Beyond Keeping the Lights On: COVID-19’s Impact on Lower Mississippi River Valley Museums and Public History Sites

Authors

Liz Skilton, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Ian Beamish, University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

The Public Historian

Abstract

This article reviews the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public history sites and museums along the Lower Mississippi River Valley between 2020 and 2024. Constructed from interviews with sixty-seven sites across a four-year period, it uses a regional approach to examine how pandemic closures, reopening processes, and adaptations impacted public history sites and museums in the short-, medium-, and long-term, arguing that the pandemic created lasting changes through adaptation rather than large-scale closure of public history institutions. It concludes with an assessment of what can be learned from the pandemic period’s effect on public history.

First Page

46

Last Page

86

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1525/ tph.2025.47.3.46.

Publication Date

8-2025

Recommended Citation

Skilton, L., & Beamish, I. (2025). Beyond Keeping the Lights On. The Public Historian, 47(3), 46–86. https://doi.org/10.1525/tph.2025.47.3.46