Research with Impact
THE ART OF CURATION
Promoting collaborative, community-centered scholarship
Villanova Associate Professor of History Whitney Martinko, PhD, acknowledges that working in her discipline can often be a solitary endeavor.
“You go to the archives alone. You write alone. Doing history can be a lot of self-driven alone time,” she says. “There is nothing better than losing myself in research, but research becomes scholarship when done in community, in conversation with people as well as with existing scholarship. I encourage my students to think about their scholarship in the world. That means presenting at conferences, publishing in scholarly journals, contributing to curatorial files, pitching editors, working with stakeholders and mobilizing history to serve the public interest.”
With this philosophy in mind, Dr. Martinko has developed and taught a popular Public History Practicum graduate course since her arrival at Villanova. Projects in this biennial course have included a about the history of The Woodlands of Philadelphia, the curation of an exhibit of the work of Dox Thrash, a Black artist working in Philadelphia in the mid-20th century, and a series of online articles about underrepresented urban histories for . Most recently, the students in her practicum course curated an exhibit in the featuring the work of Sam Maitin, a printmaker, sculptor, muralist and graphic designer. The exhibit, Abstract Activism: Sam Maitin's Philadelphia, explores Maitin’s abstract art and his commitment to social justice, peace and community.
“The goal of the practicum is for students to put into action the principles of research communication and public history that we learned in the classroom,” says Dr. Martinko. “Students are translating theory and principles of best practices to actual practice.”
Associate Professor of History Craig Bailey, PhD, says projects like these are emblematic of the program and department. “Many Villanova History faculty members move between academic scholarship and public history,” he says. “This investment in public-facing history is important because it helps make history relevant to a broader audience and brings people together. Our work with public-facing history is also important because it helps to meet the needs of our students who have a broad range of interests and career goals.”
DID YOU KNOW?
The College’s Albert Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest provides historical scholarship and historical perspectives as resources to better understand contemporary local, national and global issues. Launched in January 2017, the Center was made possible by the generosity of Albert Lepage ’69 CLAS, a history major at Villanova and retired co-chairman of Lepage Bakeries Inc.
Jennie Castillo, Curator of the ĂŰĚŇTV Art Collection and Gallery Director; Ani Maitin, daughter of Philadelphia artist Sam Maitin; and Whitney Martinko, PhD, associate professor of History (Photo: ĂŰĚŇTV/Margo Reed)
Dr. Martinko found a partner who shared her passion for this collaborative work in Jennie Castillo, curator of the ĂŰĚŇTV Art Collection and gallery director.
"Engaging with the University Art Collection is a fantastic opportunity for our students to connect with history, culture and contemporary ideas in a hands-on way,” Castillo says. “They don’t just study art, they become active participants on how it is perceived and experienced on our campus. It’s truly a win-win as the deep research and discoveries the students make end up refining our Collections Database, while they gain practical skills for future careers.”
Many students consider the practicum course a highlight of their time at Villanova.
“It was very rewarding to see everything we had all done over the past few months on paper finally all together as a real exhibit,” says graduate History student Elizabeth McFadden ’25 MA, who plans to work in exhibit development or in collections care in a museum, library or archives. “It was refreshing to do collaborative, hands-on history work. The practicum is important to build public history skills, such as installing an exhibit and writing for a public audience.”
Fellow graduate History student Max Meinert ’25 MA echoes these sentiments. “This was one of the best classes I've taken at Villanova,” he says, “We worked together as a team, and our finished product had an impact, which I believe should be the goal of all historians—educate and have an impact on the public.” Meinert, an active-duty Army officer, plans to be a battlefield tour guide or a military educator providing interactive battlefield studies to units, known as a staff ride historian, after he retires from the Army.
Sam Maitin (1928-2004), known during his lifetime as Philadelphia’s “Mayor of the Arts” for his contributions to cultural organizations across the city, is in many ways a perfect subject for an exhibit curation at Villanova. Although the artist’s bold, vibrant works are on display in galleries across the United States and Europe, Villanova is in possession of several of his pieces. Maitin created art to support local organizations, including the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and sought to make a positive impact, whether that was addressing social causes in his art or fighting against displacement of low-income residents in his Society Hill neighborhood.
Maitin’s work also fits with Dr. Martinko’s research interests. His posters can be studied as material culture and his mural and community art projects as part of the built environment of the city. “His work is appealing and so rich for historical research,” she notes.
The Maitin project ultimately came about, though, because of another essential component of the Public History Practicum—building community. The Dox Thrash exhibit included a few works from Thrash’s contemporaries, including Maitin. His daughter, Ani Maitin, attended the opening reception and made connections with Dr. Martinko and the graduate students in the practicum. When it was time to start planning the new exhibit, Dr. Martinko reached out to see if she would like to collaborate.
(Photos: ĂŰĚŇTV/Margo Reed)
“Ani Maitin is the steward of her father’s collection and was very interested in our exhibit and in her father’s legacy,” says Dr. Martinko. “She was so generous with her time. She lent us pictures and artwork from her personal collection and donated more artwork to the University because she was so impressed with the work that the students did.”
Ani Maitin also invited family members, neighbors and other artists who were friends with her father to the exhibit opening, rekindling old connections and helping to create a meaningful experience for Villanova students.
“It was great to meet Ani,” says Meinert. “We were in contact with her during the process of researching and designing the exhibit. It was rewarding to see people from Sam's community and the Villanova community enjoying the exhibit. Sam was a great fellow traveler, if you will. He was a genuine person who enjoyed bringing joy to others and making society better. The biggest challenge for us was building an exhibit worthy of Sam, a product that would stand up to the scrutiny of his family and friends who came to see it.”
They met the challenge, according to Ani Maitin, who told Dr. Martinko she and her family learned new things about her father from the exhibit.
“That, to me, is where everything comes together—research, writing, working with community members,” says Dr. Martinko. “That’s what scholarship is. I think students should be trained to think about doing history and communicating in a way that is attuned to their audience. Public historians use their expertise and their knowledge base to engage in real conversations.”
THE PAST IS ALL AROUND US
Associate Professor of History Whitney Martinko, PhD, grew up in Chillicothe, Ohio, in a region rich with Native American and US history. As a child, she enjoyed exploring old buildings and visiting historic sites. “I saw evidence of the past all around me,” she says.
It wasn’t until she attended Harvard University as an undergraduate student that she discovered the terms that described her interests: the built environment, which is the study of constructed features such as buildings or even parks and roads; material culture, which can be defined as the physical objects that make up a society; and public history, which refers to the practice of using historical knowledge and skills outside of a classroom or other academic setting. Dr. Martinko’s first freshman seminar at Harvard set her on the path to becoming a historian. The Knowing Boston seminar sent students around the city to discover signs of the past. In fact, Dr. Martinko now teaches a class, History of Philadelphia, inspired by that first freshman seminar.
Historic preservation is also a passion for Dr. Martinko. Her first book, , is the first book-length study of historic preservation in the early US. It explores how early Americans debated the preservation of sites to shape economy and society. She is currently working on a new book about the history of painter Charles Wilson Peale’s portrait collection of "worthy personages," including portraits of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson from the 1780s. Dr. Martinko is also doing a study for the National Park Service about the historic preservation of the Longfellow House in Cambridge, Mass. The Longfellow House was the former headquarters of George Washington during the War for Independence.
Dr. Martinko earned her master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Virginia.
