Welcome to Hannah's Public History Blog

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog! My name is Hannah Mantel and I am in the Masters of Public History program at the University of Western Ontario in London. I will be using this blog to comment on my classes, my placement at Fanshawe Pioneer Village, and all things public history related. I received my Honours Bachelors of Art degree at the University of Ottawa majoring in history and minoring in French as a second language. My studies at the University of Ottawa focused primarily on Colonialism, Slavery, the First and Second World Wars and the Holocaust. I was first introduced to the field of public history during the summer after my first year of university where I worked at a small museum close to my hometown. It was at the Port Burwell Marine Museum where I learned how to properly handle artifacts, put together displays, and use an online database system to input information about the museum's artifacts. I worked at the museum in Port Burwell for two summers and then spent the following two summers at another local museum in Beachville. At the Beachville District Museum I was involved with creating content for the museum's social media, I completed research about several artifacts and local history and focused on several rehousing projects once I assumed the role as Collections Manager during my last summer there. My summer employment during my undergraduate degree sparked my interest in working in museums and led me to the Public History Program at Western.

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