot of questions. These questions look at topics from multiple angles and perspectives in order to understand the past. Here are a few examples of questions a historian might ask:

• Who was involved?
• What time period did this happen in?
• What was happening in the world/country/city at this time?
• Why was this significant?

Concluding Thoughts

Hey, friend! I hope this post helped describe what exactly it is we do as historians. If you have any other questions, please feel free to send me an email. I’d love to answer any questions you might still have!

I’ll talk to ya soon! 🙂