Most Americans learn about the past not in college classrooms but from visiting historical museums and sites, through reading 'popular' historical works and from hobbies, like genealogy and living history re-enactments. Visual markers of past eras-historical landscapes, buildings, and artifacts-are powerful places for learning about the past. But who decides which "pasts" are worth preserving and whose stories are retold? What is the relationship between history learned in the classroom and history learned at public sites? This course examines these questions from three perspectives: material culture, the objects that are the primary historical documents for interpreting the past at historical sites and museums; history museums and their role in determining how the past is displayes; and public member, or popular uses of the past for commemoration or for heritage purposes.