Historic places can interpret the origins of climate change.
Lowell Mills, Lowell, MA
Many historic places are part of the origin story of climate change - from heritage railways to former factories to mansions built by oil barons.
How can heritage sites offer the public context for the current crisis?
The Climate Crisis Heritage Project is a heritage studio, resource hub and network to help historic places tell the history of the climate crisis.
Mine bosses' houses, Eckley Miners’ Village, PA. Photo: Jerrye and Roy Klotz, CC-SA.
What We Do
Research
Investigate current work and new ideas in climate crisis heritage interpretation.
Prototype
Collaborate with heritage sites, museums, and other history institutions to add climate crisis history to their public programs.
Resource
Gather tools, collect examples, and convene peers to build this emerging field.
Projects
Prototype Audio Tour Script
The Elms
Newport, RI
Historic Context Statement
Lowell National Historical Park
Lowell, MA
Self-Guided Tour
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia, PA
Historic places can inform our public discourse about climate change. While protection from climate change disaster is a growing concern across the heritage sector, few historic places portray their historic role in the crisis. As society grapples with the effects of the climate crisis, historic places with connections to industrial history, resource extraction, colonialism, and agriculture have new meaning.
Historic places can not only provide context for the origins of the crisis, but illustrate solutions. Our transition to fossil fuels in the 19th century is a story of innovation and social change that demonstrates that the 21th century transition to renewables is possible. Pride in our heritage can be a resource in this crisis.
Heritage places can anticipate these changes and contribute to a conversation about the last energy transition, to inspire the action necessary to create the next one with greater equity and justice.
NEWS
Energy Transitions Past and Future: How History Museums Affect Policy Today
February 2023
CCHP was a guest author on the blog for the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. Read it to learn more about about the current project at Lowell.
National Council on Public History
October 2022
The National Council on Public History has accepted our session, “Cultural Emergency Response: Interpreting the Historic Context for Climate Change,” to the 2023 Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, April 12-15, 2023! Aislinn organized the panel with independent public historian Donna Graves, co-author of “History and Hope: Interpreting the Roots of Our Climate Crisis,” a toolkit for the National Park Service to bring the climate emergency into interpretive programs.
Kleinman Center Grant
September 2022
Aislinn and CCHP received a grant from the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania to fund a research trip to Lowell National Historical Park. Aislinn will be working with staff in the Education Department to develop K-12 field trip programs that include the history of the climate crisis as it relates to Lowell’s manufacturing heritage.
Connect
Get in Touch
Work for a climate crisis heritage place?
Want to talk about your ideas and challenges?
Reach out here.