You might have noticed that we recently changed the name of our blog.  We now call our musings “The Field Journal,” an apt moniker given our work in natural and cultural history.  According to the Natural History Network, a field journal is the naturalist’s most important tool.  It is where thoughts, observations, sketches, and ideas share space in an amalgam of creativity.  It is literally an open book, an ongoing diary continually added to as new observations arise.  It is where left brain science combines with right brain creativity, full of data and numbers, sketches and qualitative thought.

In military history, field journals are often the most insightful primary sources.  They are the experiential accounts from those at the heart of the action.  They speak of the tangible – guns, cannon, horses – and the intangible – sorrow, patriotism, and pride.  They cut to the heart of the matter, and they relate the deepest themes of human life.

Our “Field Journal” is more lighthearted, but nonetheless full of insight.  Like the naturalist, we will relate our observations – about exhibit work, business, interpretation, leadership, and education.  Like the soldier, we will explore the deepest intangibles of human and natural life – but in the field of experiential exhibits.  For fans of our blog, this should come as no surprise.  Our new name simply describes what this blog has been doing for years: providing dynamic and insightful observations within a forum for on-going creativity.