From the Editor Archive

  • A Place to Learn

    A Place to Learn

    I consider it one of my most important responsibilities as a parent to provide a broad world view and expose my children to different cultures—not just in terms of language, food, and dress, but as a way of looking at the world.

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  • When This Building is Not This Building

    When This Building is Not This Building

    Nikko National Park in Japan plays host to striking natural beauty and fascinating cultural heritage, including the 17th-century Toshogu Shrine.

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  • Life, the Universe, and Everything

    Life, the Universe, and Everything

    There was an article in the March 26, 2010, issue of the news magazine The Week titled “Captain—you killed the crew.” It summarizes a study by Johns Hopkins University physicist William Edelstein that finds that humans could never travel at the speed of light, Star Trek warp-speed style, because radiation would kill us. My favorite part of the story is that “Star Trek fans have protested his conclusion, saying that the Enterprise’s electromagnetic ‘shields’ could block such radiation.”

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  • Take Me Out to the Interpretive Program

    Take Me Out to the Interpretive Program

    When the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series in 2008, I felt like I had accomplished the feat myself. After a lifetime of rooting for a team that had experienced what can politely be described as minimal success, I surprised even myself with the intensity of my reaction to their claiming the ultimate prize.

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  • The NAI Community

    The NAI Community

    The front cover of Legacy includes the slogan, “The magazine of the National Association for Interpretation.” It’s sometimes too easy for me, sitting at my desk at our national headquarters in Colorado, to lose myself in the everyday details of deadlines, page layout, and editorial responsibilities.

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  • Roller Coasters vs. Brass Doorknockers

    Roller Coasters vs. Brass Doorknockers

    As a child, I visited Williamsburg, Virginia, with my family. Prior to the trip, I spent months anticipating a day at an amusement park called Busch Gardens. I was consumed with and petrified by a roller coaster called the Loch Ness Monster, which featured multiple loops and a 114-foot drop. I studied photos of the roller coaster in a Busch Gardens brochure and wondered if I would have the courage to get into one of those metal, yellow cars when the time came to do so. (I would, and it was great.)

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  • Get Out Now

    Get Out Now

    Seven years before Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder made its resounding impact on the field of interpretation (as well as much of the rest of society), another book encouraged all of us to get outside. In fact, John Stilgoe’s book, Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places, begins with the directive, “Get out now.”

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  • In These Tough Economic Times…

    In These Tough Economic Times…

    In these tough economic times, it seems that everything you read begins with the phrase, “In these tough economic times.” Understandably, we have become consumed by the financial crisis that has dominated headlines, wreaked havoc on the job market, and devastated the global economy. It seems that everything we do is defined in terms of “surviving” the economic downturn—a term that can be taken literally, as interpretive organizations, sites, and programs, not to mention the livelihoods of those who oversee them, are endangered.

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  • Legacy: What’s Different

    Legacy: What’s Different

    This issue marks the completion of a transition that Legacy started at the beginning of the year. Some differences you will see immediately (the typeface used on the magazine’s flag and headlines is different) while others you will discover over time as you read the magazine.

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  • What Public History Is

    What Public History Is

    When Legacy first announced the theme for this issue, we heard some variation of the following question on more than one occasion: “What do you mean by public history?”

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