335: Christy S. Coleman on the role museums play in shaping public understanding of history

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an
interview with public historian and museum executive Christy S.
Coleman. Her museum career started at seventeen portraying
enslaved women at Colonial Williamsburg in their living history
educational program. She went on to be the Director of Historic
Programs before becoming the CEO of multiple institutions
including the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American
History in Detroit, MI, and the American Civil War Museum in
Richmond, VA. In our interview we talk about the empathetic value
of living history programs, how museums create context in the way
they display objects, and Christy’s work as a historical
consultant for TV and film. We discuss her work on the recent
biopic Harriet (2019) about the life of Harriet Tubman. In
January of this year, Christy was named Executive Director of the
Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, which administers the Jamestown
Settlement and the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown. To
find out more about Christy visit www.christyscoleman.com or
follow her on Twitter at @historygonwrong.